Live at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Albuquerque, NM was the return of the grunge band Blind Melon. To their long time fans, this band made a real statement on the scene from which they came, but to those who were passive and even less than passive, they are the definition of a one-hit-wonder band. However, never let that distinction be the determinate that tells you they were a sub-par ensemble. Your own mind needs to be made up. If the band had a song good enough to crank up the radio and sing-a-long to 17 years later, they are worth giving a shot if it’s convenient.
Back to Blind Melon. Your next question should be, “Didn’t their singer die or something back in the 90’s?”
Yes, singer Shannon Hoon died of a heroin overdose in ’95. You can read the generic facts on Wikipedia. They continued on with a new singer. The singer is Travis Warren, who played in a band you probably never heard of. Regardless, your next question should be, “So, are they sort of a tribute band to themselves?”
Yes, it could be taken that way, but technically, no. Since their relatively recent reunion (’06), the band had released a new album with the new singer on vocals. The album sincerely earns the right to own the name Blind Melon for artistic reasons as well as technical. Your last question should be, “Is the new singer any good? And is he like Shannon Hoon?”
The long answer is to be made in heads of the audience. But, it is irrefutable that the new singer has the right unique brand of pipes for an endeavor of taking on the shoes of Shannon Hoon. Even his stage performance shows respect to once definitively wigging out rock star. The original members of Blind Melon are a bit aged and fallen into irrelevancy, but not to the point where they can’t get a solid man to lead what is still a marketable moniker.
All that being established, let’s review the concert. They are playing on a Friday night at a respectable casino in a pretty large venue, warming up the crowd for other grunge rock wonder band, Candlebox.
The band arrived on stage to a brewing audience who mostly got involved with the band immediately. They came on looking not too shabby for sixteen years after the end of their reign of rock stardom. They never fell too far from their roots of the alternative scene, but they looked as if they tried to recreate some of that earthy ’90’s image from clothes found at Target. As funny as that may have looked, you can’t hold it against a band whose genre has been out-cycled at least 5 times.
The performance, well, good ‘ole fashion 90’s tweeker music never hurt anybody. The biggest thing missing aside from Hoon was maybe the cloud ganja in the air, but even the fans are waning through there sobriety. Blind Melon were almost too tight for what they were doing. That groovy stoner rock felt very polished as you can imagine most of those songs were regularly played over and over again for around 20 years. You could say that they may be trying to relive their glory days a bit, but only on stage, its hard to imagine they have some granola groupies hanging out by the tour bus hoping to have meaningful discussions with the band at the hotel. The new frontman Travis, although similar stage show and comparable voice talent to Shannon Hoon, did not carry his street cred the same. Unfair to him, maybe, but he unfortunately falls in the same curse of all replacement frontmen who just look like posers. ie, Journey, Judas Priest, Warrant, and dare I say, Lynyrd Skynyrd. But don’t let the obvious negatives fool you, BLIND MELON IS STILL A FUN SHOW! Blind Melon did this night exactly what they are known best for: warming up a bigger band like Candlebox. Candlebox, although a band lost in time as well, still carries more relevancy due to their rotation on rock formatted radio. Maybe I wouldn’t go far out of my way to watch Blind Melon at a local club, but they very well can be the deciding factor to whether or not I choose to go see another band I would be half way interested in. Blind Melon is a good package deal for Candlebox, and for that, they did not disappoint.
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