Myles Kennedy
w/ Special Guest: Tim Montana
Opening set: Sons of Silver
El Rey Theater – Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, February 16th, 2025
Review/Pics: Will
While Slash was out there Guns N’ Rosing and the other 3/4 of Alter Bridge morphed back into Creed again, Myles Kennedy took some time to himself and recorded & released his 3rd solo album, “The Art Of Letting Go“. A fantastic addition to an already impressive discography that continues to allow Myles to express all facets of his songwriting and musicianship.
On Feb 16th, Myles descended on the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, CA to deliver a captivating performance that highlighted not only a large portion of songs from his new release, but also his amazing talent as a guitarist. (We already know he possesses one of the premier voices in rock music these days.)
Myles kicked off the set with two songs from his newest release, the opener being the title track and then into “Nothing More To Gain“. The setlist was rightfully heavy on the new material, but it was complimented with a great selection of tracks from his 2 previous releases, 2021’s The Ides Of March and his solo debut, 1918’s Year Of The Tiger.
It was clear that the fans have embraced the new album as there was a lot of singing and audience participation for old and new songs alike.
Myles is out on the road as a 3-piece act with bassist Tim Tournier, and his longtime friend and drummer (from back in his Mayfield Four Days), Zia Uddin.
All I can say is what an incredible evening of live music. The only time that Myles wasn’t smiling on stage was when he was immersed, with eyes closed, in one of his solos.
One of the (many) highlights was when they played what he called his favorite song to play on this tour, “Behind The Veil“. He loves it because of the “meandering solo” and because he’s really just a “guitar nerd at heart”. And it was impressive. He could have been in front of a hundred thousand people or noodling alone in a studio and he wouldn’t have known the difference because it looked he was just lost in his music.
As he does every night on this tour, in the middle of his set, Myles breaks out the acoustic guitar (while Tim and Zia take a break) and asks for an audience request. Before he even had a chance to address the crowd with their suggestions, someone in the crowd had written “All Ends Well” on their phone. Lucky enough Myles said he already was planning on playing it due to everything (the fires) that’s gone on in LA the past few weeks. He then performed a wonderful acoustic version of the Alter Bridge song.
The live setting is where these songs take on a whole new life and it felt like one of those shows where each song just seemed to be a little better than the last with the set just soaring into wonderful crescendo.
As I said, the new album is phenomenal. Such an incredible songwriter; this tour is a testament to the artistry of Myles Kennedy. Many, many thumbs up.
Tim Montana ironically (or unironically) is actually from Montana. He is special guest on this tour and is making quite the name for himself. Tim has been making waves and gaining notoriety for a while and he and his band brought all of their Southern Rock Roots to downtown Los Angeles.
I hadn’t heard of Tim before this show was announced, but through the magic of Apple Music, I quickly became a fan. Live; he has a big personality and his charisma shines through in his energetic performance. He and his band stomped around the stage belting out his Country Rock blend. Jackson Moody (bass), Thomas JP (guitar), and Kyle Law (drums) make up Tim’s band and they certainly bring a ton of “charm” along with them too.
Montana talked about meeting and being befriended by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons (Who he has now entered into a few business partnerships with). He talked about performing at Billy’s 75th Birthday party. Out of the blue Billy asked him to perform Tupac’s “California Love“. So there was Tim rapping his ass off in front of a ton of rock legends who looked on not knowing what the hell was happening. Hearing a rap song was probably the last thing on our bingo card for the evening, but we were fortunate enough to get a replay of the performance and damn, if it didn’t sound pretty damn good.
Tim Montana is definitely an artist to keep an eye on. He even had the Terminator himself, Robert Patrick pull up on his bike with bassist Sean McNabb to catch his set.
Local band, Sons Of Silver opened up the show with a brief but memorable 6 song set.
Another band that wasn’t on my radar, but definitely are now. Led by Peter Argyropoulos on lead vocals & guitar, his wife, Brina Kabler on keyboards and vocals, Kevin Haaland (ex- Skillet) on lead guitar, Adam Kury (Candlebox) on bass, and Marc Slutsky on drums.
I really dig Peter’s low, raspy, voice and the whole vibe of the band in general. They’re up and coming but with so much talent in the band (both known and soon to be known), it’s only a matter of time before more people start taking notice.
Highlight of their set for me was the Springsteen sounding, “Running out of Words” complete with some “Sha La La’s” thrown in. (I’ve played the song 5 times already today).
Looking forward to covering this band somewhere down the line.
Related Links:
Myles Kennedy
Tim Montana
Sons of Silver
