CONCERT REVIEW – GLENN HUGHES WITH GILBY CLARKE @ WHISKY, HOLLYWOOD, CA (02.02.24)

Written by Matthew Belter

The Voice of Rock and Roll took over the Sunset Strip on Friday Night Feb 2^nd as Glenn Hughes rocked the Whisky A Go Go with a tribute to the 40^th Anniversary of Deep Purple’s Stormbringer Album. The evening’s menu was tight which is a blessing and a curse. Some nights the Whisky will treat you to a 5-6 band lineup and you will leave jelly-legged from standing like sardines for 5 hours, but on this night, the crowd stretched around the building at 8pm and was heading out the door before midnight.

The Sold Out show featured Gilby Clarke opening with an abbreviated set of his original music mixed with some Guns and Roses track from his tenure with the band. Clarke replaced Izzy Stradlin in the Guns n’ Roses lineup during the "Use Your Illusion" tour in 1991 and stayed with the band for for a few years. After departing he has kept cranking out solid music with Slash’s Snakepit, Rock Star Supernova, and a number of other bands. His solid set featured a tribute to MC5 member Wayne Kramer who recently passed away. The “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” GnR cover featuring some nice audience participation was a highlight. The final song “Tijuana Jail” really had me wanting to hear more from Gilby. It was a fun raucous track that he really pushed with the visuals and fun.

Then it was time for the man himself. Glenn Hughes is Rock Royalty. People who appreciate Classic Rock know the aura around this amazing artist. It’s insane to me that many people have no idea of the shared vocal background of those three amazing Deep Purple albums Burn, Stombringer, and Come Taste The Band. The dueling vocals of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes really are what makes them special. It gave Deep Purple the Paul Rodger’s style “bluesy” feel that Ritchie Blackmore was going for with Coverdale’s range, but the addition of Glenn Hughes allowed them to keep the Ian Gillan howl, and the raw energy. Deep Purple was one of those few bands that had very successful albums with different lead singers and then went back to the classic lineup. I had been wanting to catch Glenn Hughes live for years but have always missed. He has been touring sporadically with his supergroup The Dead Daisies, Black Country Communion as well as Kings of Chaos but this was going to be a great treat as it was a solo gig in his hometown focusing on those classic Deep Purple songs.

Glenn’s touring band was really impressive with Bob Fridzema on Keyboards really putting on an amazing showcase, Ash Sheehan killed it on Drums, and Soren Andersen’s Guitar work made you feel like Blackmore was in the house. They kicked off the set with "Stormbringer" and from the jump it was classic Deep Purple. Fridzema’s was on fire, taking the John Lord parts and bringing them to life for the crowd. In my opinion the keyboards are the real defining part of the Deep Purple sound and everything was on fire. Next was “Might Just Take Your Life” off Burn which was nice as I had thought the setlist would stick strictly to Stormbringer, but this was a signal that all bets were off as to the tracks. “Sail Away” was up next, another track off Burn, with Andersen really showcasing his quality work. The audience got a real treat at Joe Bonamassa joined the Glenn and the band for “Mistreated”. Joe had been playing with Glenn in Black Country Communion and oddly had never played the Whisky so it was a fun moment to have him grace the stage for the first time. Andersen jumped back in for “Getting Tighter” and his work covering Tommy Bolin was equally as impressive. The band wrapped up the night just before midnight with a raucous version of "Highway Star", and closed the night with the hit everyone wanted to hear Glenn sing, “Burn” . Seeing this level of talent on the sunset strip for just $30… you can not go wrong.