20th November 1991. One of the most important dates in my life, as it happens. My first ever gig. Skid Row headlining, Love/Hate opening, and in between them, L.A. Guns.
By then, I’d already been into them for a couple of years. Back when I used to borrow records from the library for a week, Cocked & Loaded had found its way home with me. Some records stay with you rather longer than the loan period.
All of which means that any opportunity to hear an L.A. Guns live album is going to involve a certain amount of wallowing in nostalgia. Fair enough. However, anyone who has followed their work since 2017’s The Missing Peace will know just how good their recent records have been. For my money, everything they’ve done since has been fantastic, and Live From The Guild Theatre gives that renaissance its proper place alongside the classics.
Recorded in 2025 as they celebrated Leopard Skin, it begins with a taste of “Taste It” before “Cannonball”, from 2021’s Checkered Past, gets down to business. Outright sleaze, basically. The sort they’ve always done so well, with Phil Lewis sounding entirely at home in the middle of it.
Then “Electric Gypsy” arrives and, suddenly, it’s 1988 again. As I said recently when reviewing Bon Jovi, there’s something about songs from that period. You can remember every word, every little turn, in a way you probably can’t with something you heard last week. That’s certainly true here, although it helps considerably that “Electric Gypsy” is simply a brilliant song.
“Sex Action” is another from the debut, and another reminder that subtlety wasn’t necessarily the main concern. It’s ludicrous, of course – it always was, but Lewis delivers it with precisely the right knowing grin, and there’s a snippet of the Stones thrown in for good measure. Some things require absolutely no updating.
“Hellraisers Ball”, from 2002’s Waking The Dead, rather suggests they know a thing or two about its subject matter. The more restrained “Hit and Run”, meanwhile, brings things back to Leopard Skin, before “Like a Drug”, one of guitarist Ace Von Johnson’s songs from Black Diamonds, supplies the cowbell and a healthy dose of rock ’n’ roll swagger.
“Speed” is a different matter. Taken from The Missing Peace, it’s very well named indeed. When Lewis demands, “Give me the motherfucking speed”, you’re left to decide whether he means miles per hour or something rather more nefarious. Either way, the band seem perfectly capable of supplying it.
“One More Reason” takes me straight back to that first gig again. Another phenomenal song from the debut, it’s followed by a chance to appreciate just how talented Tracii Guns is. The theremin jam offers one illustration; the superb guitar solo later provides another. In between comes “Over the Edge”, from Hollywood Vampires, the album they were touring when I first saw them. Even allowing for the personal connection, what a song that is.
The joy of this set is how naturally it all fits together. “I Wanna Be Your Man”, back on familiar Cocked & Loaded ground, is still catchy as hell. “Lucky Motherfucker”, from Leopard Skin, sounds entirely comfortable in its company. Perhaps they’re singing about themselves on that one. Its segue into “Hells Bells” is a lovely touch, too.
By the end of “Never Enough”, Lewis is thanking the crowd for making them feel like rock stars. You can hear why. Then comes “The Ballad of Jayne”, the big hit, the MTV moment, the one that seemed to be everywhere back when every rock band had to have a ballad. Familiarity hasn’t diminished its pull.
There’s still “Rip and Tear” to come, though, and that’s the glorious handbrake-off moment. Band introductions, an extended jam, and the sense of musicians thoroughly enjoying the chance to let themselves go. It’s a fitting way to finish a set that has plenty of room for both the songs and the people playing them.
L.A. Guns were there at the very beginning of my gig-going life, so of course this means something to me. But listen to the newer songs holding their own, or the relish with which they attack the old ones, and there’s plenty here to explain why I’ve kept coming back. Nearly four decades on from that debut, they’re still brilliant at making rock ’n’ roll sound gloriously sleazy. Live From The Guild Theatre captures them doing exactly that.
Rating: 8.5/10
