On April the fourth Myles Kennedy greeted Italy with a solo show. He came back after visiting the country earlier with Alter Bridge, and this time he carried his own project, “Year of the Tiger”, his latest album. The venue was Magazzini Generali, a small local in Milan, which contains about 800 people: more than 100 were lucky enough to have been able to purchase a VIP ticket, meaning they had access to the place earlier than other attenders (18:00), had a meet and greet and were allowed to listen to the soundcheck.

The gates opened at 19 sharp (…almost), and the people from this sold out show started to flood in. As there was no opening act, everyone had to wait until 21, when Myles walked on stage after over an hour of acoustic songs coming from the radio. He was sporting the true and certified Eddie Vedder Look (a top, a flannel shirt and the occasional jacket: two of them came off later on).

Since the start, the singer seemed surprised by the amount of people present (funny enough, considering how fast the show sold out and how well-received were Alterbridge in Bologna) and stated that he had planned the show to be slightly different, as he wished it’d be just like and evening “in [his] living room” (Needless to say, I personally am up for such an invitation).

Cheering stopped, the applause lowered in tone and everyone was eager to see the evening begin. The setlist started off with “Devil on the Wall”, immediately followed by pieces from the repertoir of the artist spacing from Alter Bridge to his collaboration with Slash.

The fourth song was an “old song” from the Mayfield Four’s days, “Mars Hotel” and still the lyrics were sung as if it were a popular 2016 summer hit (I cried).

Then, “Addicted to Pain” kicked in, and it managed to sound quite catchy, despite the heart wrecking lyrics: Myles sure loves his guitar and knows how to turn anything into a potential acoustic boomerang.

All the while, the crowd cheered him on, everyone knew all the lyrics and was happy to jump or clap along. When someone shouted “I love you!”, the singer answered with a funny story about someone abroad telling him “I’m gonna have your babies!”. Even though Myles didn’t understand most of the things that his fans were screaming, he laughed a lot and was overall very funny, admitting to his lack of knowledge in the Italian language.

Guitars were fast changed (the guy which had the task of switching them spent half of the itime on stage and was thanked in the end by both artist and crowd) and “Haunted by Deisgn” followed, with many Alter Bridge covers soon after. The pieces chosen ranged from older works such as “Blackbird” to the newest one, with the ever clap-inducing “Losing Patience”. Myles seemed very excited to be in Italy and to just be able to play in front of so many people, and he continously asked if everyone was doing okay, “are you enjoying yourselves? Is everything okay back there?”.

After songs never played live before, and more Alter Bridge songs, an unexpected “Eden” (from The Mayfield Four) was added spontaneously by the singer, which apparently decided to give a more natural take to the setlist. The last three songs before the encore were “Wonderful Lfie”, “Watch Over You” and “Year of the Tiger”: two from the Alter Bridge projects, and the title track to his newest album, but all three guaranteed a flood of tears.

The encore saw more Alter Bridge covers, a take o Iron Maiden’s “Trooper” and “Love can Only Heal”. And with that, by well past 23.00, the show was over.

For now.

Review by Michela Sereni