Filmed on May 12, 2012 as part of the M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland, L.A. GUNS perform a nine song, mid-day set to a less than enthusiastic crowd at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Seeing how Phil Lewis’ vocal level is initially far too low in opener ‘Sex Action’, and quickly gets adjusted to a proper volume, there’s no doubt that this DVD’s definitely done live, as it happened that afternoon. Unlike the old days when LAG was a five-piece, Phil plays rhythm guitar for the first four songs; and unfortunately that hinders his singing. Come ‘Revolution’, from the highly under-rated Waking The Dead album, Lewis drops the six-string, thereby regaining his swagger and signature style. The band finally hit full-stride in ‘Sleazy Come, Easy Go’ and ‘Electric Gypsy’. An attempted audience sing-along in ‘The Ballad Of Jayne’ falls short, but a successful recovery is made with closer ‘Rip N’ Tear’.
Bonus material comes in the form of The Making Of Hollywood Forever – L.A. Guns’ 2012 studio album. A total of ten mini-segments take viewers behind the scenes during the recording sessions with producer Andy Johns (LED ZEPPELIN, THE ROLLING STONES). Individual one-on-one interviews with Phil, guitarist Stacey Blades, and bassist Scotty Griffin reveal that the band felt a lot of pressure as this marked their first new material in seven years. Also included are the three Hollywood Forever promo videos: ‘You Better Not Love Me’, ‘Arana Negra (Black Spider)’, and ‘Requiem (Hollywood Forever)’. Adding value to the sticker price is the inclusion of a second disc – a CD containing the complete audio from the M3 concert; truthfully it sounds like a really good bootleg as opposed to an official live album, but often that’s the case with festival appearances as opposed to headlining shows.
