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L.A. GUNS, ALL SINNERS In New Bedford, MA With Photos! By Jay Roberts, Massachusetts Contributor Thursday, May 1, 2025 @ 6:48 AM
Saturday may be alright for fighting, but truth be told I would much rather skip the fisticuffs and check out some live music. And that's just what fellow KNAC.COM scribe George Dionne and I did recently as the L.A. GUNS "Lucky MF'r" Tour made its sold out stop in New Bedford, MA.
Opening the show for L.A. GUNS was local band ALL SINNERS. The band has been making quite a name for themselves the last few years, opening for a number of national touring acts as well as playing their own shows. The band had just released their acoustic album We Are The...Unplugged a week previously so it was a good time to catch up with their live show. We briefly spoke with drummer Roger Chouinard before the show.
Taking to the stage in a commanding fashion, ALL SINNERS opened up with the song "Dead To Rights" which was delivered in a heavy rocking fashion that had the crowd, packed with supporters of the band, with fists in the air and screams of approval roaring out. I enjoyed the way this came out even though they had to fight through some audio issues for bassist Bruce Morrison during this opening track.
Singer Mike Golarz introduced the song "We Own The Night" announcing it as the title track of their upcoming new album. I hadn't heard this song before and boy was it an eye-opener. Seriously, what a killer track! I can't wait to hear the studio version. Golarz has a dynamic voice that begs to be heard every time you go to an ALL SINNERS show and he was definitely sounding great on this night.
After solid run-throughs of the songs "Rise Up" and "Buried Alive", the band turned things to the acoustic side with both Golarz and guitarist Nick Testone giving the originally amped up track "Believer" a new dimension with their acoustic rendition. Throughout the set, I was watching Testone's guitar playing and he is just damn good!
Closing out their set, ALL SINNERS rocked their way through a cover of the STRYPER song "To Hell With The Devil". The band's mascot Earl was on stage during the song which gave an extra kick to the performance too. Objectively speaking, their rendition is extremely well done. They recently shot a video for the song that is due out in May. I just wish I was actually a STRYPER fan so I could've gotten even more out of this cover.
While the majority of the ALL SINNERS set was geared towards blowing you away with tons of stomping hard rock thunder, you also got to see all the various aspects of the band's sound as well. Make no mistake, ALL SINNERS made their claim on owning the stage this night.
Set List
During the opening run of songs, they also mixed in classics like "Electric Gypsy" and "Sex Action" which featured a woman dancing on stage during its performance.
As the set continued, I thought it seemed like they were going through the setlist pretty fast but as I was writing this review I looked back at the one I did a few years ago and the setlist was pretty much the same time-wise. But L.A. GUNS packs a lot into their hour and twenty minute sets.
Balancing songs such as "Like A Drug" and "Speed" with classics like "One More Reason" keeps you on your toes, your attention rapt on the stage. Guitarists Tracii Guns and Ace Von Johnson bring plenty of fire to their performances, though I could've done with a little less soloing from the band as a whole. It should be no surprise that I've reached the cranky old man stage of life where solos make me want to yell out, "play an extra song instead!"
But that bit of grumpiness aside, I liked hearing the song "Lucky Motherfucker" in a live setting (one of the two tracks from the new album Leopard Skin that made it into the setlist).
The band did finish ever so strongly with "Never Enough", "The Ballad of Jayne" and "Rip And Tear". The first two songs are true classic songs for L.A. GUNS. For "The Ballad of Jayne", the band turned the song's first chorus over to the crowd who sang it loudly and proudly with Phil Lewis giving out props from the stage.
As for the set closing "Rip And Tear", the song started out hard and fast, as would be expected. But what kind of threw things off for me was how everything slowed down (too long for my taste at least) as the band was introduced and each member got their own little solo spotlight. Yes, it ramped back up for the end, but I would've much rather been hit over the head, sonically speaking of course, before spilling out into the night without the mid-section break.
Set List
Editor's Note:
This tour continues through May so check it out if they come near you!
Remaining Dates:
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While George had never seen the band before I'd actually seen them at The Vault back in 2019 (see my review of that show 
"The Hunted" is the song that got the band a lot of airplay and notice when their self-titled EP came out a couple years back. But it still retains its power in a live setting with the crowd pumping their fists and chanting the song's title during the performance.
After the intermission, it was time for L.A. GUNS to take the stage and they did it with aplomb. Despite some audio issues that would at times bury the vocals from singer Phil Lewis so that you could barely hear them, the band raced through songs like "Cannonball", "Over the Edge" and new song "Hit And Run".
Overall, L.A. GUNS gave a solidly entertaining set, I can't deny. However, the cynic in me wished there'd been a little less soloing and more straight up rock and roll. Still, it was a rocking Saturday night and that's never a bad thing in my book!
