Myles Kennedy Celebrates Birthday with Devin Townsend at Manchester Academy [Photos]

Myles Kennedy stopped in Manchester for his The Art of Letting Go tour, on what was his 55th birthday – and Manchester threw him a party to remember, with most of the crowd wearing party hats and blowing party horns all night.

Supporting him on this run was none other than the absolute legend Devin Townsend, who embraced the chaos of the crowd and the cacophony of their party horns throughout his 30-minute acoustic set, actively encouraging them to blow them in the quiet bits and even participating himself. Mad as a box of frogs on a normal day, adding something like this to a Devin Townsend set gives you something beautifully ridiculous and memorable.

Whether he’s headlining Bloodstock surrounded by giant elephants and over the top production or it’s just him and his acoustic guitar he’s just as engaging and entertaining. He’s an act you could watch for hours and prolific enough to have the catalogue to do it, but this show was short and sharp, taking in versions of Strapping Young Lad’s “Love”, as well as an extremely Disney sounding version of Les Misérables track “Bring Him Home”.

Hopefully Devin will be back in some form or another for his own headline show, but for now this was a fun and memorable version of him.

This version of Myles Kennedy we saw tonight, away from his work with Alter Bridge and Slash, is a much more blues focused outlet, with just a bassist and drummer on stage with him it’s one that also showcases his guitar chops a lot more too – and although he is the frontman in both of those acts – he’s usually flanked by a big-name guitarist such as Slash or Mark Tremonti, but tonight the spotlight is well and truly on him.

“The Art of Letting Go” gets things underway perfectly and sets the bluesy stall out early on. The start of “Devil on the Wall” is bookended by a chorus of party horns and the crowd singing Happy Birthday to Myles, before he is given a cake on stage. In the man’s own words there’s nowhere he’d rather be celebrating his birthday than on stage, with the audience response being the best birthday gift he could receive.

“Behind the Veil” from the new album is an absolute masterpiece and with its extended instrumental section is reminiscent of Jane’s Addiction at their hypnotic best, with rolling basslines and a dark underbelly of drums Myles Kennedy peels out some Navarro style choppy chords full of feedback and passion and makes the track a highlight of the show.

Myles takes the next 2 tracks by himself with the rest of the band vacating the stage. After a shouted request from the crowd, he plays a great version of “White Flag” by his former band The Mayfield Four, which apparently, he hasn’t played for a long time, followed by Alter Bridge favourite “All Ends Well”.

“Love Can Only Heal” sees the band return, and instantly strikes you as being a song with class, in fact with the right orchestration this would make a fantastic Bond theme.

As far as rock singers go, Myles is well and truly up there with the best to ever do it and with this type of show you get a more intimate and personal experience of him. The voice is exquisite and even though there was no jelly and ice cream, this was one of the best birthday parties you could ever go to.

Myles Kennedy (w/ Devin Townsend) @ Manchester Academy (Manchester, UK) on November 28th, 2024

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