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Dear LAist, I Unexpectedly Rocked Out at Sundance with Velvet Revolver
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We just received an unbelievable e-mail from friend-of-LAist and local indie troubadour Matthew Moon and wanted to share. Some amazing and surprising things really do happen at Sundance. Read on:
Two days ago I was performing at a Sundance Film Festival event in Salt Lake City, UT. After my performance at Rose Wagner Theater, I began driving the 25 minutes it takes to get back up to Park City. I checked my voice mail and there was a frantic message from my friend Jenna Lynn. "Mattie Moon, it's Jenna", she said. "Call me back, it's urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent, about tonight", she continued, tension in her otherwise smooth voice, "come play with Velvet Revolver, come sing...we need somebody who can sing..call me..bye." If you are not familiar, Velvet Revolver is a rock band comprised of rock n’ roll icons, Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum from Guns N’ Roses, Dave Kushner, and Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots. I looked at my traveling companion, Kooze, and said...,"dude..I think they want me to sing with Velvet Revolver tonight." My stomach began to turn.
I received a text 5 minutes later that said.."Wanna play vocals for Velvet tonight?" I looked at Scott and we both started laughing hysterically. “Hell yeah!”, I texted back. Apparently, Velvet front man, Scott Weiland, had missed his flight from LA and would not be able to make the gig. We jetted up the mountain as fast as we could. While we were driving I began downloading lyrics off the Internet from my Blackberry. I had never even heard a Velvet Revolver song before!
When we arrived I was escorted backstage to meet the band. I walked in, said hello, and took my guitar out....
My song was not until second from last, so I stood and watched as Donovan and Cisco sang “Rock N’ Roll” by Led Zeppelin. Right before their song was about to finish, I noticed Paris Hilton making her way to the front row. I actually thought about running! Could there be any more pressure than this?
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Then Paris jumped on stage and made her way over to where we were standing. I took the mike from Cisco’s hand as drummer Matt Sorum started the legendary cowbell count-off that signifies the beginning of one of the best Stone’s songs ever. When the time came, I began to sing, “I met a gin soaked, barroom queen in Memphis”. The whole crowd was singing along! Everyone was grooving! Then Cisco and E.G joined me on harmonies. It was AWESOME. The band was so friendly and cool. There was something very serendipitous about Sundance this year.
-Matthew Moon
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