Velvet Revolver - Set Me Free - HQ

2003

Velvet Revolver - Set Me Free - HQ (2003) Director: Dean Karr Era: Post-Grunge Supergroup Era (2003) - Velvet Revolver's debut as a rock supergroup, bridging the legacies of Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots into a raw early-2000s hard rock context, tied to the 2003 Marvel film Hulk soundtrack. High curatorial value as the debut visual artifact of Velvet Revolver, one of the most commercially significant rock supergroups of the 2000s. Documents the band's first public performance context and serves as a rare dual-purpose promotional piece bridging a major studio film release and a record label debut. Directed by Dean Karr, a confirmed key figure in 2000s rock music video aesthetics, the piece exemplifies the raw, performance-first visual language that defined credible hard rock promotion in the post-grunge era. Context: Released in 2003 as part of the soundtrack to the Marvel Comics film Hulk, 'Set Me Free' served as the public introduction to Velvet Revolver, a supergroup formed by former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum alongside Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and guitarist Dave Kushner. The video's club-performance setting referenced the band's real debut gig, grounding the supergroup's launch in authenticity rather than spectacle. The early-2000s post-grunge landscape was hungry for hard rock credibility, and the video's raw, dark aesthetic strategically distanced the band from the glossier excess of their prior projects, signaling a leaner, more direct rock identity ahead of their 2004 debut album Contraband. Director notes: Directed in 2003 to accompany Velvet Revolver's debut single 'Set Me Free,' which was released as a soundtrack cut for the Marvel Comics film Hulk. Per Wikipedia, the video shows the band performing at a club live, documented as the first gig where the Velvet Revolver concept was formed, and incorporates footage from the Hulk film. This dual-purpose structure (live performance documentation + film promotion) is consistent with Karr's documented style of grounding rock videos in authentic performance environments. Karr is listed as director on IMDb (tt12569444) and confirmed by the Music Video Wiki and Wikipedia's article on the song.