Monday • October 18, 2010 1:15:25 PM
http://www.gnrdaily.com/news_detail.asp?id=2667
It's 9.15pm, half an hour after the band is due onstage – and flamboyant frontman Axl Rose has yet to touch down at nearby Birmingham International Airport in his helicopter. Nothing changes on planet Guns N’ Roses.
In fact, it’s close on 10pm when the LG Arena house lights are cut, and the opening strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra – theme tune to space opera 2001 – boom out. Only an hour and a quarter late, then.
The slashed guitar chords of Chinese Democracy cut through a haze of muddy sound, a chubby Axl bounds to the front of the huge stage and the 12,000 or so faithful are prepared to forgive and forget.
The two-hour trawl through the catalogue that follows answers the big questions.
How can it be Guns N’ Roses without guitar guru Slash? It can’t.
How can Slash’s solo career match his Guns glories without Axl? It can’t.
Like Daltrey and Townshend; Plant and Page; Jagger and Richards; Tyler and Perry, it was the synergy of the two talents that made the original Hollywood hellraisers what they once were.
And yes, there were those who mumbled and grumbled through last night’s gig; there were those who adopted a pose of studied indifference to the rock and roll feast laid out before them.
But purists be damned. That was then; this is now. Take Guns and Slash for what they are – two incendiary bands who just happen to share a back catalogue crammed with rock classics.
And although Rose has piled on the pounds (no more leggings for him); although he looks like a villain from TV’s Miami Vice, he still has that throat-shredding rock vocal. It’s not always there on demand, but it’s still a weapon of mass seduction.
Axl, of course, has addressed the absence of probably the world’s greatest guitarist by replacing him with not one, not two but three axemen, each with their own identity: Richard Fortus, DJ Ashba and Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal.
If Marvel Comics did guitar heroes, these three would fit the bill. Fortus and Ashba, in particular, are primary colour cartoon rock idols. Thal is less in your face, more the image of an old-fashioned rocker.
It’s Thal, too, who takes the honours. He has more subtlety than the others, not just replicating those Slash solos but stamping his own indentity on signature songs. Axl should have a spending review.
But the set. Welcome To The Jungle, It’s So Easy and Mr Brownstone follow in quick succession, old school crowd pleasers all. Gradually the sound improves, too. Must be tough doing a soundcheck without your singer.
Then comes the first real surprise of the night. The dramatic, bluesy Sorry – not one of the obvious highlights of Chinese Democracy – is a smouldering sensation, dwarfing all that has gone before. Axl, it seems, can take the band forward.
Then he blows it with the muddled and messy Shackler’s Revenge, the sheer number of participants (this is an eight-piece band, remember) getting in the way of each other. Musically, it’s like a crowded Premiership penalty box.
Cue a cliché. Fortus cranks up the amps for a solo take on the James Bond theme, leading in to McCartney’s Live And Let Die, complete with flame guns and pyrotechnics echoing the way Wings used to do it.
A lame This I Love is forgiven as the band race through Rocket Queen, garnering the loudest audience reaction so far. Dizzy Reed serves up an instrumental piano play on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, easing in to Street Of Dreams.
Next up is a barnstorming You Could Be Mine, arguably the highlight of the entire show. It’s here that Guns N’ Roses finally shift up into top gear, and take the gig by the scruff of the neck. Whatever else follows, it’s the moment they live up to the hype.
So what do they do? Sweet Child O’ Mine. The arena explodes. This is the moment thousands of rock star wannabes have been waiting for. Yes, Slash did a great version at Download, but this is better. Sacrilege, but true.
A bizarre, but oddly affecting, foray into Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall follows, leading into November Rain – the holy grail for diehard devotion. It builds to the searing signature solos of the fiery finalé.
Thal gets a solo showcase, turning the Pink Panther theme into a Satriani-style rock-out, then Dylan’s Knocking On Heaven’s Door has the faithful in full voice, mobiles in the air.
The set proper ends with Nightrain, during which Guns – powered by Frank Ferrer’s driving drumming – briefly reaches the heights of the earlier You Could Be Mine.
A mixed encore bag includes the Zeppelin-like Madagascar (still a way to go before they even approach the majesty of Kashmir) and a celebratory cover of AC/DC anthem Whole Lotta Rosie.
The set, shorter than its counterparts at London’s 02 Arena, ends inevitably in Paradise City, fitting midnight stop for the runaway train that is Guns N’ Roses, complete with confetti cannons, belches of flame and fireworks.
So, yes, classic Guns N’ Roses they are not. But there’s more than enough here to suggest that Axl is starting to get it right and, besides, it’s a damn good rock and roll night out in its own right.
And yet, and yet ... Duff McKagen got up and jammed with them in London. Steven Adler played on Slash’s recent solo album. Izzy Stradlin has guested with both Guns and Velvet Revolver.
And Led Zeppelin said they’d never do it again. Just one night, perhaps?
THE SETLIST
1. CHINESE DEMOCRACY
2. WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
3. IT’S SO EASY
4. MR. BROWNSTONE
5. SORRY
6. SHACKLER’S REVENGE
7. JAMES BOND THEME
8. LIVE AND LET DIE PLAY
9. THIS I LOVE PLAY
10. ROCKET QUEEN
11. ZIGGY STARDUST
12. STREET OF DREAMS
13. YOU COULD BE MINE
14. SWEET CHILD O’ MINE
15. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART 2
16. NOVEMBER RAIN
17. PINK PANTHER THEME
18. KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR
19. NIGHTRAIN
20. MADAGASCAR
21. WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE
22. PARADISE CITY
Source: Sunday Mercury
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