GNR Live in Tacoma, WA
By
Tokemaster General,
Contributor
Tuesday, December 3, 2002 @ 11:20 AM
GNR Rock the Tacoma Dome in Ta
REVIEW BY: Julian Grogan
One sentence perfectly describes Guns n Roses' opening
performance Friday night at the Tacoma Dome: It was
well worth the wait.
Bad news for Axl Rose haters: as the ex-William Bailey
and his new crew of musicians performed magnificently.
People who counted GnR out after their tepid
performance at the MTV Music Awards will be blown away
by how good the band sounds live. They owned the
Tacoma Dome for two and a half hours.
I skipped the two opening acts. Sorry, but I didn't
want to see a band I've never heard of, or spend an
hour watching an ex-Beastie Boy member 'scratch.'
Got there at 10 pm, and the familiar "You know where
you are . . . " screamed out at about 10:15. The days
of the 3 hour delays are long gone.
Axl was in amazing form. His voice actually sounded
better than it did back in the late 80's and early
90's. He hit every high note, his voice didn't crack
one time. Axl's voice was phenomenal.
The rest of the band - well, they are a motley-looking
crew but they were on fire. Very tight, very powerful
and sounded better live than Slash and Duff and
company every dreamed about. I was surprised to see
Robin Finck actually played the majority of the guitar
solos. I'd heard so much about Buckethead that I just
assumed that he was the man. But Finck shredded
through the solos on songs like Nightrain and
Sweetchild of Mine without missing one note. He is a
strange looking dude - but he's a hell of a guitar
player.
Tommy Stintson did a great job on bass, and Brain is a
very powerful drummer. These two are also the only
normal looking guys in the band. Dizzy is a good
keyboard player - but him and the other keyboarder
both look somewhat gay.
Buckethead's feature solo was very . . . let's call it
entertaining. He started with a knumchucks
demonstration, before a minute of breakdancing and
then wrapped it up with about five minutes of various
solos (including the theme from Star Wars thrown in
for laughs).
A funny moment came during Patience. Two small KFC
buckets were thrown on stage and Axl picked them up
and put them both on his head. Then one on his head
and one on his chin. Stinson was laughing so hard he
almost fell down. When Axl saw Stinson almost dying,
he started laughing so hard that he ended up only
singing about half the song. I haven't seen a rock
band having so much fun on stage in a long time.
One lowlight came during November Rain. Midway through
Axl yelled to the soundman to "Turn the fucking drums
down." A minute later, he yelled "You know you’re
killing me brother . . . and not in a good way." He
was clearly pissed as his vocals could barely be
heard. BUT, this was the only downer of the show.
There were no other technical difficulties at all.
And, after the song as the crew wheeled the piano off
the stage, Axl actually slapped the sound guy a high
five - his way of saying "I know you fucked up, but
let's keep up the hard work."
Another fun part (again - it was a very entertaining
show) was at the beginning of November Rain. Axl sat
down at the piano as the crowd is going crazy,
chanting November Rain. Instead, he starts playing
some goofy song for 10 seconds, stops, and whips his
head to the crowd with a "what's up" look. Everybody
starts clapping and laughing. He does it again - but
plays the notes for about 5 seconds, and then whips
around to the crowd again. We all clap and laugh.
Axl's got a huge smile on his face - and then finally
breaks into November Rain.
GnR played three new songs, and they all sounded
incredible. Chinese Democracy was fast paced, and was
heavy as anything GnR has done. The Blues is by far my
favorite new song -- it's going to be huge. Axl
introduced the last new song, saying he's been feuding
with the race car industry, and introduced the song as
"Mad At Nascar" - and then they did Madagascar.
As for the old songs played, they played EVERY song
from Appetite except Out To Get Me. It was quite the
treat for long time GnR fans, to hear songs that
rarely get played live anymore. The underrated I Think
About You was great live, and songs like Nightrain,
Mr. Brownstone, Jungle, Paradise City, You’re Crazy just
sent the crown into a frenzy. A lot of people around
me thought that Rocket Queen probably was the
highlight of the old songs. The biggest disappointment
of the concert was no Don't Cry. I think they were
going for the high "rockin" level and didn't want to
play too many ballads.
The Dome wasn't sold out, but the crowd was clearly
very appreciative of the performance. The new GnR was
very tight, played with a lot of heart and soul, were
entertaining - it was just a hell of a show. I was
very impressed, and give the show an A rating. Korn
and Disturbed in two weeks - it's a good month for concerts.
dirdydraws - 12/11/2002 5:58:17 PM ZAKK WYLDE KICKS ASS ON GUITAR-YUO WHOMEVER YOU ARE CANNOT DENY THIS!!!
zandig - 12/11/2002 9:35:54 AM If Slash and co. are smart, they'll keep looking for the right guy, and not go crawling back to Axl "the god of instability" Rose. Besides, given what both of them have said about their new projects, I think we're closer to seeing Bon Scott rejoining AC/DC than Axl, Slash, Izzy, Duff, and Sorum hooking back up.
dirdydraws - 12/10/2002 1:36:34 PM Would somebody PLEASE put AXL ROSE out of my misery!!!!
juliansorano - 12/10/2002 11:03:25 AM I've got it figured out. Reported infighting between the new band. The old band now says that the
Days of the New singer is NOT going to be their singer. HHHMMMM, a singer looking for a new band to
recapture the magic of old. A band, looking for a singer to give them a magical voice. Slash says that
he's waiting for the perfect singer with the perfect sound for his band. HELLO!!!!!!! Both "groups" have
been getting tons of pub lately. Mark my words. Nobody is going to know what's going on, except -
the New Years Eve show is still scheduled to happen. "You know where you are . . . Your in the jungle
baby, your gonna dieeeeeeee" is going to screach out. And guess who is going to walk out on stage?
Axl Rose, Slash, Duff, Sorum and Izzy. It's perfect. I think this entire thing has been planned since
day one.
toolbox_1 - 12/9/2002 8:24:37 PM ticketmaster relisted shows up until tingley, dallas show. shows cancelled after that. sorry for mis-info. good idea to check your venue day of the show, just to be sure.
toolbox_1 - 12/9/2002 12:16:02 PM got news from ticketmaster today, clear channel has pulled out from gnr tour, ALL remaining dates cancelled, as of 12-9-2002-9:00am pacific time
longhairhositle - 12/9/2002 9:29:35 AM Isn't it funny how in 2002, somebody is still calling themselves "slayer"? Are they still even around?
toolbox_1 - 12/8/2002 3:45:18 PM binhored, i was tryin to think what to say to slayer2. i think you found it , my friend.bingo. he shoots, he scores!!!
Binwhored_ - 12/8/2002 2:18:20 PM maybe someday they will be as good as slayer and as successful. "They will never be the same" - the same as what? When Traci Guns was the guitar player and Slash wasn't in the band? When Izzy or Gilby was rythm guitar? With Adler or Sorum on drums? But you are right, they will never be the same. As I'm sure none of the current or ex-members want to live in the 80's, and don't want to put out Appetite II, and then III and then IIII. Thank God for that. I'd hate to be a fan of a band that pretty much every album, hell every song sounds the same. Kind of like . . . slayer?
SLAYER2 - 12/7/2002 9:57:16 PM fuck GNR they will never be the same
Binwhored_ - 12/6/2002 9:57:45 PM How about this on the GnR debate. No, to all of us, they will never have the same "power" and "magic" as when APpetite comes out. Why? Simple, and it's not because of the reason you all think. It's because of OUR age. When Appetite came out, I was 16 years old and a junior in high school. Fighting teen hormones, banging cheerleaders, maturing into a young adult, trying to figure out what to do with my life. I can still remember driving in my friend's white mustang, when another rocker friend said "you guys have to hear this new band, they kick ass." and he plopped in Appetite. We listened to that tape everyday for two years. It had the emotion and intensity that bands like warrant/bon jovi/whitney houston (whoever else was popular) didn't. Then, I'm a junior at college, when Use Your Illusions come out. Now, I'm a young man, studying hard at college, working an almost full time job, got my own apartment, now instead of dating little airhead girls you start having "serious" relationships, now instead of just caring about sports, girls and music, you start to understand and study what's going on the the "real" world. I listened to Use Your Illusions for 2-3 years straight. NOW, let's say Chinese Democracy comes out next year. I'll be 33 years old. I've got a house, a business, friends that want to do more than just get some booze, weed and chase chicks - like we did at 17 years old. I'm not going to cruise around in my 1977 Camaro, drinking Mickey Big Mouths, smoking weed and listening to APpetite For Destruction all night long. I'm not going to be getting my first blow job from some dumb slut with braces in the backseat of her parents car parked in her garage - trying not to wake up her parents - while Sweet Child of Mine is playing, watching her little blond head bob up and down thinking "this is heaven. Life does not get any better than this." Then a week later, catch her getting finger banged by one of my so-called friends and thinking life was hell!!!! I'm going to be 33 years old, and no matter how INCREDIBLE chinese Democracy might be - it won't have anywhere new the impact on my life as music that came out when I was 15 or 17 or even 21 did. That, my friends, is my take on the situation. SOrry this was so long. And, I'm going to spam post it in a couple spots - as I'm curious to hear reactions from it, especially from TWZ, PRMC, LONGHAIr, BOBBYBRADY, TOOLBOX, LEBOSKI, DAEVA - and sorry if i missed anybody.
toolbox_1 - 12/6/2002 6:41:16 PM maybe they`re just fuckin good, bobbybrady. ever think of that one??
bobbybrady - 12/6/2002 1:41:53 PM longhair, i think if Bach gets the nod for the Slash/duff project, it will end before it begins,too many egos in a band kills the band....but then again, it could very will be great...i'm really looking forward to it....love it or hate it...its good to see rock back...but then again...those of us that love rock, know it never went away....it just goes in and out of being commercially viable.
longhairhositle - 12/6/2002 1:19:54 PM Bobby - go to Metalsludge.com, they hate Axl as well and do nothing but post negative things about him. They also hate Sebastian Bach - so it will be interesting to see how they respond to him if he "makes the band" He would be a good choice, he can scream with the best of them.
tzw - 12/6/2002 12:34:04 PM Very well put, bobbybrady.
