My review of Slash's show on 9/9/14

[Turn_It_Up]

Too early for Worst Post of the Year Award?

Others have already stated why Slash probably played what is an abnormally high percentage of Guns songs at this specific show, but personally when they get around to their headlining gigs I'd love to hear zero GNR. He'll probably always need to include a couple(SCOM & PC) for the casuals, but he has more than enough to stuff a killer setlist from Snakepit, VR, 2010 solo and Conspirators.

WOF the album a big kick in the balls to those clinging to the past. The train left the station long ago and now at top speed...

Edited September 13, 2014 by Turn_It_Up

[Nosaj Thing]

Nosaj, come on, many posters here give GNR shit about living off the old stuff. You know that. It surprised me that Slash still plays a lot of Guns songs, because many here say Slash has moved on and Axl hasn't and I hadn't followed him at all, so I just thought he might've played one or two GNR songs and that's it, because, you know, he has a larger catalogue to choose from. (Duh.)

Name the posters that give Axl shit for playing Gn'R songs. Of course, Chinese Democracy songs are not Gn'R songs. Nobody complains about Axl performing... Welcome to the Jungle or Paradise City. The problem is, at least with Axl, that he promised too many albums and wanted to erase "old GN'R" from people's minds, but now that he's very well aware that nobody gives a shit about his "vision" he has reduced his act to playing the songs he wrote with people he hates.

Who complained when Estranged was included to the set? Who complained when Axl added Yesterdays to his set? No one. I even remember people complaining that he went from performing 10 CD songs to around 3 or 4. So yeah, the ones complaining were actually Chinese Democracy fans.

Slash "moving on" has nothing to do with the fact that he can and has the right to play whatever Gn'R song he wants.

Of course Slash can play those songs, he has the right to play those songs, and I'm sure the fans love to hear him play those songs, but I think some are a bit unfair when they bash Axl because he plays old songs (with GNR) and then say Slash just gives the fans what they want.

So in that regard I see what Mike's saying.

Again, nobody bashes Axl for playing the old songs.

Back in '09 - '10, Axl was playing 8 to 10 CD songs on tour. No one gave him shit about playing the old songs because he was pretty focused on the new material, the old material was more like a bonus. Now the classic tunes are basically the whole show. People didn't bitch about setlists until after that tour. So no, there wasn't always whining about being a nostalgia act, until it actually became a nostalgia act. That, and the fact that Axl just can't sing a lot of those songs anymore leads to most of the criticism now.

Definitely.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Nosaj Thing

[IncitingChaos]

Slash to me performs really well, and he obviously is excellent at what he does. He just lacks the sense of excitement that Axl brings to a show.

In my opinion seeing Axl perform is way more entertaining. I guess because of the kind of person Axl is you watch him perform and as cliche as it sounds he really does perform like he's trying to kick your ass. The guy is phenomenal at bringing a certain level of energy that doesn't exist with many performers today. So for me I appreciate watching Axl more than Slash.

But again Slash is excellent! Maybe the difference is he's a guitar player and Axl is a singer...idk. Sorry for making a comparison between the two. I do get that they perform very different shows and play different instruments.

[Nosaj Thing]

Slash to me performs really well, and he obviously is excellent at what he does. He just lacks the sense of excitement that Axl brings to a show.

In my opinion seeing Axl perform is way more entertaining. I guess because of the kind of person Axl is you watch him perform and as cliche as it sounds he really does perform like he's trying to kick your ass. The guy is phenomenal at bringing a certain level of energy that doesn't exist with many performers today. So for me I appreciate watching Axl more than Slash.

But again Slash is excellent! Maybe the difference is he's a guitar player and Axl is a singer...idk. Sorry for making a comparison between the two. I do get that they perform very different shows and play different instruments.

I think that you enjoy Axl and his band more because they're a bigger act, plus Axl is a frontman, not only a singer. Myles can be a good singer but he's a terrible performer, I'll give you that.

[Mr. Dude]

"Nobody gives Axl shit for playing old songs."

Proceeds to give Axl shit for "playing songs he wrote with people he hates."

[dalsh327]

People are going to say Slash is copying Axl when he makes the rounds around the LA clubs in a week. GNR played Palladium, Wiltern, & HOB, and Slash is going to be at the Troubadour, Roxy and Whiskey. Special guests? Maybe.

[Iron MikeyJ]

I knew this would cause a bit of a firestorm across the board, but I figured it would give us all something to talk about.

I also knew most people would disagree with me, but what is you disagree with? The fact that I said I didn't think his band was awesome or wonderful? Or that he played a lot of guns songs which was suprising to me (from things I read on this forum, I thought only a couple gnr songs)? Or is that I thought Myles was a boring performer?

I'm realizing that their seems to be a double standard here. If someone came on here and gave a crappy review of a NUgnr show, most posters would just agree with them. Some would defend Axl yes, but the majority would just talk about what a shit show Axl's band is. But because I posted a crappy review of a Slash show I get called names? See what I mean? I'm sorry folks, but I wasn't defending Axl either, I was calling it like I see it as a Guns n' Roses fan since 1995. I've watched it all go to hell, I have seen what both Axl and Slash have tried to do and I'm unimpressed with both of them. They were FAR better together than they are apart. So sue me for wanting that again.

[Seb91]

Great review and I agree with your assessment of Slash shows. I've seen Slash five times since 2010 (as he ended up playing at festivals I was going to) and have to say whilst musically all the shows were great the weak point really is Myles. Whilst he's an amazing singer the guy just has zero stage presence, sure it's all about Slash but you really need a great frontman to give a first class show. I mean Scott aint the best singer in the world but he was one hell of a performer in VR.

Thanks. I agree, musically they do sound good for the most part. But other than Slash they are extrememly boring to watch. I've seen better performances out of bar bands. Honestly I'd rather go see Jeff Beck or Steve Vai or another virtuoso if I'm going to watch the guitar player. Which I'm not saying Slash (himself) was bad, just very pedestrian peforomance from his band. They seemed stiff or scared or maybe thats just how they are?

I actually think Todd Kerns is an awesome performer. Wish he was the frontman. Sure, the guy isn't the best singer in the world but he has stage presence by the bucketload IMO. Him singing Dr. Alibi was the highlight of the shows I saw (bar Download 2010 when Lemmy himself sang it!).

[Zint]

At this point I wouldn't care if Slash played any Gnr songs live.

I'm not there to see that anyway..I've seen Slash play those tunes with band many times between '91 -'93.

I'm there as a Slash fan, I'm there for where he is at now and the solo tunes.

And currently, I'm there for the Conspirators because I think they are a kickass band.

As for Myles, he has a low key stage persona yet delivers the goods..ala Robert Plant...and that's good enough for me.

[UK SUBS]

I was in attendence for the Slash/Aerosmith concert at DTE (Pine Knob) near Detroit on 9/9/14. For this review I am concentrating on just Slash's set. Let me start by saying this was the first time I have seen Slash live with any band or in any form. His guitar playing was stellar as always, and as a guitar player (me) I can honestly say he did out play both guitarists from Aerosmith. Which isn't a knock against Brad and Joe from Aerosmith, but more of an acknowledgement that Slash is indeed a superior player than them. From my memory, the band played around 10 songs; 5 gnr songs, 1 vr song (slither), Back from Cali, Anastasia, and what I'm assuming are 2 new songs from World on Fire. The band sounded good on all of Slash's solo songs, and I even enjoyed Myles on Slither. He can do an admirable job on VR tunes, I'll give him that.

Ok now that I have the good out of the way, here is the bad. While I have to admit that Slash does play all guns material better than any current or former gnr guitarist. Whether Axl ever cares to admit it, but Slash's tone is a BIG part of gnr's sound. But having said that, I was very bothered by the amount of guns tunes that they played that night. I hear and read a lot about how Slash has moved on from guns, yet half of his set included guns material. I'm not saying he shouldn't play any guns songs, but half his set? I gotta call BS on that, especially considering the amount of shit Axl gets on this very forum. When clearly Slash is doing the same damn thing. Honestly I was expecting half of his set to be new songs, with older stuff peppered in. Not half the set being guns songs, hypocrite much?

Now on to the guns songs that Slash played; Nightrain, Brownstone, YCBM, SCOM, and Paradise City. I knew going in that they would play some guns tunes, I was honestly expecting Nightrain, Brownstone, and perhaps SCOM and Paradise City. But I was hoping he would do more Slash heavy songs like DTJ or Civil War. I can except Myles pissing on gnr tunes like Brownstone and Nightrain, hell I'd even admit he does decent job on them. But here is my problem, Slash claims he hates SCOM yet he plays that song at every damn chance he gets. Which if he was in gnr, I would understand him having to play, but he does not have to play SCOM in his solo shows, he chooses to. Which I'm sorry, I'm calling BS on that. If you don't like the song, why do you play it so much? It wasn't a gnr concert, he could have just as easily played Civil War or DTJ instead. Again very hypocriticial imo. I also gotta call BS on him closing his show with Paradise City. Why save that song for a closer is my question? Everyone knows thats gnr's closer, so why copy it? If he wants to play it, then play it. But saving it for the closer is also a little hypocritical imo.

But I can live with all of thos things, hell I even expected most of them, but what really pissed me off was YCBM. Not only would I MUCH rather hear old Axl with his Mickey Mouse voice sing that song (because old Axl is 10X the frontman Myles is), but Myles really does not do that song justice. It's way to rapid fire for him, he only sung about 75% of the vocals, with NONE of the Axl screams. While obviously Myles isn't Axl and doesn't like doing the Axl screams, they are a BIG part of those songs. They are just as essential as the guitar and drum parts imo. Would we tolerate someone covering Aerosmith songs without Tyler's trademark vocal parts? No I wouldn't, so I will definatly not accept them from Guns tunes (which are closer to my heart than Aerosmith songs). So bottom line, YCBM just plain pissed me off. But my question for Slash is why that song? It is a known Axl/Izzy song, honestly outside of the guitar solo did Slash even write any of the music to it? So why in the hell play that one, especially when your singer can't do it justice. I'm telling you all, old out of breath Axl does YCBM 10x better than Myles does. He really does folks....

Finally the bottom line for me is Myles has literally no stage presence. He is literally forgetable on stage. He doesn't command the audience like Steven Tyler does, and not even close to what Axl does. Yes Slash draws your attention, very similiar to the way Joe Perry does, but not Myles Kennedy. He is a very forgetable performer imo, just as foregetable as the rest of Slash's band. They all just stand there with very little audience interaction. Which this was the last show of the tour, so it's not like they were new to these size crowds. It says to me that they might be comperable musicians, but they are not performers. Honestly all of Axl's band are better performers than Slash's band, even Ashba has better stage presence than Myles. I am not trying to start a NUgnr vs Slash's band thread, because that is not my intent. My intent is to provide my thoughts on the show, and I am not alone in my feelings. The 20 somethings that were sitting next to me also shared my feelings. I talked to them throughout Slash's set, and they all agreed with me. They were also upset with the amount of guns songs they played. One guy even said "Get those words out of your mouth you phoney." He said that during YCBM. I also got many looks during the set because I yelled "Axl, Axl, Axl" after each guns song that was played. Could the band hear from the stage? Who knows, but a a gnr fan, I wanted my opinion to be heard. As many of you know, I amk not a pro NUgnr fan, I am very clear about my reunion opinions, and honestly this concert just furthered those beliefs. This band is not that good folks, they have Slash and a bunch of no names with 0 stage presence. This is a pretty far fall from grace for Slash imo. They may be able to play the songs well, but they don't know how to perform the songs. Which if Slash keeps going with these guys, he is going to be an opening act or playing clubs for the rest of his career. His days as a headliner are over. Hell Alien Ant Farm has better stage presence than Slash's band. I don't care what anyone says, but NUgnr does put on a better show, and Axl's replacement players are at least some what entertaining, something Slash's band clearly lacks.

I am writing this review not to praise Axl and trash Slash, I am writing this review in the hopes others read it and we as a fanbase can finally get what we deserve, a Guns n' Fucking Roses reunion. The time is now. Both, yes BOTH Axl and Slash are pissing away their careers with these replacement nostolgia bands. I'm sick of seeing half filled arenas at gnr shows, and I'm sick of watching an amazing guitar player open for bigger bands. Aerosmith PACKED DTE and I'm absolutly sure Guns n' Fucking Roses would as well. Hell when I was in line for the pisser, all the guys were talking about how great Guns n' Roses were. Som guys talked about seeing them at the same venue back in the 80's. They were not talking about Slash's band, they were not talking about Axl's band, they were talking about Guns n' Roses. As a hardcore gnr fan this means a lot to me. People love that band, people want that band. Listen up Slash, your band kinda sucks. Listen up Axl, your band will never be guns n roses. Come on Duff, get them back together, it's what US fans really want. Hell I even think it's what both Axl and Slash secretly want, other wise they wouldn't put such glaring knockoffs in their own bands. Myles sucks, Ashba sucks, I want Guns n' Fucking Roses!!!

Wow interesting review and certainly detailed and yet direct. Thanks for that

[Iron MikeyJ]

At this point I wouldn't care if Slash played any Gnr songs live.

I'm not there to see that anyway..I've seen Slash play those tunes with band many times between '91 -'93.

I'm there as a Slash fan, I'm there for where he is at now and the solo tunes.

And currently, I'm there for the Conspirators because I think they are a kickass band.

As for Myles, he has a low key stage persona yet delivers the goods..ala Robert Plant...and that's good enough for me.

I can respect that. I guess I was just expecting more out of the rest of the band. As I said in my review, Slash himself was great. I can't knock anything on his individual perfromance. But after seeing Steven Tyler, Axl Rose, and David Lee Roth all within' the last couple of years they are all >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Myles Kennedy. He does sing the songs well (except for YCBM, IMO) but he just kinda stands there. He doesn't even seem all into the songs that much. I do think he is into the songs that THEY wrote a hell of a lot more than the GNR and VR stuff. I can't say that I blame him there either. It's just that (the other guys) I mentioned just seem to have the audience eating out of their hand. Even DLR (whom was a little unimpressive IMO) was light years better than Myles. And Tyler? Forget it, I'm not even going to waste my time comparing him to Steven Tyler, he's the oldest of the bunch and still out performs both Axl and DLR. But I do think Axl was better than DLR last shows I saw.

[Axl4Prez2004]

I saw Slash at the MGM Grand last month. It kicked ass! But I did enjoy the GnR show I saw June 4th more

You lucky fucker! I just listened to Prostitute from that show (again!) and just love it.

When Axl's giving it his all, nobody comes close to what he delivers.

[DieselDaisy]

SCOM is an odd choice considering Slash spent the best part of 20 years repeating that horseshit about, 'hating it initially because it was a joke song, only to learn to like it'. I have said it before here: he was just ripping of Joe Perry and Dream On to look, 'cool'.

[Mr. Dude]

SCOM is an odd choice considering Slash spent the best part of 20 years repeating that horseshit about, 'hating it initially because it was a joke song, only to learn to like it'. I have said it before here: he was just ripping of Joe Perry and Dream On to look, 'cool'.

You don't rip off your idols, you're infuenced by them.

Chuck Berry- Keith Richards

Keith Richards- Joe Perry

Joe-Perry- Slash

You rip off your contemporaries.

[Gibbo]

I found the drummer boring he just sat there all night

Edited September 14, 2014 by Gibbo 27

[DieselDaisy]

SCOM is an odd choice considering Slash spent the best part of 20 years repeating that horseshit about, 'hating it initially because it was a joke song, only to learn to like it'. I have said it before here: he was just ripping of Joe Perry and Dream On to look, 'cool'.

You don't rip off your idols, you're infuenced by them.

Chuck Berry- Keith Richards

Keith Richards- Joe Perry

Joe-Perry- Slash

You rip off your contemporaries.

What?

[bacardimayne]

Guitarist well known for 80s hits performs 80s hits while opening for a band whose fans probably don't know his solo material. Shite420 doesn't understand this.

More at 11

[Modano09]

On a somewhat related note, I saw GIlby play a bar a couple of nights ago. He played It's So Easy, Sweet Child and Knockin on Heavens Door. I talked to him afterwards and he said that a lot of people know him from GNR so they expect to hear some GNR stuff.

He was incredibly cool and personable, can't say enough about how friendly he was.

[SlashisGOD]

Good review. I haven't seen Slash with the Conspirators yet but I hope to on his next solo tour.

I do think though that Rod Jackson would be the perfect frontman for Slash but I guess that will never happen.

[Ant]

I also got many looks during the set because I yelled "Axl, Axl, Axl" after each guns song that was played.

Haha... how obnoxious. I bet they were staring at you in solidarity .

I will say I don't think Myles is a stadium level frontman. I was saying in the WOF thread I think his confidence and general persona is a lot stronger with a guitar in hand.

Replace Mark wankfest Tremonti with fucking Slash and I'm front row.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Ant

[Lio]

Name the posters that give Axl shit for playing Gn'R songs. Of course, Chinese Democracy songs are not Gn'R songs. Nobody complains about Axl performing... Welcome to the Jungle or Paradise City. The problem is, at least with Axl, that he promised too many albums and wanted to erase "old GN'R" from people's minds, but now that he's very well aware that nobody gives a shit about his "vision" he has reduced his act to playing the songs he wrote with people he hates.

Who complained when Estranged was included to the set? Who complained when Axl added Yesterdays to his set? No one. I even remember people complaining that he went from performing 10 CD songs to around 3 or 4. So yeah, the ones complaining were actually Chinese Democracy fans.

Slash "moving on" has nothing to do with the fact that he can and has the right to play whatever Gn'R song he wants.

Again, nobody bashes Axl for playing the old songs.

Back in '09 - '10, Axl was playing 8 to 10 CD songs on tour. No one gave him shit about playing the old songs because he was pretty focused on the new material, the old material was more like a bonus. Now the classic tunes are basically the whole show. People didn't bitch about setlists until after that tour. So no, there wasn't always whining about being a nostalgia act, until it actually became a nostalgia act. That, and the fact that Axl just can't sing a lot of those songs anymore leads to most of the criticism now.

Definitely.

I'm not going to name posters, because I don't remember everything by heart and I won't go delving into old threads just for that. It's not that important to me to prove I'm right. So, I'll just rephrase it. I might call bashing what you think is reasonable criticism. I haven't been here for all these years, so my expectations were never that high to begin with. My expectations for GNR were gone by 1993, so I missed all that talk about erasing old GNR, all the new albums promised. My perception, merely from reading the forum, was that Slash played next to no GNR songs.

To me, it's quite clear they both still live off old GNR, although Slash has released much more music and has left GNR for almost 20 years, and Axl could have done so, so much more in all those years.

I'm not saying it's wrong at all. It would be a shame to never hear Axl and Slash perform those songs anymore. But personally, I wish they'd both be able to depend more on the stuff they did after AFD and UYI.

As for the criticism about Axl not being able to sing those songs anymore, IMO he still does it infinitely better than Myles.

[HubbaBubba]

You shouted Axl's name repeatedly between songs to "be heard"??

Why not just publicly declare yourself a douche and be done with it?

[Padme]

Mike I think you are missing the point. Slash doesn´t want to make history nor he wants to redefine rock music. He has band to make albums and he goes on tour with them. So he mix his catalogue with the GN´R classics that people in the audience want to hear. Conspirators is not meant to be a legendary band. If Slash is in a mood for an All Star Band he performs with KOC. Slash is still doing what he does best. He is still an amazing guitar player, one of the best in the world. When Slash is performing RQ and Anastasia he is also adding new riffs to them. He is making them even better

Axl on the other hand is messing with the GN´R legacy. It took Axl more than 10 years to make a forgetable album. His version of GN´R has been a revolving door. He has his housekeeper as the band manager. WTF??? The biggest problem I´m having with Axl is not that he plays WTTJ. It is that he doesn´t want to make more albums nor he wants to play one just one new song. And by new I don´t mean neither Prostitute nor Yesterdays. I mean The General or something else from his infamous Vault. There is never communication. Axl is using his twitter once in a blue moon to talk about a giraffe and breakfast. When us the fans want to know what the fuck is going with BBF and the band´s future.

[Iron MikeyJ]

Mike I think you are missing the point. Slash doesn´t want to make history nor he wants to redefine rock music. He has band to make albums and he goes on tour with them. So he mix his catalogue with the GN´R classics that people in the audience want to hear. Conspirators is not meant to be a legendary band. If Slash is in a mood for an All Star Band he performs with KOC. Slash is still doing what he does best. He is still an amazing guitar player, one of the best in the world. When Slash is performing RQ and Anastasia he is also adding new riffs to them. He is making them even better

Axl on the other hand is messing with the GN´R legacy. It took Axl more than 10 years to make a forgetable album. His version of GN´R has been a revolving door. He has his housekeeper as the band manager. WTF??? The biggest problem I´m having with Axl is not that he plays WTTJ. It is that he doesn´t want to make more albums nor he wants to play one just one new song. And by new I don´t mean neither Prostitute nor Yesterdays. I mean The General or something else from his infamous Vault. There is never communication. Axl is using his twitter once in a blue moon to talk about a giraffe and breakfast. When us the fans want to know what the fuck is going with BBF and the band´s future.

No you are missing the point. I said all along that this was not to start an Axl vs Slash thread. I was expressing MY dissapointment with Slash's band at the concert I attended. That is all....

You shouted Axl's name repeatedly between songs to "be heard"??

Why not just publicly declare yourself a douche and be done with it?

For the record, I only did that after the gnr songs. Besides people have been giving Axl shit for years about no Slash. As a fan I'm not allowed to do the same to Slash??? Hmm.....

[Padme]

Then why are you comparing Myles with Axl? You brought Axl in your review. If you don´t like Slash band just say it´s not your cup of tea without bringing Axl into the discussion.