11/8 Worcester Review (taken from Worcester newspaper)

Axl and a revamped GN’R’s return

MUSIC REVIEW

By Scott McLennan ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST
smclennan@telegram.com
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Chris Benson and Christine Ferreira show their enthusiasm before the show. (T&G Staff / STEVE LANAVA)
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WORCESTER— Sometime around 1 this morning, a guy standing on the concrete floor of The DCU Center opposite the stage Guns N’ Roses was performing on yelled, “I can’t feel my legs.”

Like many in the DCU Center, which employed an open, general admission floor for the concert, that guy probably showed up sometime around 8 Wednesday night and caught sets by Sebastian Bach and Papa Roach then waited as Guns N’ Roses opted to play the bulk of its 2-plus-hour show early Thursday.

GN’R’s return to Worcester was as much endurance test as it was concert. Those partaking got a set full of hits from GN’R’s glory days, a sampling of new songs from the much-rumored “Chinese Democracy” album, and a batch of flashy solos from various members of the reloaded 8-man version of Guns N’ Roses. And in reality, the band on stage at The DCU came across more like Axl Rose and His Seven Buddies than what the original GN’R sounded like.

Since Rose chased away all of the band’s original talent he has reshaped GN’R into his vision of what a rock band should be, which is something huge, dramatic and cocky. Rose brings three guitarist, two keyboard players, a bass player and drummer to the show and packages the whole thing with towering videos, flash pot explosions, in-door fireworks, and the occasional flame blast.

Those pyrotechnic flourishes were allegedly the reason Guns N’ Roses had to cancel its concert Monday in Portland, with the band claiming that city’s fire marshal prohibited use of the explosives. Even with Portland ticket holders invited down to the Worcester concert, The DCU Center was only about two-thirds full by the time GN’R hit the stage at 11:45 p.m.

GN’R kicked off its set in predicable fashion with the screaming “Welcome to the Jungle.” Also in rather typical fashion, Rose started complaining about having difficulties with the sound by the night’s second song, “It’s So Easy.”

But in comparison to GN’R’s disastrous and derailed 2002 tour, singer Rose this time seemed in better shape, bounding around the stage and nailing the theatrical vocal turns of such gems as Wings’ “Live and Let Die” and his own classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

The guitar team of Robin Finck, Richard Fortus and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal unleashed all manner of gnarly fretwork. Dizzy Reed, a holdover from the Guns lineup of the early ’90s, and Chris Pitman crafted thick keyboard parts into the sound. Former Replacement Tommy Stinson, playing bass, and recent recruit Frank Ferrer, on drums, served as the locomotive engine behind Axl and crew.

But for al the racket that GN’R Mach II generated, none of it rivaled the nasty chemistry of the old days when Rose went head-to-head with guitarist Slash, or had the reckless abandon embodied in Duff McKagen’s bass work.

The GN’R of today has traded fury for precision. But given the overall quality of the GN’R songbook, that was not necessarily a bad thing. The new Guns roared on old faves such as “You Could Be Mine,” “Out Ta Get Me” and “November Rain.”

In place of jams within songs, Rose directed his cast to perform standalone solos in different parts of the show. The detached soloing was less effective than hearing the talent poured into the context of a song, but the players themselves found some structure to make their work shine a bit brighter. Reed, for example turned his piano solo into a cover of The Rolling Stone’s “Angie.” Bumblefoot (a rather uninspired replacement for the enigmatic guitar master Buckethead, who split GN’R after the 2002 debacle) morphed his noodly solo into an instrumental version of “Don’t Cry.” Fortus’ guitar turn gelled into a heady instrumental duet with Finck around the Christina Aguilera song “Beautiful.”

GN’R uncorked a handful of new material slated for release on the long-in-the-making “Chinese Democracy” album. The soul-searching ballad “Madagascar” came across as the strongest of the new numbers, with “Better,” “I.R.S” and “The Blues” sounding more serviceable than revolutionary. The night’s best left-field song choice had to be GN’R’s cover of UK Subs’ “Down on The Farm,” an angry bit of punk attitude that for a moment shed the band of all its bloat.

Heading into the wee hours, Rose had opener Sebastian Bach join the band for the raucous “My Michelle.” The band then went to its tender side for “Patience” and flipped over to its most decadent and depraved mode for a set-ending ride on “Nightrain.”

The final encore of “Paradise City” again rekindled memories of the raw power Guns N’ Roses brought to the rock scene when it arrived in the late ’80s. But nearly 20 years removed from its monumental “Appetite for Destruction” album (which accounted for 8 of the show’s 17 songs), and with only Rose left from that high-water mark, paradise is somewhat lost.

Papa Roach fit surprisingly well into the lineup as the band that came along in the rap-rock wave has nicely transformed itself into a more straightforward hard-rock act. Papa Roach balanced slightly rearranged versions of older hits such as “Last Resort” with ripping new material off its “Paramour Sessions” album.

Former Skid Row throat Bach delivered a throwback-set of hair-metal, singing much of it in the key of shriek.

"GN’R’s return to Worcester was as much endurance test as it was concert. Those partaking got a set full of hits from GN’R’s glory days, a sampling of new songs from the much-rumored “Chinese Democracy” album, and a batch of flashy solos from various members of the reloaded 8-man version of Guns N’ Roses. And in reality, the band on stage at The DCU came across more like Axl Rose and His Seven Buddies than what the original GN’R sounded like."

Great yet another flippant report from the press, when will the press actually give credit to this band???

Had Axl got rid of the gnr name would we get better reports where there is not this bitchy attitude and comparison to the old guns?

I find the bitching in the press very tiresome, they seem to really care about new gnr or why would they go out of their way to bitch about them - well maybe sadly this is what the majority of rock fans want to read, alot of people will be influenced by the press' negativity and wont even give the band/new album a chance, sad but true i think.

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