How bad did the CD tour do?

[Juventino]

I saw them in Adelaide in 2007 and 2010, and Wikipedia (not the best source, but I can't find any other figure right now) says 8000 for each show. Which would be close to sold out.

[James Bond]

2 hours ago, F*ck Fear said:

Both times I seen them in Toronto at the ACC, once in 2002 and again 2006, it had to have either been sold out, or close to it.

I'm not sure about the Hamilton gigs in 2010 & 2011, though.

 

I was at both Hamilton gigs and both times the upper bowl was curtained off. The first one seemed to have a packed lower bowl but it was noticeably emptier on the second go. Great shows though, and the 2010 one got TWAT.

I was also at Toronto 2006 and Q107 touted it as sold out so if it wasn’t sold out it was probably close to it. I remember it being packed. Too bad the three opening acts plus 11:40 start time for Guns couldn’t capitalize on it. Half my section was empty about an hour into Guns as people left to catch the last trains, buses, etc...

Axl also seemed moody that night. He definitely wasn’t looking less bloated and cracking jokes.

[ludurigan]

there is an interview with a local band in my country where the lead singer of the opening band for a 2013 or 2014 Axl Rose show mentions how Axls band was attracting less and less people

[GNRnow]

One of the things that hurt that era was the start times. They never came on before 11, and there was up to a 2 hour gap between the opener and GNR. For the UCAP tour, I saw them twice and they didn’t come on until 12:30 both shows.

[SlashisGOD]

Saw them in 2006 in Huntington, WV and if I remember right it was probably 85-90% full. I got a pit ticket outside for cheap which was cool. I think something that helped was that people were expecting CD to drop that year.

Edited July 6, 2018 by SlashisGOD

[TiedHands]

21 hours ago, Tourettes2400 said:

I  saw them in Nashville in 2011. There were a lot of empty seats, but it was still a good show. Even DJ Ashba had a good night. They also played Civil War for the first time since Slash was in the band.

I was at that show, but I was down on the floor in the front row, and I don't remember that many empty seats. Seemed pretty full to me. Back then, a lot of major rock bands skipped Nashville, so pretty much any decent sized shows I went to sold really well.

[ARX]

2006 Jacksonville FL 2nd show if the USA tour. They sold about 2k tickets only 400 or so for the floor. Tickets in the seats were given away for free day of show

2010 Toronto Sold out

2011 Orlando nice crowd but no upper deck seats 

2011 greenvill SC: was in town working saw Dizzy walking down the road. Show was $20 Groupon. Maybe 3-5k

2012 UCAP Orlando sold out

2013 Gov Ball. Huge crowd that stuck around to see gnr 

although some of the USA shows didn’t sell that well, I really think had Axl done any promo and got on stage earlier it would have done much better 

[killuridols]

I don't even want to remember that nightmare time......

[RussTCB]

1 minute ago, killuridols said:

I don't even want to remember that nightmare time......

Wow, really? Some of the GN'R shows I've enjoyed the most were during those tours. The show at the Fillmore in Detroit in February of 2012 is still the best GN'R show I've seen and that includes the shows I saw in 91, 92 & 93. 

[killuridols]

1 minute ago, RussTCB said:

Wow, really? Some of the GN'R shows I've enjoyed the most were during those tours. The show at the Fillmore in Detroit in February of 2012 is still the best GN'R show I've seen and that includes the shows I saw in 91, 92 & 93. 

At the moment, I enjoyed and loved it, maybe because it was a small venue, less people no hassle..... but looking back in retrospective, all of it seems like a different life, a different band (lol), something that I dreamt and was not real. I don't know why I have that impression now

[felixGNR]

5 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

Wow, really? Some of the GN'R shows I've enjoyed the most were during those tours. The show at the Fillmore in Detroit in February of 2012 is still the best GN'R show I've seen and that includes the shows I saw in 91, 92 & 93. 

Different strokes  i guess, i enjoyed more hershey 17(my least favorite of the 12 show i been to sine 2016), than any other  show in NY between 2006-2012 ( except rose bar and hiro ballroom that i didn't  attend)

Edited July 6, 2018 by felixGNR

[RussTCB]

1 minute ago, killuridols said:

At the moment, I enjoyed and loved it, maybe because it was a small venue, less people no hassle..... but looking back in retrospective, all of it seems like a different life, a different band (lol), something that I dreamt and was not real. I don't know why I have that impression now

I've seen NITL 3 times now and Vegas 2016 was the only show that came anywhere near close to as good as that Detroit 2012 show or the first Hammerstein show was. 

[Tourettes2400]

49 minutes ago, TiedHands said:

I was at that show, but I was down on the floor in the front row, and I don't remember that many empty seats. Seemed pretty full to me. Back then, a lot of major rock bands skipped Nashville, so pretty much any decent sized shows I went to sold really well.

The beginning of the show had a lot more people than the end did. I think it had a lot to do with the time GN'R came on. Up top and the back of the lower bowl were damn near empty when Paradise City started. Either way, it was a good show to me.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Tourettes2400

[killuridols]

17 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

I've seen NITL 3 times now and Vegas 2016 was the only show that came anywhere near close to as good as that Detroit 2012 show or the first Hammerstein show was. 

I've seen NITL 3 times as well and I could not compare it to the nuGuns shows.... Besides, I never saw real Guns back in the day, so to me seeing Slash, Duff and Steven was out of this world.

Previously, I was exposed to Ashba, Bumblefoot and Pitman

I can't be blamed!

[GoBucky]

We also saw the last 2 shows of both Vegas residences and all were packed, not sure about how many tix were given away. We went to the Golden Gods awards in LA and that had a few hundred empty seats in the back of the balcony, but tix were high, the lineup was weak and no one expected more than 3 songs played. We also went to the Rock on the Range show that they headlined in Columbus. It was very shitty weather, cold and rainy all day. The stadium was packed when they got on and lasted that way for about an hour and a half. The combo of the all day bad weather, a younger crowd there to see Staind and Seether and the fact that Axl did a full 3+ hr set at a festival caused the crowd to thin out halfway through the set. By the time they started Nightrain, we were able to leave the seats and walk into the field about 30 feet from the stage. 

[themadcaplaughs]

Interesting to see people hitting on a point you didn't hear a lot about during the "nu" years; people leaving the show early (or before GN'R even started) because of how late Axl started shows. He got away with it in 1991-1993 because they were the biggest band in the world, but by 2011 people were not having it.

Looking back at that Atlanta 2011 show, the band was ticketed to start at 9:00. There was a local opener at 7:00 (Kelen Heller) who played for about 30 minutes to an almost completely empty arena. The "main opener" (Buckcherry) did not even take the stage until 8:30 or so, and had to resort to typical tricks to pad out time because Axl probably wasn't ready (I think they played "Crazy Bitch" twice and included an extended breakdown and rant in both). Buckcherry left the stage right after 10:00, and GN'R did not take the stage until 11:40. By that point, a small but not insubstantial number of people had left the (already poorly attended) venue when "Chinese Democracy" started. People held on as long as they could, but as the show progressed, you could see visible groups of people heading out to get home at a somewhat reasonable time. A HUGE number of people left after "Sweet Child O' Mine" (presumably the one song they felt they "needed" to hear). By the time it got to the Paradise City, it was right around 2:30 AM and even the floor (which, despite the overall lack of sales had been absolutely packed at the beginning of the show) had huge gaps in it. It really impacted the energy of the show.

It was sad having to see people who probably did want to see the show leave (I completely understood), and it was even more sad because Axl really gave it 100% that night. It was the band's first show in Atlanta since 1987, and Axl made multiple comments throughout the show about how cool it was to finally play Atlanta again, and what a great crowd it was. (After "Rocket Queen" ended, he said something like "we've played 45 minutes. I'm officially doing better than the last time I played here."). 

Compare that to Atlanta in 2016 at the Georgia Dome. The band was scheduled to start at 9:30, and was on-stage by 9:32. By the time the band got to the last song, the venue was still absolutely packed and it really enhanced the energy of the show to have a full house. As a matter of fact, it was still so crowded at the end of the show that it took almost 30 minutes just to get back outside because of the lines. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by themadcaplaughs

[RussTCB]

13 minutes ago, killuridols said:

I've seen NITL 3 times as well and I could not compare it to the nuGuns shows.... Besides, I never saw real Guns back in the day, so to me seeing Slash, Duff and Steven was out of this world.

Previously, I was exposed to Ashba, Bumblefoot and Pitman

I can't be blamed!

Lol "real Guns" 

I've seen damn near every line up Guns N Roses has had to offer. I'm really glad I saw the ones between 2002 and 2012 or I would've missed some of the best shows I've ever seen GNR play. 

[killuridols]

9 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

Lol "real Guns" 

I've seen damn near every line up Guns N Roses has had to offer. I'm really glad I saw the ones between 2002 and 2012 or I would've missed some of the best shows I've ever seen GNR play. 

Yeah, lol real Guns *don't damn me*

Consider yourself lucky. Living in the third world is not easy. Axl returned to Argentina in 2010, not before and after that, of course.

If I have to pick positive things about my Ñu shows is that Axl's voice was great, he was in great physical shape and the CD songs sounded awesome.

The downside, IMO, would be Axl's lateness (I waited 3 hours), Axl's ass face and bad mood in general and the cherry of the shit-cake: ASHBA.

Edited July 6, 2018 by killuridols

[RussTCB]

1 minute ago, killuridols said:

...and the cherry of the shit-cake: ASHBA.

Don't get me wrong, every time I think about the fact that DJ Ashba (tm) was involved in my favorite GN'R show, I get a little upset 

[Nicklord]

I still think 2010 GnR show was the best GnR related show I saw. Setlist was tight (for GnR), Ashba was still playing 100% like the record without "improvisations" and Axl sounded 10 times better than on this tour. I still remember Axl going berserk at the end of November Rain with crazy power rasp and then he started kicking and stepping on the piano and playing (? ) with his feet

Edited July 6, 2018 by Nicklord

[themadcaplaughs]

40 minutes ago, Nicklord said:

I still think 2010 GnR show was the best GnR related show I saw. Setlist was tight (for GnR), Ashba was still playing 100% like the record without "improvisations" and Axl sounded 10 times better than on this tour. I still remember Axl going berserk at the end of November Rain with crazy power rasp and then he started kicking and stepping on the piano and playing (? ) with his feet

DJ really was a curious case. The guy actually seemed to get worse at guitar as he progressed in the band. During 2009/2010, he seemed tolerable. He seemed a bit like a caricature, but still dressed like a normal human being and did a "good" to "very good" job with all of his guitar work. He struggled with some of Robin's solos, but Robin struggled with some of Slash's solos. I still think, at the very least, DJ captured the "essence" of Slash's solos more consistently than Robin did (with the notable exception of DJ's "Patience" solo). Robin's takes on Slash's work either impressed the hell out of me, or made me want to turn away; no real middle ground. By the end of 2010, I saw DJ as being well on his way to being a suitable replacement for Robin. 

When he came back in 2011, however, it seemed like the worst aspects of him got turned up to 11. He dressed like a walking billboard and seemed more interested in showboating and running around than playing, which in turn, got him to make some fairly sloppy mistakes consistently. Even at the height of his on-stage douchiness, I never truly "hated" the guy. To his credit, he was obviously a Guns N' Roses fan and enjoyed being in the group, always seemed to be really nice to fans, and certainly worked harder than any other members of the band from 2001-2014 to actually promote GN'R and stay in communication with fans. Hell, if his role in the band had been more akin to Richard's (rhythm guitarist with scattered leads and solos) and Richard had been bumped up to lead guitarist with Bumblefoot, I probably would not have had any issues with him. His problem, ultimately, was that he was a "very good" guitarist with little identity playing in a band that required guitarists to be either (or preferably be both) "excellent" at the instrument or at least creative individuals. DJ was really neither. 

Also, in all fairness to DJ, we never really did get to see what he may have contributed to Guns N' Roses. From 2001 until he left the band, I thought Robin was a cool dude, but not particularly suited for Guns N' Roses. His playing on Chinese Democracy, however, were some of the most inspired spots on the album, and it made me appreciate why Axl probably hired Robin in the first place. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by themadcaplaughs

[Stress Fracture]

The making fans wait hours schtick wore very thin towards the end of that era. Even for the NITL tour it would have impacted sales after the first few months if Axl was still pulling that stunt.

[Nicklord]

29 minutes ago, themadcaplaughs said:

DJ really was a curious case. The guy actually seemed to get worse at guitar as he progressed in the band. During 2009/2010, he seemed tolerable. He seemed a bit like a caricature, but still dressed like a normal human being and did a "good" to "very good" job with all of his guitar work. He struggled with some of Robin's solos, but Robin struggled with some of Slash's solos. I still think, at the very least, DJ captured the "essence" of Slash's solos more consistently than Robin did (with the notable exception of DJ's "Patience" solo). Robin's takes on Slash's work either impressed the hell out of me, or made me want to turn away; no real middle ground. By the end of 2010, I saw DJ as being well on his way to being a suitable replacement for Robin. 

When he came back in 2011, however, it seemed like the worst aspects of him got turned up to 11. He dressed like a walking billboard and seemed more interested in showboating and running around than playing, which in turn, got him to make some fairly sloppy mistakes consistently. Even at the height of his on-stage douchiness, I never truly "hated" the guy. To his credit, he was obviously a Guns N' Roses fan and enjoyed being in the group, always seemed to be really nice to fans, and certainly worked harder than any other members of the band from 2001-2014 to actually promote GN'R and stay in communication with fans. Hell, if his role in the band had been more akin to Richard's (rhythm guitarist with scattered leads and solos) and Richard had been bumped up to lead guitarist with Bumblefoot, I probably would not have had any issues with him. His problem, ultimately, was that he was a "very good" guitarist with little identity playing in a band that required guitarists to be either (or preferably be both) "excellent" at the instrument or at least creative individuals. DJ was really neither. 

Also, in all fairness to DJ, we never really did get to see what he may have contributed to Guns N' Roses. From 2001 until he left the band, I thought Robin was a cool dude, but not particularly suited for Guns N' Roses. His playing on Chinese Democracy, however, were some of the most inspired spots on the album, and it made me appreciate why Axl probably hired Robin in the first place. 

I agree with you but I have to add something. I think he realized between 2010 and 2011 that GnR isn't what he thought it was and that's why he changed his style and his playing. He probably realized it's just a touring cash grab machine and tried to use it as a thing to promote himself which ultimately failed as, as you said, he's not amazing guitarist or very distinct in any regard which led to some really really bad playing and cringy moments

[reayj2003]

2002 London arena was packed & Leeds festival went ape for Axl’s return.

2006 tour of UK was packed 

2010 UK tour was packed

2012 was a large UK tour & sold well but the second night at the O2 wasn’t very busy,

I went to 3 “No Trickery” shows in Vegas which were busy and awesome. Axl’s Voice was superb on 2 of the shows. 

From a fan point of view I loved this period.  18 shows for me and they were all great.

 

Edited July 6, 2018 by reayj2003

[F*ck Fear]

7 hours ago, James Bond said:

I was at both Hamilton gigs and both times the upper bowl was curtained off. The first one seemed to have a packed lower bowl but it was noticeably emptier on the second go. Great shows though, and the 2010 one got TWAT.

I was also at Toronto 2006 and Q107 touted it as sold out so if it wasn’t sold out it was probably close to it. I remember it being packed. Too bad the three opening acts plus 11:40 start time for Guns couldn’t capitalize on it. Half my section was empty about an hour into Guns as people left to catch the last trains, buses, etc...

Axl also seemed moody that night. He definitely wasn’t looking less bloated and cracking jokes.

The Hamilton gigs were awesome! I just wasn't paying attention to how well they sold!