Powerage5

In all seriousness, I don't see Duff fitting into AC/DC at all. I can't see him staying completely stationary for the whole show, save for stepping up to do backing vocals (Which speaking of, I can't see his backing vocals meshing well with Stevie's). As simplistic as bass is in AC/DC, it's an extremely stoic, bordering on invisible gig. It works for an "every man" like Cliff, but Duff just...stands out too much.

Hard to rank 19 shows, some of these are fairly interchangeable. Just a couple quick notes to justify all of these also. 1. 2012-02-15 New York, NY (The Ritz, great setlist, performance, and crowd at a special venue. Couldn't ask for more.) 2. 2014-06-06 Las Vegas, NV (Night 8, one of the longest GN'R shows ever and a very good performance from Axl by any post-2010 standards.) 3. 2010-01-24 Hamilton, ON (First show, excellent setlist with TWAT, ITW, and Scraped all in the same show.) 4. 2014-06-07 Las Vegas, NV (Final NuGN'R show, first time I met Axl after the show so this one holds a special place.) 5. 2016-06-23 Detroit, MI (Opening night of NITL, great performance from all, a few gems in the set. Best reunion show I've seen by far.) 6. 2023-09-03 Toronto, ON (Fun show in good company, loved the 2023 setlist and a couple rare picks that night.) 7. 2013-06-08 New York, NY (Governor's Ball - lean, mean show clocking in at an hour and 40 mins. The only show I've seen that didn't feel bloated at all.) 8. 2017-08-16 Buffalo, NY (In the pit with good company, a thoroughly enjoyable NITL-era show.) 9. 2021-09-16 Chicago, IL (In the pit at a legendary venue, felt very fun after the mess that was Hershey. Glad I gave them another go.) 10. 2014-06-04 Las Vegas, NV (Night 7, return of Yesterdays, Prostitute, and Marseille to the setlist. Very good show overshadowed by the next one.) 11. 2013-06-06 Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn Bowl - the show was a mess musically/vocally, but a lot of fun to attend such a tiny show.) 12. 2016-07-12 Pittsburgh, PA (Not bad, but unremarkable. Felt very tame a few weeks after Detroit.) 13. 2017-08-19 Montreal, QC (Felt like the band was treading water. Took a four year break from seeing them after this one.) 2012-02-12 New York, NY (Terminal 5 - a fairly good show that was soured by very poor venue staff. Probably better than I rank it in reality.) 2011-11-28 Hamilton, ON (Disappointed how similar it was to Wilkes-Barre the week before, but a better show.) 2013-06-05 Buffalo, NY (Outdoor show that was windy and cold AF. Axl sounded rough, and setlist was stale other than CITR.) 2011-11-20 Wilkes-Barre, PA (Pretty sloppy, and a fairly short show due to a lengthy production delay.) 2014-05-14 Bethlehem, PA (I hardly remember a thing about this show. Stale in every sense of the word.) 2021-07-31 Hershey, PA (The only redeeming factor was seeing, a very poor rendition of, Dead Horse live. Laughably bad show.) Seeing how I ranked them out, I think I may avoid seeing GN'R in Pennsylvania anymore

No, I agree it’ll likely never be officially released. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to hear it for the reasons I stated above. Can just hope for more leaks someday.

I don’t see the issue with wanting to hear Bucket/Finck versions of songs - it’s not like anybody is obsessively saying “I wish they would rejoin GN’R”. They were involved in the creative process for these songs a lot more than Slash was, and we know Monsters and Hard Skool sound quite different than they did at one point. I am insanely curious to hear earlier versions of all of these songs, because it’s about the creative process for me. That’s one of the most fascinating things about the CD era to me - with the number of leaks we have, there aren’t many albums out there where the creative process and evolution of some songs can be heard the way it can with CD. Some songs changed fairly significantly over time, others not at all.

Dunno how much I trust that. Bratislava makes absolutely no sense on such a short tour. Not to mention they've never played Slovakia before, and AC/DC isn't particularly adventurous about playing new countries.

Dreamy Skies is one of the only tracks on the album that hasn't grabbed me at all

Positive. There's actually no circulating recording of the Atlantic City show. And at the end of the full video there, Axl even says "Chicago" As for the second post there...there was a full version of You're Crazy on YouTube, before all the takedowns began.

My favorite NuGNR rendition of You're Crazy was Brooklyn Bowl. The show as a whole was a mess, but opening with a fuckign killer rendition of YC was just too cool. Unfortunately only a couple short clips survive on YouTube nowadays, but Axl sounded great: The proshot was from Chicago, not Atlantic City.

Interested to hear you report back. The other eras of Sabbath sound quite different to the Ozzy era (And quite different to one another), but if you can get past the change in styles (Along with the occasional dodgy production) there is some amazing music in those later albums - especially all of the Dio eras and the first Tony Martin era.

The Axl/DC shows I caught were some of the best gigs I have ever attended. The vocals were out of this world - best Axl vocals I've ever heard in person. Axl genuinely sang some of the early Brian songs better than Brian ever sang them live, even in his heyday. The setlists made for the most exciting AC/DC shows I've ever seen. I don't care what the general public thinks of the move (Which, for the recored went down a lot better than the initial reception when it was announced), but as a massive fan of both bands, I'm so unbelievably happy it actually happened.

I cannot get Depending On You out of my head. What a goddamn fantastic song, best Stones ballad since I don't even know when.

A few good picks in there. Have you given any of the post-Ozzy material a chance yet?

For the most part I agree, but I think there’s a few exceptions. Prostitute is the obvious one to me - gotta be the 6/4/14 performance as opposed to Japan 2009. It’s not always about vocals, it’s about the whole package. Axl sounded great in 2009, but the band fucked it both nights. Musically it was fantastic in 2014, and the voice was very good by post-2010 standards. Good shout on TIL in Taipei, I love that version. Sounded so much heavier down a couple steps.

Too late to enter unfortunately, the cutoff is 12 AM on January 1.

Fuuucking hell man, I'm envious of that one! If I wasn't already coming to London a few weeks later I'd have been considering it for the C&H gigs. Not sure if you've ever seen British Lion before, but they're absolutely fantastic live.

Bringing back a classic, I love it. 1. Bruce Willis 2. Willie Nelson 3. Shannen Doherty 4. Michael J Fox 5. Morgan Freeman 6. Celine Dion 7. Ismail Haniyeh 8. Mitch McConnell 9. Boy George 10. Barry Gibb Do I have the all-time high score? I won 2013 with something crazy like 160 points.

Just to play devil's advocate here a little bit...while the pixelated cover is a widespread problem, it's not a universal problem. As far as I can tell everyone who has reported a pixelated cover has an EU pressing (With the "made in the Czech Republic" sticker on the shrink). However, not all EU copies have a pixelated cover - mine does not for example, and I've seen others say that. So the issue is not as was originally thought where someone submitted the wrong file type or something, it's obviously a printing error. Surely the test pressings that went to the band didn't have the pixel issue present. So they likely weren't aware of this issue before the records started shipping out. You've got people pulling these records to ship in some warehouse that have no idea what the finished product should look like, so nobody is reporting it before it's too late. Next thing you know, they're out in the wild and it's the first anybody actually notices it looks like shit. We like to pin every single thing on TB around here, but sometimes it's really not their fuckup, nor within their ability to fix before it's too late. Yep, kick drum still sounds like pure ass. The vinyl doesn't sound enough better for me to make a habit of spinning that over streaming on my Apple TV.

Appetite For Destruction [1988 US pressing, cross cover] Appetite For Destruction [Original cover, 2001 EU repress] GN'R Lies [Original European pressing - uncensored] GN'R Lies [US second edition - censored] Use Your Illusion I [Original US pressing] Use Your Illusion II [Original US pressing] "The Spaghetti Incident?" [US orange pressing] Live Era [US pressing] Chinese Democracy [US pressing] Welcome To The Jungle [US 7"] Sweet Child O' Mine [US 7"] GN'R [Japanese 12" promo EP] Paradise City [US 7"] Nightrain [UK 7"] Appetite For Collection [German box set] Patience [UK 7"] You Could Be Mine [UK 12" pic disc] Don't Cry [European 7"] Don't Cry [UK 7"] Don't Cry [German 12"] Don't Cry [German 12" pic disc] Yesterdays [US 7"] Shadow Of Your Love RSD 7" Perhaps 7" Some Kinda Orange [1988 bootleg] Halloween On The Horizon [1988 bootleg] November Rain [1988 bootleg]

Got mine on Friday, artwork also looks good here. Not had a chance to spin it yet.

I think so. I just don’t need to be dropping that much on an LP box, especially since I want the Blu Ray more than anything.

I’m feeling the same way about the CD box - I said I wouldn’t buy it over $150, but it’s been at $160 for almost a year. At this point is $10 really worth the waiting game?

I actually haven’t bought the album yet, just been listening on Apple Music. So I’ll definitely pick up the deluxe edition.

Highlights from Wacken 2023 streamed today. Stranger In A Strange Land, The Writing On The Wall, Days Of Future Past, Can I Play With Madness, and Wasted Years were shown. https://www.magentamusik.de/iron-maiden-woa-konzert-vod

That sounds like a fantastic idea if you can make it work. Seeing Maiden in Latin America is something really special. I’ll be heading down there myself for the Bogota show (And hopefully one more city TBA before that )