Powerage5

Fuck it, I think I’m in for this one. But I’ll be waiting until the day before/day of to get tickets.

I've really liked Perhaps since my first listen back in 2019 - it was probably my favorite of the unreleased, "complete" songs on the Village discs. I have mixed feelings on the final, released version. On one hand, I don't think it improves anything from the demo. I prefer Robin's solo to Slash's, and the weird crossfade at the start of the solo just doesn't work for me. I don't like the "radio compression" over the one random vocal line in the second verse. On the other hand, this is the most polished-sounding of the NITL era singles. The production sounds a lot better than Absurd or HS. The drums fit, and aren't a step back like on HS. Axl's vocals sound good - at least some of the verses sound like a different take to me (However subtle the differences are), and the added deep vocals on the chorus are nice. All in all, I'm really happy this song has finally been released officially, but I think the demo just slightly edges out the final version IMO.

Like @kingcanyon said, really no need for this thread with the existing Perhaps thread.

Just pointing out that it would be completely on brand for this band to release a new song on the 18th and debut it live that night, at a venue that looks to be about 80-85% empty as of right now

Fuckin’ deeecent.

Yep, plus I've seen a few random covers you haven't like Marseille and Holidays In The Sun. I'm really gutted I never got to see IRS - it was played a few times in 2010 but not anywhere near as much as 2006. I think you're right that Maiden crowds do look to see new/rare stuff more than a GN'R crowd, generally speaking. I pulled my numbers on the three bands I mentioned: Guns N' Roses Iron Maiden The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Good stuff. I have my numbers on a spreadsheet, I’ll have to check when I get home. You’ve probably seen a few more GN’R songs than I have (Though I’ve seen a few songs you haven’t ), but I know I’ve seen far more Maiden songs than you have, especially with how many unique songs got played on the AMOLAD and TFF tours. One of the other bands I keep those stats on are my true favorite band nowadays, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - they never played the same setlist twice, you were guaranteed at least 4-5 rotations per night but usually more than that. I saw something ridiculous like 150 unique songs from them. There were a couple times when they did their annual Christmas run in Boston where I saw 65-70 unique songs across three nights.

Even in the first six shows I saw markable improvement, even if by the end of those shows he still wasn’t quite up to his normal par. I haven’t listened to anything since so I’m not sure where he’s at now.

Genuinely asking - when were they opening with YC on the regular? The only time I can remember it is Brooklyn Bowl 2013. I half agree about Prostitute being a mess in the NuGNR era. It was awful the two times they played it in Japan in 2009. But the next two in Vegas in 2014 were fantastic I thought. For Motley that might be true. But let’s not paint every single artist who does a static setlist as not actually performing live. Plenty of artists play an identical setlist every night, usually for production reasons like Nikki states there. There’s artists who do have choreographed stage shows where it isn’t as simple as “let’s just do this instead of that tonight”. Artists with constantly changing stage props or evolving stage shows just can’t do that practically - artists like Alice Cooper or Iron Maiden just for example. Not that I think Nikki’s reasoning excuses Motley in particular, but the logic is sound.

Plus four unreleased live CDs and an unreleased Blu Ray. Is it overpriced? Yes. But you’re underselling what’s in the box also.

I'll hop on board and agree with this one. I actually really liked Ashba in 2009 and 2010 - he felt like he fit the band, and was putting effort into his playing. He just got worse and worse over time.

KK left in 2011 I think, so yeah it’s been a while there. I haven’t read it yet, I’m so backlogged on stuff I want to read. Any good?

They do okay in the US, but they never fully recovered their commercial appeal when Halford came back, certainly nothing on the level Maiden did when Bruce came back. That said the claims being made on here are greatly exaggerated - they do okay in arenas if they have a strong support act. The biggest in recent years was probably when they had Megadeth opening in 2014 and they did major arenas. That said they do sometimes do smaller venues, but the circumstances should be taken into consideration - 2019 they did a theater (And a couple even smaller venues) run for the second leg of the Firepower tour, but it was made clear when the tour was announced that it was going to focus on deep cuts and I played tracks, it was very much geared towards hardcore fans. Even with that, they did two nights in a lot of cities (I caught two nights in Albany for example, I’ve never heard of a band doing two nights in Albany )

I love Tony Martin Sabbath - it's my favorite era of Sabbath behind Dio - but it would not go over well at all for an event of this magnitude. An overwhelming majority of Sabbath fans either actively dislike Tony Martin era, or are indifferent at best. And he will. Halford is without a doubt the best vocalist of the older bands on this bill nowadays (I can't speak for Tool as I really don't listen to them at all)

I'm waiting until it dips below $150.

I don’t understand this narrative that Priest is essentially a no-name band. They have plenty of name recognition still, it’s literally only in the US that they don’t have the commercial pull that they do in the rest of the world. We’re still talking about a band that fills arenas in Europe regularly and headlines festivals, even in the US. I’ve seen them headline Rock On The Range maybe 6-7 years ago (Mind you GN’R has also headlined that), they were a main stage headliner at Hell & Heaven Fest in Mexico last year, and they’re a two-time Wacken headliner - that’s no small resume. Besides all that they still sound phenomenal live (Despite only being 3/5 original or longtime members), and they’re pretty much a like for like swap for Ozzy in terms of crossover appeal (Notwithstanding the retirement angle with Ozzy). I think they’re a fantastic choice, and I say this as somebody who is a completely casual Priest fan.

IRS is an interesting one - I really like both versions of the song. There's a lot of layers on the album for a fairly simple song which I like from a sonic perspective, and the drums on the album really elevate it. But on the other hand, it also works really well as a stripped down late 90's post-grunge song a la The Village sessions. I like them both for totally different reasons.

I realize I'm responding to a post that's a few months old here. But the thing is not all of these bands charge the ridiculous ticket prices that GN'R does. Maiden is usually $125-150 for stranding, the only time I've paid more than that (In the US) is $175 at MSG. AC/DC only ever did standing tickets in the US in 2015 and it was only at some venues, but I believe they were about $115 before fees. Metallica is more on the expensive side but still not as much as GN'R - I think standing tickets for Buffalo last year for example were around $225. I have no knowledge of Ozzy's or Tool's ticket prices, but I can't imagine they're any more than GN'R. But besides talking strict numbers, festivals are almost always priced to provide value, not a like for like cost. Riot Fest - a major festival which attracts huge headliners and a full bill (Not just a trio of co-headline shows) has their 3 day tickets at $289 this year. Even their fanciest package which includes air conditioned viewing areas and inclusive food options is only $1499 - still $200 than the cost of just standing in the pit in Indio. The last time I saw any two of these bands share a stage was Sonisphere Festival in 2014 which had Maiden and Metallica as Saturday/Sunday headliners - the tickets for the full three day weekend were basically the cost of a standing ticket for the two of them combined, and that's without factoring any other artists in. There is simply no value in this event - it's just geared towards people who can afford it and want to say they saw a bunch of bands past their prime all in the same weekend. That's just not how the music industry works. Artists cancel - it sucks, but it happens. The contract you enter with a promoter when you buy a ticket to an event isn't for the artist you're seeing, but for the event itself. It's the same way promoters get away with not giving refunds if for example an outdoor show starts but has to be cut short due to inclement weather or some such reason. Festivals get even hairier because you're likely only talking about a single artist canceling while nobody else does. For what it's worth, I like this bill (Musically) a lot more with Priest replacing Ozzy. It's true Priest doesn't have the commercial appeal in the US anymore (Despite still being pretty big in Europe), but they're still a really good live band at their age, and stylistically they fit in really well as they sort of bridge the gap between the straight ahead hard rock and the metal bands on the bill.

I never really got the early version of The Blues until I heard the studio version of it, but what a game changer that was for me. Absolute perfection. Catcher is great in it's simplicity on The Village sessions as well, but it was interesting to hear it had the guitar part over the into that long ago, especially considering most thought it was Bumble's fretless and the fact that it was missing in the 2006 leak. Add Riad and CD to the songs that had their best showing in The Village sessions. The rhythm section goes hard and hits like a ton of bricks on both of those.

That's not necessarily true. Being prepared from a production standpoint and planning to play it are two very different things. In Vegas in 2014 the screen behind the stage had the feed from the computer at the soundboard with the production videos on it for a few moments before GN'R came on - it had production videos listed for several songs that hadn't been played live - it was quick and you couldn't read everything but I do remember seeing Perfect Crime and Oh My God on the list, neither of which has been played in the modern era of course even now nine years later.

I suspect if it's an older band replacing Ozzy it'll be Judas Priest, but it's not a certainty that it will be an older band that replaces him.

Let’s try to stay a bit more on topic. Not really the right thread to discuss our personal stances on using pronouns.

Sooo...care to say what you didn't like about it instead of just chiming in with "it sucks ass"?

Fuck it, I thought it was fantastic. I love Indiana Jones, it's my childhood. One of, if not my earliest actual memory is watching Temple Of Doom, and I remember being hooked immediately. With this one I really made a conscious choice to avoid everything that I could - I watched the first teaser a single time when it dropped, and that's it. I wanted to go in with as open a mind a possible. That said, it's very hard to zone out the negative press it's been getting and it all manages to boil down to social media "lol this movie is a mess and it's gonna tank" shitposts. I didn't actually read any reviews before seeing it, but I knew the general perception of it was not positive going into it. With that in mind, I didn't have particularly high expectations. I really, really enjoyed it. I had a few nitpicky things that I can critique, but I'm talking small elements. Big picture, I think they hit most of the marks. The story had some emotional gravitas about it - something that I think was really appropriate given that it was written as Indy's swan song. The dialogue is much better than KOTCS, and there were some really touching moments in the film. The third act did not totally shit the bed like KOTCS, despite similarly going a bit off the deep end. Ford turned in a hell of a performance in this one, one of his best performances in a long time. The MacGuffin worked a lot better than I expected given the little bit I knew about where they were heading with this movie. The de-aging was not perfect I'll admit, but it was a lot more serviceable than we got of a certain character in the Star Wars Disney+ series' for example. It was not overused the way so many people expected. But most importantly - it felt like an Indy film. All that said, I do understand most of the criticisms others have about the movie. The third act, while it didn't shit the bed, was a bit hard to follow and certain events feel...a little open to interpretation, or at least poorly explain (More in the spoilers below). The character development between Indy and Helena could've been fleshed out a bit more. Mikkelsen was good, but definitely underutilized. It's hard not to draw comparisons between Teddy and Short Round as a child sidekick and let's be honest - Short Round wins all day long. After a single viewing, I'd rank this one firmly in the middle for me. Temple Of Doom is my personal favorite, Raiders in not far behind. Decent gap between Raiders and Dial, and I'd put Last Crusade just behind. Big drop off between Last Crusade and Crystal Skull. Now the juicy stuff...

True, but they were also one of the very first bands to resume touring after lockdowns - COVID didn't mean the 2.5 year break it did for some artists. I honestly can't remember if it was rehearsed again in 2021 or 2022, but IIRC it was on the alternates list still.