Janabis

Bizarre to see people so surprised and upset about a political statement from a rock band. Tons of music is inspired by politics, and even GNR has written songs with political messages. It's good when an artist makes a statement without caring about who gets pissed off by it. That's a good old fashioned rock and roll thing to do. I wish GNR were more outspoken with their opinions in interviews in general. I wouldn't want every show to be a political statement, but a little occasional drama like this is good.

Yesterdays would kick ass.

I'd be shocked if Axl is anywhere near as wealthy as Duff. I don't think they're in the same league. Wasn't Duff investing in Starbucks and Amazon in the 90's?

43 minutes ago, Bono said:

 Pearl Jam is not fucking opening for Guns N Roses. In what world in 2016 is Pearl Jam opening for GnR? Only on a GnR forum would such a ridiculous idea be thrown out. 

Volbeat would be cool. 

True, although Eddie Vedder sort of opened for them once in 2012. 

Estranged for me as well, can't wait to hear Slash play it again.

Toronto, Rogers Centre

20 minutes ago, Hollywood Gunner said:

any idea what the chances are of GA being sold out within minutes of them going on sale to the general public tho? im hesitating on forking out the extra 45$ for nightrain

Sounds like most people aren't getting GA through Nightrain, so chances might be better on Friday. I think they'll sell out instantly though.

Out of interest how easily obtainable were tickets for this show?

It's definitely the one that holds the most mistique for me anyway.

Yeah can someone explain this?

There wasn`t a lot of notice before the show. It was announced in early or mid December if I remember correctly, but there had been some rumors floating around for a while. Axl had done an interview by phone with Kurt Loder of MTV at one point and gave a vague answer when asked if he`d surprise fans with a show on New Year`s Eve. Tickets went for $150 on the floor and $250 on the balcony, which was a lot of money at the time. I don`t think it was too tough for hardcore fans to get tickets because they were the first to hear about it on the forums and probably the DustnBones mailing list (no idea if that`s a thing any more).

I went to this show. I was 19 years old and flew down from Canada. It was New Years Eve and the doors were scheduled to open at 1am. People were lining up along the walls inside the Mandalay Bay casino where the House of Blues is located for hours before that. Once we got inside everyone just stood around waiting until around 3:30am when the show started. There was a camera crew in front of the stage filming the crowd before the show. It was a small venue and the floor was really packed. I remember being really curious about hearing new songs and being surprised that they were playing all old stuff for the first half of the show. The Blues was the highlight out of the new songs for me but I thought they all sounded pretty good. I still like those performances and arrangements more than what ended up on CD. Show ended at around 5:30am and I remember walking out of the casino as the sun was sarting to rise. Probably my most memorable concert experience. I was running a GNR website at the time called the GNR MP3 Exchange, and later gnrlive.com, which were the first websites devoted to sharing live GNR mp3`s back in the 90`s. The guy who bootlegged the show got in touch and hooked me up with his recording of the Blues, which I put on the website and traffic went crazy. He released the full show a bit later on. RIR3 was a week later so hype for new Guns was at an all time high. That was the best time I can remember as a GNR fan.

"The Blues" as it was back when they (the old new GNR) were playing it live in the early 2000's would have been a real contender for a "hit"...

Very true. I was feeling nostalgic the other day and listened to a few tracks from the band's first gig from the House of Blues in 2001, which was the first time I saw Axl perform. There was so much excitement about that song back then, and you could tell Axl was expecting it to be a hit when he introduced it and said "I think you'll like this one". It had a much better tempo, less drawn out intro, and Axl's vocals were still pretty strong back then. That's the definitive version of the song for me. If they had put that version out in 2001 with some of the early cuts like Catcher with Brian May, and the IRS demo (which still sounded pretty fresh 14 years ago without all the extra production), they could have a had a somewhat respectable follow up to UYI, instead of the unlistenable clusterfuck it turned into. By far the most mismanaged and wasted opportunity of Axl's career.

I like a few tracks, but overall it's a bad album because it doesn't sound like a band. It sounds phony, melodramatic, and manufactured, as though it were obsessively crafted by someone sitting at a computer terminal rather than by a group of musicians. It tries to do too much all at once, making a lot of songs a complete mess, and the lyrics are painfully sophomoric. It's really not worthy of the GNR name.

I live 5 km from the venue, but would not pay more than $50 to see this show. I paid $200 for the Stones last month and it was worth every penny.

Fuckin' Frank. It's been his fault all along.

Fuck this, I still want the House of Blues 2001 DVD

Latest was probably the House of Blues, in the morning if January 1, 2001. They started at around 3:30 am.

A lot of the Asian shows started pretty early because trains don't run late. Tokyo was a really long show and they were wrapping it up at around 10 or 11pm I think.

Can someone Please let Me know what you're talking about?

The audio bootleg from the House of Blues 1.1.01 is a classic. I'm surprised no audio bootlegs from the shows at The Joint ever turned up. My friends took some clips on their cell phones but the technology kind of sucked back then and the quality is pretty worthless.

In '91 he played lots of new stuff whereas in '11 it was mostly stuff that he's been practicing for 20 years.

Slash moved on from GNR 15 years ago. The only person still desperately clinging on to the GNR name to promote his solo work is Axl.

Selling albums is pretty much ancient history at this point. CD's are almost as obsolete as VHS and cassette tapes were ten years ago. Television has been replaced by youtube, and CD's have been replaced by hard drives. It makes a lot more sense to just release a few tracks online every year to promote tours, and let people listen to them on youtube freely (because they will whether you like it or not). Singles can be sold and distributed through the band's own website or itunes. Tinkering with an album of 12 songs and putting it out on CD and expecting to profit like bands did in the 90's is something only the dinosaurs of the music industry do today. Bands like Radiohead already figured this out years ago.

Maybe Axl just wanted an excuse to avoid facing that Dublin crowd again.

the majority of people who post on this board do not go to GNR concerts.

That's certainly false, although I'm sure many more would attend if there were any surprises to be had.

People pay money to see Guns N' Roses, Guns N' Roses travel to their location and play for them. They don't play for people sitting on internet message boards. Someone complaining that a band on the other side of the world who are playing to an audience of thousands, didn't play a song that the guy on an internet forum wanted is pathetic and ridiculous. The people who paid to see Guns N' Roses perform a large bunch of songs and solos live in person had a great time and that's what matters.

Stop acting like there's a separate universe of people who use the internet, and another universe of people who go to concerts. It's the exact same fanbase. Playing the same set two nights in a row is pathetic, and in his better years Axl would have agreed.

To quote Axl, "Don't know and don't care."

Release music and tour under his own name, and mix up the setlists from one night to the next. Easy win.