themadcaplaughs

I will hold back on and outpouring of how bizarre this bad is and how, as a collective of fans, our behavior gets stranger and more pathetic on an almost monthly basis (and I include myself in that). I'll limit to my thoughts on the song: I actually really consider this the best one so far! I really enjoyed the last two tracks, but as others have said, this one has much less of vibe (relatively speaking) of being pasted together from spare parts. As someone pointed out eons ago on this thread, the drums on this performance (I am guessing Brain) really elevate the song and might be the first time (if it is Brain) that I would put a Brain performance head and shoulders over Josh; typically Josh and Brain's takes on a song are about equal to me (maybe a slight advantage/leaning towards Josh). With this version of the song, I felt it really gave it an energy that was missing on the locker leaks version. The demon/Shackler's voice going on in the chorus is also badass and gives the song a fuller sound. In terms of Slash's guitar solo, I'd place this in the middle of the songs we've gotten since 2021. I felt like Slash's vibe on guitar didn't really gel fully with "Absurd" (which is understandable). I actually really enjoyed his work on "Hardskool" and felt like there were points where his guitar work sounded straight off the Use Your Illusion albums. For this song, his guitar work is a "B" in my book. It suits the song, but never really elevates it. I won't go so far to say he was lazy with it, but I feel like he really could have made this one something special. The switch from Robin's guitar to Slash's is pretty astoundingly bad and awkward: no way around it. Having said that, I can also listen with the perspective the 99.9% of the people who eventually listen to this song will have no idea about the fact that Robin would have played on it or that the bend comes from a different guitarist than the rest of the solo. That bend is pretty sweet though; I can't deny Robin killed it on this song so would have loved to have more of it incorporated (or just left in entirely).

From what others have said, the only track that might have gotten a renewal to be on the album was Riad N' the Bedouins. I remember when those 2008 leaks happened and how surprised everyone was that song had actually survived since last being played in 2002.

I would be willing to bet big money it's this. They release Chinese Democracy in 2008, which Axl had stated would make the wait worthwhile. While it gets overall positive reviews, the general sentiment is "why did we have to wait so long for this album." Thirteen years later, they finally surprise release new music: the first releases with Slash and Duff playing on Guns N' Roses songs since 1993 once it looks like promoters might stop booking them as much with absolutely zero new product since they started touring again in 2016. Yes, both songs were leftovers from the "nu" Guns era, but the general audience did not know that. Worse than bad reaction, there really is no reaction. The songs come and go with hardly a trace other than some articles from a handful of publications the day of. Chances are, Axl knows it will likely be the same overall reaction to a new song released this year. For most artists, that would not be a huge concern; most artists want to release their work and are willing to face reaction or non-reaction to it, but we know Axl seems to have a hard time with putting new stuff into the wild (dating back to the Use Your Illusion days).

So if it was Dizzy's birthday, it was also the birthday of that guy he met in India!

Got mine last Wednesday. Pretty cool little EP. Again, it's easy to complain about the lack of new material, but at least Slash and Duff re-joining has opened to door to some releases of old performances. The band was really on fire at that Wembley show.

I am a big proponent that, all our bitching aside, the stuff we have gotten from this band really is incredible.; it just happens so slowly we don't really recognize it until looking from 20,000 feet Hell, if you'd even told me in late 2015/early 2016 when we all but knew Slash and Duff were coming back that this lineup would play a Velvet Revolver song every night and that the band will have played over half of the songs on Chinese Democracy, I would have said it was fan fiction.

MSL definitely said this. Axl implies it on his interview with Eddie Trunk from 2011.

I was not sure, listening to the podcast, if you were aware or not of Tommy's feelings about Bucket before bringing him up to Tommy. By all accounts it was not a happy relationship. Completely forgot about that. In the corresponding video and post about it on the forum, the person said the band essentially threatened to mutiny before some show in 2010 if management/Axl did not force Tommy to get help for his drinking.

I saw Tommy at a meet and greet before a show he did in Athens, Georgia in 2022. He said he has not spoken with Axl since he left in 2014, but this was not a huge change from when he was in the band. He said outside of touring/studio time, he could probably only count one one hand the number of times he actually hung out with Axl outside of "work". Tommy said Axl was that way with everyone; he likes being private. I would imagine it was not different from Duff or Slash's relationship with Axl today. I was, however, also bummed to hear Axl was not happy with Tommy. Like you said. Tommy was inthe mix for GN'R for a lot of up and down times and only left when it became impossible to keep going. When I spoke with him, he said he still talks to Del James, Richard, and Frank often and DJ semi-regularly. Big balls to Brando for bringing up Buckethead to Tommy. He gave a similar answer when someone asked about Bucket at the meet and greet. I know they did not get on well. Also, even bigger balls for saying Tommy was in Collective Soul (he wasn't).

Of shows I have seen, probably Atlanta in November 2011. It even surprises me that it was a 2011 "nu-GNR" show during the Ashba era, but it was one of those nights people talk about where Axl was in the zone in every way. It was the first time they had played Atlanta since 1987 (when Axl got arrested for attacking a security guard). It was clear he was ready to make it a memorable gig. He talked for minutes between almost every song and even obliquely referenced the Rock in Rio show a few weeks earlier (said the last few weeks had been "rough" but it was shows like this that kept him on the road). On a more general level, the band was still playing lots of Chinese Democracy songs eeach night, so there was still a little more unpredictability to the setlist.

I would imagine this is the closest to reality. For what it's worth, at the time it was all going down, MSL said one of Slash's biggest "no compromise" positions when they all came to the negotiating table was that he would not be part of a three guitar lineup (and apparently one of Axl's was that Matt was not going to be involved as anything other than a guest). I'm sure all of the above are true, and DJ probably had a feeling it would come to a point where Axl had to make the decision to let DJ go to get Slash.