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themadcaplaughs

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Posts posted by themadcaplaughs

  1. 1 hour ago, sofine11 said:

    OMG with Slash is so weird thats probably gonna be it lol

    To be fair, I would rank Slash playing on "Absurd" as even weirder. The one song completely divorced from the old GN'R sound, and which even the devout fans of the Chinese Democracy era had written off as being something we'd never hear. The weirder part; his guitar additions actually work really well! 

    • Like 1
  2. 2 hours ago, metallex78 said:

    It’s funny, one of the things that Slash despised about the song, was the call and answer type lead guitar parts that Paul played along with Slash’s parts, but they’re some of my favourite things in the song. 

    I was never much of a fan of the Stones version, and wasn’t even really familiar with it in 1994 when GN’R released their cover, so I’ve always preferred the Guns version. I’ve grown to appreciate the Stones original over the years though.

    And as much as Slash has described it as the sound of a band breaking up, it still sounds as good to my ears as any cover from the (mostly) original lineup. Axl sounds great, and Slash’s guitar solos are fantastic too. 
    Duff and Matt play great rhythm throughout as well. 

    I'm there with you. Despite all drama it caused, I actually really like the Paul Tobias "response guitar part" to Slash's solo. It's not something I'd want over every Slash guitar solo, but considering Slash more or less plays it close to the original, I always felt it was a nice little flourish. I cannot say I like it more than The Rolling Stones original, but I do consider it a "top-tier" cover, and would rank it over a good bit of The Spaghetti Incident. 

  3. Bummer about the show getting cancelled, and I hope some sort of refund gets issued. Obviously, safety always comes first though. As for GN'R not mentioning it, in contracts for these types of festivals, the band cannot comment on things like this so that the festival's social media remains the "official" word to avoid any conflicting information that may arise. Not saying it isn't just Team Brazil being lazy (always a possibility), just that there actually exists a reasonable explanation in this instance. 

    • Like 3
  4. 46 minutes ago, BangoSkank said:

    I skipped voting because I don't remember 2016 being that great. I actually remember it being comparable to now (with the exception of Axl/DC which was great).

    Is there a performance from 2016 I should look up for context? Surprised people remember it this way.

    I have to say though I feel for the guy - yes, it's Father Time, but he's said that he knows that fans don't much like his clean voice, but it hurts him to sing with rasp, so he's kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

    Again, I do not think anyone seemed to think it was on level with 2006 or 2009/2010, but he seemed to be using the raspy voice more consistently and it was a considerable step-up from how he sounded from 2011-2014. Even into 2017 he still seemed to have some energy and rasp left, but it started "slipping" again in the later part of 2017. 

  5. 15 hours ago, Tom2112 said:

    Sorry but you're obviously an angry teenager that can't understand that a rockstar has issues too. 

    Where in that video did he walk off stage or fall on his knees crying and couldn't continue the show? Exactly nowhere. Over the past 20yrs Hetfield has changed his stage talk dramatically bye bye are the days of calling everybody cunts (he probably would make an exception for you) and in are the days where he's a father and going through shit and sees no reason why he can't use his huge platform to help others. It was 30seconds in a 2hr show and they kicked straight into sad but true afterwards most people didn't even realize it was happening.

    Also, I'm not saying he sounds like a 28yr old, I am saying he sounds fucking great for a 58yr old though. Of course vocals from 30yrs ago are better but listen to him sing Ride the lighting live from the last few tours it sounds better now than it did for a long, long time. Yeah some parts are cleaner other parts are heavier... There's a thing called creative freedom and there's also a thing of your voice maturing over time. He also said in the early 90s that he always wanted to sing but he was both too shy and didn't know how. I'm positive if he knew more from the beginning the recorded vocals on the earlier albums would be different.

    I didn't need to educate you, but I hold out hope that you might one day remove your head from your ass.

    This x 100. After all the online comments I saw with people bitching that Hetfield was "breaking down" and "crying on stage," it was a shock to me how much of a non-issue the whole incident was. To start, he didn't cry (that I could see). In some between song banner, he off handedly mentioned that he felt a little anxious about getting on stage, but his band mates helped him overcome that anxiety and the energy of the crowd got him back on his feet. His band mates hugged him because he's - you know - their friends, and for whatever beef you have about how the play the music now, they seem to get along on a personal level much better than they did prior to say 2004. The ironic thing about a GN'R fan (like the one you responded to) complaining about this type of thing is that Axl made much more personal rants about his personal and mental issues at the absolute height of the band's career. Does this same person think Axl was a "wuss" for talking about his abuse on stage during the Use Your Illusion tour? 

    • Like 1
  6. 17 hours ago, darkside259 said:

    i think axl is doing just fine, the other artists r falling apart, james from metallica fall apart the other day crying he s "to old for this shit" bon jovi is doing playback, brian jhonson is deaf, axl is in a good lvl of rock legend for his age and his voice comes and goes but slash has no excuse he s doing pretty plain for somone of his calibre 

    This. At this point, with all of these stories in the news, I think it shows that Axl - for all of our complaining - sounds relatively good given the demands of the songs and his age. I am not saying Axl couldn't try harder, but ultimately it is what it is. I think it's telling that after every show I have attended in recent years with friends, people leave talking about how great Axl sounds; point being we're the most critical of him. I do agree that he seemed to show some improvement in 2021 over the past few years before that, so I'm hoping that carries over. 

     

    20 hours ago, alfierose said:

    Are we moving the goalposts?  I'm sure this question used to be posed as 2006 then 2009. :lol:

     

    I imagine with something as fleeting as vocal ability, it will always be a moving goal post by default. I do not think anyone in here would not want him to come back out this year sounding like he did in 2006/2009/2010, but I think we can all accept he won't be there again just by virtue of age. It seems most people acknowledge that 2016 was a good compromise of him sounding vital, but not absolutely wrecking his voice like he probably did in 2006/2010. 

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  7. Knowing that this band really does not change up set lists a lot, and that Axl's voice is what it is at this point (I think news reports of another big name singer's vocal issues put into relief just how lucky we are that Axl sounds as good as he does at this stage), I would really only make one absolutely "essential" drop: "Better". That pains me to say, as that's one of my favorite all time Guns N' Roses songs of all time, from any lineup, but it just seems to throw him for a loop these days. There are actually songs in the set lists that are harder to sing that he consistently sings better (no pun intended) than "Better," but that song seems to throw him for a loop. When I saw them last year, I tried to keep an open mind regarding Axl's vocals, and was actually fairly astonished at how good he sounded (admittedly, this was towards the end of a tour run), but there was no disguising that he really struggled with "Better", enough that my "casual" friends who attended the show with me noticed it (and they otherwise thought he sounded amazing). 

    In terms of "adds", again I'll be realistic. I imagine the best we'd get would be finally seeing "Pretty Tied Up" revived, or seeing "Dead Horse" and "Locomotive" played more consistently. Other than that, the songs remaining are either: (i) ones that Axl probably could not perform with consistency (not being mean, just honest) and (ii) songs that were never really played in a live setting in any era of the band. If I went for "dream" adds, I'd have to go with "Reckless Life" (for an old GN'R chestnut) or "Street of Dreams" (one of the Chinese Democracy songs that I actually think this lineup could really work with in a cool way). 

  8. Can't believe it has been so long since the Hammerstein shows. I still remember slowly seeing shitty cell phone pics and videos the day after each show. People thought Axl had gotten two new guitarists because Robin looked so different. I remember the first video being a thirty second clip of Axl singing "Rocket Queen" and everyone being stunned at how much more powerful his voice sounded. 

    • Like 4
  9. On 5/8/2022 at 6:40 AM, D.. said:

    He cares, 100%. He's very sensitive. Look at his weight loss within a year, it's spectacular at his age. If he didn't care about his image/what people think/say of him, he wouldn't be in this shape.

    He also changed his hairstyle several times because he saw people complaining (biggest example is between 2006 & 2009), and shaved the mustache. He also dresses differently and tries to stick to what he wore in the 90's, tries to wear less clothes.

    It's not just physical, he has also gotten rid of the rants, of anything negative he had to say about whatever/whoever (except politics but then again, he's sticking to what the whole us showbiz is saying), he's become much more mellow. That way he doesn't get negative press like he used to.

    He's not the same person he was in the 90's, or the 2000's, or the early 2010's. He's changed tremendously. Because he cares of what people think/say of him. You don't change that much if you don't care.

    He used to influence a lot of people in the 80's/90's, but clearly it's the other way around now, he's influenced by the general consensus, and has been for a long time. I don't blame him, it's hard to keep your true nature, especially in this day & age.

    That being said, even though I prefer the old Axl, I respect his sensitive side. He's clearly a very nice, generous & open-minded person.

    A lot - if not all - of this seems much more likely to have occurred from: (i) mellowing out as he gets older and (ii) his general outlook on life improving now that he has the years of negativity about Slash and Duff behind him. 

    • Like 1
  10. Will always care; they are one of my favorite bands of all time. That being said, sometime around 2013/2014, I just accepted they became a legacy band and decided to roll with it. I'll check out the set lists every tour, watch videos, and listen to any new music/leaks, but know that we've reached the point where we just have to be happy with whatever we get. Would I have loved a more prolific run from the band? Of course I would have, but it didn't happen. Also, in a weird way, 2021 reinvigorated me in a lot of ways. The 2021 show I saw was a ton of fun, had an excellent set list, and the band absolutely went for it 110%, even if Axl was not always in tip-top shape vocally. It reminded how so much of what we wanted from the band/Axl was not even amazing vocals (even though that'd be nice), but just the feeling that Axl was giving it his all.

    Furthermore, I know the reaction to "Hard Skool" and "Absurd" was mixed, but I happened to love both songs. Even if I had not like either of them, I had a ton of fun with the process of both songs getting released: the mindfuck and general explosion of insanity when we realized a lineup of GN'R with Slash and Duff were playing "Silkworms," the "surprise drop" of "Absurd" on streaming, the Absurd reaction being added to the forum, the detective work of finding out that "Hard Skool" would be the next song, waiting for the band to actually play "Hard Skool", and - of course - actually buying a product with new GN'R music (and being pleasantly surprised by the live performances on the EP). 

    • Like 1
  11. So strange that this is coming out almost two years later.

    On one hand, maybe the pandemic was the best thing to happen to Matt as it relates to his personal relationships with the GN'R guys. Clearly, he included the salacious bits to get the attention of Axl/Slash/Duff. It appears to have worked. As it stands, only a small subset of the internet got to read these details, and now they are not as widely published as they would have been had the book been widely released in 2020. I know a lot of people are calling it "pathetic" that he may have bowed to demands of the other guys, but I honestly thought including some of those passages (i.e., Stephanie hitting on Matt and Duff shit-talking Frank) reflected poorly on Matt, and seemed to be there just to "rub salt in the wound" and stroke his own ego. Matt could have still gotten across the points he was trying to make (Stephanie was crazy and Slash and Duff were not forthright with Matt when it came to returning to Guns N' Roses) just as effectively without those bits added. 

    • Like 3
  12. On 4/19/2022 at 6:13 PM, RussTCB said:

    Germany 2006. 

    /thread

    This. Maybe RiR 2001 has the edge for pure energy from the crowd, but in terns of overall quality (band and crowd), this moment cannot be beat. Someone pointed out once, and I notice it every time I watch this performance now, that after he ends the scream, you can see Tommy Stinson look at Axl like "oh damn." 

    • Like 1
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  13. On 4/19/2022 at 9:15 AM, Voodoochild said:

    I believe that a lot of the information was taken from an informal chat with Axl by the hotel's pool with several fans also there. 

    The scans from the Argentinian article is a bit hard to read, but the author wrote that it would be a double album, "one of the discs would be called Chinese Democracy, the other one P.R.L. (?)" - with the question mark probably because it was either difficult to hear him (the Copacabana Palace's pool is literally in front of a windy beach) or because he didn't know if PRL would mean something already known. Clearly he heard it right, but maybe the O Globo's reporter didn't want to take the chance and just omitted PRL altogether - that's what I would do if I wasn't sure.

    Back then, I remember I read a lot of fans reporting the chat. Some of them didn't want to talk in details tho, kinda of keeping the info to themselves as a gatekeeping or maybe to feel special, I don't know. Kinda like what the ex-mod here did before Axl called her out himself. 

    Having the (still little) information we have now, I believe the double album concept could still be on the table by 2002, when Axl mentioned it would have an album, plus 10 extra tracks, and then a second album. IMO, those extra tracks would be PRL - or the Village's 2nd list of tracks. Back then, the real follow up would have those newer tracks such as Better, Shacklers, Sorry etc.  

    First off, glad to see Pele gone. Dude was clearly trying to get his fix of attention. I lost interest in debating him when I spoke directly with Tommy - the longest serving member of the "NuGNR" phase - and he directly contradicted one of Pele's main hypotheses (that Axl only recorded vocals in two years), and was told by Pele that Tommy (who is no longer in the band and has no reason to lie) was lying. Good riddance! 

    On a different note, in regards to the quoted language above, what the hell ever happened to Madison? I was not checking the forums regularly at that point (which is a shame as it was one of the last few truly exciting periods of the band's run) and did not find out about it until slightly after the fact. I get that she was a - let's go with controversial - figure here, and I totally think it was right for Axl to acknowledge her abuses of power. Still....the viciousness with which he attacked her (someone who was ultimately still a devoted fan) was quite shocking in its rage, fixation, and toxicity. Re-reading it now, I'm actually shocked at some of the things Axl said, and it shows how much society has changed that no one really batted an eye at some of the comments. 

    Seriously, what does Madison do after being personally singled-out and shamed by the main focus of her fandom? Did she check out a GN'R gig the next time they came to town? Did she buy the Absurd EP? Did she give up fandom altogether? 

    • Like 3
  14. Gonna get it for this one, but had to go with "Sorry": the "doom metal" classic ;) 

    Totally great song, and have enjoyed it each time I've seen it live, but probably the only other track on the album I can take or leave (although it's a large step above the previous two eliminated songs). I do particularly love Buckethead's restrained Pink Floyd-ish gutiar solo, though. Everything else on here will be tougher for me as they are all songs I actively engage with. 

    I actually really like "If the World", but totally understand it does not appeal to everyone. I distinctly remember laughing when it leaked in 2008 and all the reviews described it as being a mix of a bad porno soundtrack or a Roger Moore era James Bond movie.

  15. 3 hours ago, Jakey Styley said:

    I’ve always liked Riad. The intro is ridiculous and the lyrics suck (though they’re apparently about someone really interesting, according to that note he wrote) but the song has some really great vocals including one of Axl’s highest notes near the end - “sweet salVAAAAAtion”. This song suffers a lot from the instruments being buried amongst each other. It’s hard to pick out what’s actually happening. I always felt it sounded quite modern (at the time…)

    I voted Chinese Democracy. This song has never impressed me. It was cool in 2002 when it was sorta grungey, but IMO lost its identity the more it got worked on. It starts with a generic riff (rock you like a hurricane adjacent), has lackluster vocals (especially live, axl sounds like he’s trying to take a shit when singing the chorus), and also not good lyrics. I like the solos and outro, but this song doesn’t melodically grab me at all.

     

    This was what I was trying to say re: the mix of "Rhiad" in yesterday's thread. I know a lot of people don't like the "layers" on Chinese Democracy, but none of them bother me on any of the other songs. This is the exception. I still think it's a B-/C+ tier song even in older mixes, but the power of the riff rings much clearer in older versions. The one that ended up on the album sounds absolutely muddy, and no instruments get a chance to shine. 

  16. Not a huge fan of "Scraped", but at the very least I remember it. "Riad N' the Bedouins" never really made an impression on me. Additionally, the song is unique to me in that it's one of the few that I feel was substantially better in its earlier forms. Unlike many here, I actually like most of the "layers" added to Chinese Democracy over time (with a few exceptions), but all the changes on this song just make it even more of a slog. In earlier forms, it still does not leave much of an impression, but at least has a potency and urgency missing in the studio version. Also, I liked Robin's (?) janky solo on the older versions much more than Bumblefoot's additions. 

  17. 11 hours ago, Powderfinger said:


    They probably wanted the glory of “Reuniting” GNR. 
     

     

    It all played out in typical GNR fashion. 
    The thing I recall the most is how fucking pathetic Matt Sorum was, Adler took it all in his stride. But still, Sorums a prick.

    What did Sorum do? I know in his book, he talked about how Slash/Duff basically left him high and dry and were going to have him play tambourine, but did he do anything publicly that was bad? 

  18. 20 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

     

    What a weird post. There's grown adults who listen to Billie Eilish, Eminem and all sorts of shit, lol. RHCP are in their 50s-60s and aren't exactly making music for 'the kids' anymore.

    I like their new album, but I've always liked their mellow stuff - Scar Tissue, Soul To Squeeze, Wet Sand, etc. and this album is pretty mellow.

    I was not saying adults do not across the board listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was being a little bit cheeky, and it appears that may have been lost over text. My point was that I've always seen RHCP as a band that people generally tend to really adore at younger ages (say 15-25) and then sort of discard as their music tastes evolve. I am not saying they stop liking RCHP, or won't check out new material they release; just that they do not seem like an "important" band anymore once you hit a certain age, and have generally expanded into knowing more about the bands that inspired RHCP. 

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