I rarely listen to Sweet Child O' Mine. I recognize its a good song and one of their signature songs but its too pop for my taste.

1 hour ago, Karice said:

Is it just me or did Axl kind of look like Triple H(Hunter Hearst Helmsley/Paul Levesque) from WWE in 2006(Braided hair in a ponytail and cool ass shades and generally looking bad ass?🤔😏 😁🤘

I don't really see it and what's funny is Triple H from that period was basically trying to look like Lemmy from Motorhead. Axl in 2006-07 basically looked like 1993-94 Axl but with braids. 

He probably looks the same as 2019-present, I don't think he grows his hair longer again and its probably still the same black graphic tee, ripped jeans, pointed boots look. 

Human Being and Hair of the Dog are 2 good ones from TSI that were never played live. There's eras where it would have sounded good live but probably not currently. Edit: Hair of the Dog was apparently played live a few times between 1988-1990.

The long epics hit me the most so Coma, Estranged, and Civil War.

7 minutes ago, Legendador said:

Was that story about Slash coming to Axl's house drunk (during the velvet revolver years) and talking shit about all VR members to Beta?

Talking about unverified rumors that the band (Slash, Duff, Frank, Fortus) during 2016 couldn't stand each other and barely hung out

2 minutes ago, Frankfurt93 said:

Nobody in GNR world is CLEAN. That is a FACT.

Slash is the least negative, after Gilby IMO.

They all did shit to manipulate ppl, situations, media.

I had several chances to speak speak to ppl that were close to the band one way or another.

2006 one former member told me 'everything is set for a comeback gig that will be announced for the summer in Central Park. Axl, Matt, Duff, Dizzy (I can't recall if Gilby was there), but NO Slash.'. For some reason I vividly recall that Duff and Matt suggested Kushner.   Which heavily adds to Scott's claim VR are over and GNR reunion is imminent.

2016 as for and Duff/Frank/Matt relationship. One elder rock star, who opened for them 2 days before we hung out and is friends with Slash/Duff/Axl for decades told me 'we hung out for days, hotel, soundcheck, backstage, before after gig...it is so sad you can't believe. Nobody speeaks to anyone. Seperate changing rooms, Duff and Slash are barely on speaking terms. Duff and Slash don't think much of the rest...I asked Duff 'why are you and Slash even here?, he replied 'Cause my contract says so'.

That adds heavily to Matt's side and what he wrote in his book.  I said wrote this when I was told this story (some know it alls questioned this), now Matt wrote this in his book, it does shed some light on the whole situation.

One guy prior to the first gig claimed to be insider here and I recall him saying 'one of the 2 can't stand neither Frank nor Fortus, the other is putting up with Fortus and barely puts up with Frank', the poster wrote quiet a lot right around reunion, I am sure elder members here remember him.

I have to imagine some of this may have either been exaggerated or resolved because I can't imagine there would still be this much tension 7 years later without it boiling over.

18 hours ago, Outofgascar said:

I have a source on the inside telling me that Axl has agreed to wear a beard if we get this thread to 1000 pages. 
But he will only wear it during the new songs on stage. 

 

This implies that the beard comes off and raises the question of whether it'd be one beard or a collection of beards? Could Melissa wear one of the beards?

23 hours ago, avahland said:

"Should Axl wear a Beard ?"

Should you wear a Beard ?

These are existential questions here, also do we truly wear the beard or does the beard wear us?

12 hours ago, W. Axl Kev said:

We’ve reached a new low if this is a point of interest.

The real low point was the thread asking who takes out Axl's garbage.

32 minutes ago, D4NNY said:

I always wondered what Slash was trying to say after “a great offer from rip magazine”? See ya? Cha? Shea? Sia? Yeah? 🤣

Sounded like thats it but it could be any one of those suggestions, the YouTube captions say sit. The commercial is pretty funny with Axl and Slash having a Jay and Silent Bob thing going on.

Listening to the live tracks and its really what Live Era should have been. The performances aren't perfect but its the band in that era which is what the 1999 album was sold on. Putting out true live compilations from different eras is something they should consider for the future.

8 minutes ago, Oldest Goat said:

Yeah the RIP magazine one. I thought it looked cool but idc much either way. I just want him to sound good.

Related to that, when looking for that picture I found there were commercials that Axl and Slash were in for RIP magazine I never knew about. Axl's face at 2:10 is hilarious.

7 minutes ago, kanecrescente said:

1. One In A Million

2. Absurd

3. Used To Love Her

4. You Could Be Mine

5. The Seeker

6. Down On The Farm

7. Paradise City w/ another mic throw scandal 

They come back and debut Look at Your Game Girl as an encore.

3 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

In the above photo it mainly looks fucked up because of how munted they made the moustache lol.

There's an old photo of Axl with a full beard, think it might've been a photo for a magazine or something. A beard like that? Sure, would look cool.

Probably the RIP magazine one where he's holding a shotgun, a big unkempt beard isn't the way to go. What's interesting is 2006-07 is associated with the goatee but he grew a bit of a beard when he was in Australia which might be the last time he had somewhat of a beard in public.

5 hours ago, Nintari said:

I said figuratively.

For me, the band is finished. They're now in Zeppelin territory. I have the records, I have the memories, I have the officially-released VHS/DVDs, I have the Youtube videos of their glory years etc. Anything they release from 85-93, I will have a serious interest in... but it's over. I have no interest in watching an overweight, sixty-year-old Axl Rose with extreme vocal damage slowly wobble around the stage in clothes that befit a man in his mid-twenties, completely unable to sing his own songs correctly. Ditto for the rest of the guys. They're old, tired and attempting to play a role that was written for drugged-up, pissed off, socially-rejected men in their mid-to-late twenties... and it shows... a lot... and I don't care for it. That's not what I got into this band for, and if they had been this version of themselves back in the late eighties, they never would have gotten a record deal and no one would have cared.

But yes, there's millions of people out there who are willing to pay huge chunks of money to get drunk on crummy, over-priced draft beer and squint at the stage and play make-believe like it's the late eighties or early nineties again for three hours because they can't let go.

I went once in 2016 because it was a bucket-list thing (I could have gone in 1992, but since I wasn't old enough to drive, my mom was able to stop me), and it was literally  (for me), a sad, sobering experience.

I'll never do it again.

Agree to all of this. If this band took steps forward with their presentation and new music that better reflected where they are now it'd be somewhat different. People might take issue with how blunt your post seems but I see no lies.

8 hours ago, Bitchisback said:

Holy shit dude it waa one of the top 10 grossing tours of the year. It was a huge success.  The negativity some people have around here is mind blowingly unbelievable 

 

https://www.billboard.com/pro/guns-n-roses-tour-earnings-2021/

People have a hard time compromising that the band can be this successful at this stage of their career divorced from the actual quality of the performances.

The legacy of the band combined with how much touring makes compared to 30 years ago makes this version of the band magnitudes more successful than the band that legitimately kicked ass in their prime.

Its not unique to them but the lack of ambition combined with that makes them somewhat unique.

I think about other artists that started around the same timeframe as Guns N' Roses and even if I don't care too much for latter day albums from them there's usually at least 1 or 2 good songs that come from a newer album.

Guns could have come out out with 2 albums since 2008 and if they were 12 songs each with only 2 good ones thats 4 songs that could've been added to their current setlists. Barring the band releasing really terrible new music we could have at least gotten some setlist flexibility had they done anything.

On 2/28/2023 at 3:17 AM, WhazUp said:

GNR are on the long list of any other decently big artist, they can coast on casuals and not have to worry about being artists ever again.  Why bother releasing new art when you can make bank playing a set for 8 years that starts with ISE and ends with PC the same way every time

I am sorry that GNR ended up this way

It can't be stressed enough how much they're coasting on the brand and the songs people want to hear where the newest ones released in 1991 because I'd imagine only a small portion even know the existence of TSI, ChiDem, or the scattered singles since.

At this point they could continue doing this for as long as they want purely from the music they made and the legend they built around themselves from 1987-1993. Like they could take out almost all the Chinese Democracy songs with a shortened set and the casual audience might almost prefer it.

The beard edit is pretty cool. He looks more like he did in the early 90's with it and having a beard makes a lot of guys look younger if its not too long. There's a reason Keanu Reeves has a beard now or Anthony Kiedis has had a mustache like the past 12 years and its mainly to hide aging.

On 2/28/2023 at 3:50 PM, Rovim said:

nostalgia is the main draw of Gn'R. Not sure if a release of even a brand new album would have made much of a difference in ticket sales.

it seems that Axl never wanted Slash and Duff to quit Gn'R, so my guess is that after Bucket and Robin left, and after Axl had enough time to support Chinese with multiple tours, that maybe there wasn't really a good reason to keep going.

if new Gn'R was selling out massive venues, maybe Axl would have kept going and the reunion wouldn't have happened, I agree. He had to replace Bumble and Tommy anyway and he couldn't really go with another replacement that is not Slash imo anyway.

Pretty much if you look at the history. Axl was very sporadic, defensive regarding a bunch of stuff, and the band was on a path to nowhere in the mid-late 90's but he only fired Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum who pretty much forced him to. He made efforts to get Slash back when he said he quit and Duff leaving came when he had a child and couldn't take the endless recording sessions.

Guns N' Roses are a brand that sells nostalgia at this point. They're a bucket list item for people wanting to see a legendary band with its most known members back. They're also the band that made enduring songs like November Rain, Welcome to the Jungle, SCOM, and Paradise City.

Even if someone is not super into the band they've heard those songs the last 35 years and might see them out of curiosity or because they've seen their merch at the mall or outlet stores.

10 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

Just using your post as a stepping stone to post this graph that provides some granularity to the setlists and from what albums they pick their songs, and how this has changed over the years,

 

This is pretty cool, thanks, I'm wondering if the UYI albums being slightly higher than Appetite is due to them being double albums? Also do Knockin on Heavens Door and Live and Let Die fall under the UYI albums or covers?

1 hour ago, D4NNY said:

Well, I think hard rock or any genre can be any age, I have family members in their 50’s enjoying heavy metal and I’m sure in their old age they will enjoy it just as much. I love Prince’s music (can you tell ha!) and I was watching a live video of a song called Electric Chair the other day and my 2 year old was dancing.. literally jigging around and busting out all kinds of moves. Point being any age, any genre. 🙂 

You just seemed a little angsty about Axl and his not releasing music choice. There’s more to enjoy elsewhere. Let’s just be happy he’s still rocking, happier than he has been is so long and at least still performing the classics we all love 🙂

Off-topic but Electric Chair by Prince was I believe only performed live once on SNL in 1989 and never again. Its surprising since its a good guitar driven song. Update: He performed it one other time in 2013 but its almost a completely different arrangement thats more R&B based.

30 minutes ago, dontdamnmeuyi2015 said:

I was listening to the Live at the Ritz 88 on cd the weekend. And I guess due to smoking and drinking towards the end of the concert Axl's voice was shot.  Of course, he's older now and all our voices change, but Axl  always tries his best and he still rocks!

I feel like he was also going all out in that era combined with the insane touring schedule when you look at how many dates they played. As for his current voice, I wonder if its just a permanent change? 2016-17 was really good for a guy in his mid-late 50's but looking back it feels like the tail end of his voice being able to bring that power and rasp. We've seen that extended time off hasn't improved it so I don't know what will.

Looking at the setlist from their last show and there's less covers (outside KOHD and LALD) than I thought. My main thing would be dropping Slither, I Wanna Be Your Dog, and Wichita Lineman. Dig into the back catalog a bit and play Bad Obsession, The Garden, or the various other UYI songs that Izzy sang on.

It always feels like they don't mine those albums as much as they should especially having just put out a box set. There's even a few Appetite songs that don't get played often like Think About You and Anything Goes.