Pedrolg

Axl is in a sort of limbo, where he is not completely done, but is a complete shadow of his former self. He can have awesome moments on any night, his screams are still piercing, his range is there and he still has reasonable power. The tone on his clean voice is a bit off, though, as is his wording. It comes across as cartoonish sometimes, and when he's on a bad night it just turns bad very fast.

He is a serviceable singer, Vince Neil and Jon Bon Jovi are done at this point, Axl is not. Tyler is still awesome and on a league of his own. As much as it would be awesome to have an Axl ressurgence, it is extremely unlikely at this point. The way forward is probably the way down, as he ages, loses range etc. His trademark voice is gone for 8 years now. At this point, the falsetto is his trademark.

What could be done is an effort, between tuning down, working with his voice and preparing, to sound his absolute best within his current capabilities. I don't thing he sounds horrible right now, it's just "meh". I don't think it's the absolute best he can be, and AC/DC's adds to that.

He will not address it. At least not while the tour is rolling. Also, it's about time we accept that clean vocals with decent power behind them is what Axl does these days. An "on fire" Axl is clean, strong vocals with the bits of rasp here and there. He is getting there.

I don't think he sounds awful right now. He's improved quite a bit since the disaster that was Berlin. He sounds on par with standard NITL stuff, NA 2016 leg aside.

It's on par with late 2016 gigs I attended.

Wow, really? People think Axl sounds "great" in this version of WTTJ? Not even passable or decent or better than expected, but actually great? If this is great, what would his 2016 form be? Or 2010?

There isn't a single person who is not a hardcore fan who would not be appalled by that version of WTTJ. A friend of mine who was at download is trying to get his head around the fact that this is how Axl sounded there, as he had no idea it was that bad during the show. This is also one the worst performances of 2018, Axl sounds a bit better right now and it's still not "great".  

I wonder how much longer before mainstream press catches up on how bad Axl sounds lately. 

7 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

Every time I hear that voice on the first few lines I tune out. Hard for me to appreciate the parts where he does good on. 

I understand. Those first likes are the ones he unabashedly mickeys. Still, he is making some notable improvements from the first few attrocious gigs. His form right now is pretty similar to the late 2016 shows I've been to tbh. Those were very marginally better than this, if better at all. 2016 NA Leg still miles away though (don't even think he will get there tbh. Not in this tour).

I though he had fucked up his voice, but it turns out he was indeed using packed stadium gigs with 300 euro tickets as rehearsals. And his voice did get better after a few shows. You were right 

THIS I LOVE (video author seems to think otherwise, but  it's TIL.

Poster said Yesterdays but it's TIL.

He is getting better. Not dramatically, but better.

That voice he uses here at the beggining sounds pretty good and non Mickey. He eventually fall into old habits though

42 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

With you guys saying how good Axl sounds tonight I’m excited to watch videos later! Hope you guys aren’t full of it

I heard Jungle. It was as expected.

7 hours ago, TheDemocracyRose said:

Still some way up to Coachella Houston Metlife LA... 

Oh, there is a massive wall upwards to get there still.

25 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

I can only assume that Axl/DC is a real thing and Axl has no desire to make anything of these GNR shows. He knows that all eyes will be on him with ACDC and he’ll be judged on that. So I think he’s just coasting and making sure he’s 100% when this ACDC thing comes into fruition. 

In a year or two time I think we’ll be talking about Axl’s voice being back and how good he is in his late 50’s. This gnr thing is played out to him and the fans at the moment 

The improvement (as slight as it is) in his voice + Slash's band datas later the year might indicate something with Axl's schedule.

33 minutes ago, Towelie said:

I wonder at what stage Axl felt content to mail in dreadful performances with no redeeming qualities?? I mean, I just finished listening to RIR 2017 soundboard and he is truly horrendous throughout. Coma is fucking diabolical, from start to finish. Even the gentle part in the middle is weak. You'd think after a performance like that, that Axl would reevaluate keeping the song in the setlist. Either do some serious work to improve it or just drop it. I mean, I feel embarrassed for him. How can he get up there and be okay with sounding like this? I really don't understand it.

RIR 2017 is truly dreadful. I remember that day, a couple of friends from out of town were staying over at my house after a party, they are casual fans who enjoy GNR. We were chilling with a few beers when I remembered "oh, GNR should be on soon at RIR, we could turn on the TV and watch it". Everybody was "oh, great idea", "fantastic". It was a massive shit show.

I remember the shock with how much Axl sucked. It was horrendous performance after horrendous performance. He was universally panned by commentators and reporter during the whole thing, and also universally slammed by reviews after the show. Truly attrocious. My friends couldn't sit through it, and me, being a decent host, agreed to stop the suffering. Spotify was used that day.

Well, noticeable improvement from Axl today. Not perfect, Jungle for some reason still sounds bad after being the highlight of most shows in 2016, but I though Nightrain was fine again, TIL was sung thorughout, the Better bridge had no cracks, the YCBM too. Don't Cry was particularly good with a rare rasp outro. It seems Axl's upper range is better, not cracking and failing anymore. Hopefully he builds on that (and hopefully it isn't due to AC/DC duties popping up in the horizon, but I suspect that with Slash's tour announced).

That was one great Don't Cry rendition.

Axl's screams and very high notes sounding smoother tonight!

7 hours ago, Kasanova King said:

That's not really true.  He's had at least a dozen very good shows after Coachella.  I take it you haven't watched or heard most of the shows?

 

 

You are right, many great gigs in 2016. I was actually referring to proshot/soundboards, professional recordings. We have bits from Troubadour, Coachella, Apollo and Forum. Only Coachella is listenable.

I propose a challenge.

Gather some friends. Not hardcore GNR fans, but rock fans, who enjoy and respect GNR even though they have their predilections elsewhere.

Have a generous amount of beers and pop on the LA Forum soundboard- the best recording there is after 2016. Time how long past Jungle they can stomach. Time how long it takes for someone to ask WTF is wrong with Axl.

Any videos of anybody making it to YCBM and I wil shut up about Axl's voice.

1 minute ago, NicoRourke said:

You sure have a funny way to show your support. Maybe you should tone it down a bit.

Maybe I should. Or maybe Axl should kick it up a notch. It's not like he never done that.

9 hours ago, Ratam said:

I imagine @Pedrolg@Incitingchaos and@Ludurigan.....is the world war 3...🚄

Come on I am not a hater. I love Axl.  I would love to pop on a bootleg from NITL tour and rock out while having a beer. It's Just that right now any non hardcore would be apalled and switch it to something else immediately 

6 hours ago, WhazUp said:

I think Axl sounds decent enough to where I would still gladly see GNR.  I am not saying he is on par with 2016, and I am not saying moments like TIL from this show is amazing or that he isn't struggling more on things this year, but it doesn't have to be an either/or.  I would have loved to have been at this show either way

 

Great that you enjoy it. If I'm honest I'd probably go see them again too if the opportunity was there. I know Axl is irresistible live.

I do think he sounds horrid right now though. Live it would probably be great, but a proshot would fall apart as soon as it reached WTTJ.

I would love to go to a friends house and put on a NITL bootleg to enjoy as we knock down beers. Right now anything after Coachella will make them switch songs in a heartbeat. I tried with apollo and it's just apalling for non hardcore fans. I know Axl could do better