MADDOGJONES

6 minutes ago, tajandreas said:

Damn.. reading this makes me want to hear more of his playing. Is there any footage outside of Dead Horse with him playing/soloing?

Madagascar Rock in Rio 3.

38 minutes ago, SnakepitH said:

It ain't GNR without Izzy. Izzy IS the GNR sound, being the main riffwriter for the band. That's why Snakepit & The Conspirators stuff sounds NOTHING like the GNR stuff.
The GNR sound is basically Izzy coming up with the main riff, and then Slash'll play it heavier (because if he didn't, it'd sound like the Stones, which  is Izzy's favorite band) and sometimes faster.

It clearly is Izzy without GN'R, the band selling out stadiums worldwide now is GN'R and izzy isn't there. So, how does that work?

2 hours ago, Iron MikeyJ said:

 All great solos (even improvised ones) should have a beginning, middle, and an end.

All guitar solos (even not great ones) have a beginning, middle, and an end.

5 minutes ago, RONIN said:

I bet Elton hasn't seen or spoken to Axl since 1994. 

I read something a while back about Axl playing some of CD for him, think over the phone, but it might have been BS. I can't find it now.

If they are not in contact you would have to think that was Elton's choice given how much Axl admires him, but who knows.

12 minutes ago, Kris_1989 said:

I didn't think the yellow coat was so bad either until I saw all the "I didn't know paddington bear was in GNR" comments on YouTube. Now I can't look at that thing without laughing a bit. 

But other than that, I agree. Even though his fashion choices are over the top, that's his thing and he always owns it. 

i really like how we get a new Axl for each tour. He knows what he's doing when he comes back with a different style and look.  I really never had a problem with costume changes or whatever. If the music was shit then yeah, fuck that, get to writing some good songs and stop pissing about with your clothes, but that's not the case. I enjoy it, I think obviously besides being in a great band and being very talented his look (or at least some of them) has become iconic, certainly no one is more recognizable for wearing a bandana than Axl.

4 hours ago, Billsfan said:

I agree. The part that makes me cringe is all the Tommy talk...Stinson has said 80 times, and I know because it's been freaking posted in here every other day, that he had basically been trying to quit for some time.

What is so hard to understand Eddie?!?!

I'm with you, but I'd take Eddie over Stern any day. I love the Howard Stern show, but he doesn't let people speak, cuts them off constantly. Great show, but I don't know where he got this rep of being a great interviewer from, I just don't see it. Kurt Loader was great in my opinion.

2 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

I think the Axl/DC thing has the potential to bring out some great lyrics from Axl actually, I imagine he'd have some good tongue-in-cheek lines and produce a few songs in the vein of Bad Apples (which is a favourite of mine). With GNR (or CD at least) he tried to keep it more serious (aside from If The World).

 

I saw the second show of 2010, in Calgary. They were still spontaneous with the setlist and Axl was on fire. Unfortunately there's not many videos because apparently security was really tight, in listenable quality I've only seen SCOM, PC and This I Love from the show, which is a shame because mostly the CD songs were the highlights - I.R.S., Better, If The World, Shackler's all stand out in my memory and then of course Out Ta Get Me, Rocket Queen, Nightrain etc.

I think Shacklers worked fucking great live, would love to see that back at some point. Can't remember what show I saw that played, 2010 or 2012, but It was great.

I'm sure it will be great, I think what he did on Sebastian's album was awesome and it was apparently as good as off the top of his head. More waiting though, mate. Soon.

3 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

It's clear that GNR has boosted the profile of Ron. However, Ron really doesn't use the Guns name all that much for exposure, he'll answer questions but does he bring it up outside of that context? I haven't seen him say much. If he wanted he could be MUCH more well known, all he would need to do is open the lid and let some info out on the running of the band, Axl/management and he would be all over music news. I'm glad he doesn't though! and IF he did it would totally overshadow anything else he would have to say about Art Of Anarchy, just like when DJ or Tommy talk about Guns, the headline isn't "great new Sixx AM record, people can't wait to hear it" It's always 'what did he say about GNR or Axl.

I'm surprised Ron lasted as long as he did in GNR, he was unhappy for a long time. It was clear as day, how many times did he talk about how great he thought the band was and how much fun it would be to get in a room and make some music OR the idea of recording one or two songs in between legs of tours and then releasing and playing them on the next run? The guy just wanted to be creative! if he was let off his leash even a slight bit there is a really good chance he would still be in the band and this whole semi reunion wouldn't have taken place. Personally, It's great to see Slash/duff up there again, but I was really curious about the Guns record the 2009-2014 band would/could have made... especially Rons contributions. Obviously wasn't to be though. MAYBE we'll get a new record in the next 5 years from the current GNR, maybe not though. 

I think one of the problems Ron had in GN'R was he didn't take shit from anyone and from a few accounts he got a lot of that when he joined the band and it only ended when he pulled a knife.

I think Ron and Axl probably butted heads on a few things, reading between the lines, from what he's said recently about Axl feeling like a "friend sometimes and a enemy at other times" and it ran it's course. He's a great guitar player and was great with the fans, but he's from different stock, he's very DIY and releases a lot stuff and does it very quickly. Take Axl out of the picture and that's still not that easy to do in a band as big as GN'R, contracted to a major label, like Universal.

He's great anyway, but for 71, fuck me, he's good.

4 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

Definitely agree. I never really got into AC/DC except a few songs, never really liked Brian. Axl brings his own element to songs I would otherwise be kinda bored with, but I'll admit that after Axl joined I listened to more Bon stuff (deep cuts/live shows) and I've grown to appreciate him more, for sure. Beforehand I acknowledged his uniqueness but never really cared for albums that weren't Highway To Hell (which I still think is their best album), but I 'get' the love for Bon now. Yes, it took me this long.

 

Honestly, at this point I'm more excited about the chance of AC/DC touring again and possibly an album with Axl, than I am about the GNR shows I'm seeing this summer (even though my shows are near the end of the tour). The difference in his performances are night and day. With Angus, he performs like he did when I saw him in 2010 and how he should be performing when earning $1,000,000 per show playing with Slash.

What shows did you see in 2010? The best GNR show I've seen live was in 2010, o2, London, when duff came out. Axl sounded insane, awesome show.

I will take a new GNR album over an AC/DC album, but since I've already seen this line up I would be more excited to hear an album from AC/DC or catch a show. Axl just isn't on enough studio recordings and I would love to hear how he'd work with AC/DC on an album. Could he write for them? Or would it be Angus? His writing style is quite different, but it would be really interesting to see how it turns out. This is still so unexpected. For people who want to hear Axl on a new studio release, with AC/DC it will be sooner rather than later, Angus doesn't mess around.

Axl seems to throw any old shit together (usually expensive shit) and it works for him, he looks cool as fuck (expect for the oversized jersey's in the early 2000's). I've always liked his "fashion sense" or lack of it. I even like that yellow raincoat, what balls he has to where that horrible thing for Rock in Rio, love it!

2 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

Of course he won people over, he showed up and performed like Axl Fucking Rose. At his best, he is the best. Axl/DC was one of the few post-UYI era's comparable to his prime IMO.

I never really liked AC/DC with Brian, I don't dig his voice. I didn't know a lot of the songs they were playing live on the last tour, but really love a lot of them now hearing Axl with them. I know it's not a pissing contest, but Axl brings something entirely different to the songs they play live, that I really like, especially on back in black, shoot to thrill, for those about to rock. Brian is a great singer but they are quite different. Brian I guess is more of an everyday man, salt of the earth, approachable, kind of guy and that comes across in the performances. Axl brings some danger and menace to these performances that I have missed in GN'R for sometime, mainly because I watch the shit out of all of the shows and am so familiar with it all. I would really like to see where it goes for him and the band and if it can be successful going forward, will it be a footnote or will AC/DC be known for 3 lead singers, Bon, Brian and Axl.

2 minutes ago, AlexC said:

Yeah the only time he's ever bad now seems to be at the beginning of a new leg. Probably because he's a bit rusty after having over 6 weeks off but after a few shows he's right back. Even at his worst these days he's not as bad as say, 2001 or 2002 and nowhere near Bridge School or Rock in Rio '11. 

Yeah, first show of a new leg seems to be where the problem is these days. Understandable I guess, even if he was rehearsing I doubt he'd be going full pelt like he did at the ACDC rehearsals, he seems uncomfortable with that in general. He needs to warm up and get his Mojo going, it's usually a couple of shows, but they should stop filming these first gigs!

I can certainly see a bad performance like Rio 11 and bridge and call it what it is, but just when you think he's done (I mean, 2012 to 2014 he seemed to be taking it easy on the vocals and that looked like that was it, vocal wise, goodbye 2010) but then he comes back and does what he's doing now with GN'R and what he did with ACDC. I personally think he sang better in ACDC (for my taste) than he ever did in the 90's live.

Just now, AlexC said:

I think he was drunk as fuck at the bridge school. He started singing You're Crazy during Jungle for god's sake.

You could be right, but he respects the shit out of Neil Young, so can't see him doing that, really, but I don't know.

I think he was sick and he just got lost in the song and the acoustic version confused him momentarily, granted, with horrible consequences. A lot of people think that clip is fake because it's so bad (it's clearly not) but he's not right whatever is up. I think he was sick at the bridge school and Rio, not trying to cover for him or anything, he just sounds sick to me. He did on Kimmel too after the bridge school.

I was at the recent Lima show and thought the sounded sick with flu or something too, not on the level of two shows above, but he was forcing his voice throughout and it was cracking, must be hard to sing like that, but it was a great show anyway. If you are there live these things aren't that much of a big deal (to me anyway).

1 hour ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

Definitely agree about that voice in TWAT. That was basically his clean voice in 2006 (he used to use it on Nightrain a lot iirc). He uses it on some stuff now like UTLH but it kinda makes the mickey voice stand out more IMO.

 

Back In Black is Axl proving he's still a rock god. The GNR tour is more like the "Slash is Back" tour than the "GNR is Back" tour unfortunately.

That first back in black in lisbon was fucking incredible. shoot to thrill another great one.

I really did like that Axl won over a lot of people with his performances with ACDC and good on the fans for calling it as it was after he played. Many did a complete 360. They might not want Axl instead of brian, but if you can gauge anything by comments on Youtube, facebook, etc, it seems the majority changed their mind about him. It was good they had the guts to show him that respect. I was surprised at how many people didn't think he had the chops though, I know he can be hit or miss, but at his best he's a beast.

On 21/02/2017 at 4:36 PM, Silent Jay said:

One of my personal favourite, that scream at 3:29 is crazy good. They also did Mama Kin during the show.

I agree the second night in London was a lot better, there were far greater shows during the residency in Vegas, Axl was sick in Rio IV, Bridge School and Chicago. I think the only decent proshots we got were LA2011 and Vegas2011. 

Yeah he was clearly sick, I love the guy, but that bridge school performance was really bad, but at least he played. Rio had some good moments, but the wheels fell off.

8 hours ago, dalsh327 said:

They might have talked over the phone in 1991 when Axl heard Freddie was sick, pretty much everyone knew why but he didn't want to make an announcement about it.

I think Axl's also good friends with Bernie Taupin who lives or lived in Santa Ynez, surprised he's never been asked to co-write with GNR. Or maybe he did and it didn't pan out.

The tribute concert was the beginning of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, but you pretty much have every great frontman in rock sharing the same stage - Paul Rodgers, Axl, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, David Bowie. I think it was also Mick Ronson's last concert.

 

Ah, yeah, I think you are right, I heard that somewhere before about a phone call, slipped my mind.

Axl is my favorite front man of all time, but I'm voting Freddy number 1 in any list, one of a kind.

Sails of Charon is incredible, slash got me into that when he took over a radio playlist or something some time back. 

On 20/03/2017 at 3:28 PM, maynard said:

I disagree. Of course he will follow a pattern that better suits his style but umm... I see Slash much more versatile than you. I think you label anything with a more melodic style as "blues-based".

There's nothing bluesy in Estranged, NR, Locomotive, etc. It's hard to put them in a category but it's nothing like AFD or Snakepit solos. They don't evoke anything from blues, IMO.

You already mentioned DTJ. 'Anastasia' is very similar. "Slash", the album, is filled with different styles. Unless, again, you put any melodic/sleazy sound under the blues umbrella.

VR is filled with drop-d/alternative rock/punk riffs, structures and solos.

Wold on Fire is basically a metal album (god i'm sounding like wasted).

Maybe we agree more than disagree. Let me try to use an example... Just compare Snakepit with WoF and it's like two different guitarists.

Slash is a rocker, he'll always transit through blues and hard rock, some metal, some punk, some shredding, some dramatic blues notes... But within all these styles, he's very versatile.

Beneath the savage sun was pretty interesting for slash in my opinion, the solos.

He's always been someone it's hard to take your eyes off on stage even with some of the lesser performances. He's always surprising, the whole AC/DC thing was incredible.

On 25/03/2017 at 5:57 PM, Sunset Gardner said:

there are no similarities between afd and CD.  absolutely none.  

There is absolutely at least two.

4 minutes ago, amaninjapan said:

I think I'm lucky that the concert ticket resale bullshit is a far bigger problem in the US than it is in Japan. The original ticket sellers here in Japan do a pretty good job of making sure people buy the tickets directly instead of bots or resellers. Of course, some dribble out onto the aftersale market but it's not a dedicated effort - just a handful of people who want to try to make a profit because they were lucky enough to win the ticket lottery. More power to them, for sure.

 

As for your "no fair profit in private business" - I think that's the argument here - people are upset/disappointed that there's people making an actual business from this. Again, if you're just an individual who grabbed a few lithos when you went to the concert, then rock on. But if you're buying 30 at every concert in town and using it as your main source of income, that's pretty scummy.

 

Pplacing an individual limit at the merch tents would be a fucking amazing idea. I saw another idea work well at some concerts in Japan: The ticket itself has a 'merch stub' - The right side was perforated so that ushers had a section they could tear off on entry, but the left side of the ticket was perforated too, which the merch store would rip off when you were buying something. Each merch stub allowed you to choose three items. Of course, this doesn't prevent someone from collecting a bunch of merch stubs from other people, but it does make it a lot more difficult to buy in bulk, which I think is a step in the right direction.

 

And I don't think people want a say in the cost of an item, I think people just want to voice their opinion. Should I be able to place a vote as to whether x litho on Ebay should be selling for $300 or $500? No. Should I be able to wish that the dude selling Aussie lithos for $500 falls into a vat of cat urine? Absolutely.

Yeah, the stubs thing sounds good. Like you said not fool proof but the more difficult it is and more effort required to skirt the system would definitely drop the numbers on this business.

I really am in agreement with you, it sucks for the fans to have to overpay for something but on the other hand if you are buying for shows you weren't at you might be thankful you have an eBay option.

I have heard about these selling out at shows though and these resellers walking away with the lot and that really is shitty for the fans. the merch booth should at least use some common sense on that, it's not like they're not going to sell them, they can refuse someone buying all of them at once quite comfortably. They are an event specific souvenir, the idea is for more than one or two fans to buy them and many will, so I'm sure if management knew they might try to work something out. A lot of effort is put into these and it's not all about money in my opinion, there is an effort to create something cool for each city and for fans to have something cool and limited.

38 minutes ago, RONIN said:

Be careful. I posted something similar about cutting down on the AFD songs and was ripped a new one.  Like you said -- these songs have been played for the past 15 years on the Chinese Democracy Tour # infinity. It has been done to death and there is fatigue setting in. I understand the casual tour audiences want to hear the hits, but can we replace My Michelle, Out ta Get Me, Rocket Queen, etc with stuff from the Illusions and Lies? Just for the sake of novelty, can we swap in Locomotive, Breakdown, Pretty Tied Up, Dead Horse, etc? 

Before they drop anything from AFD though, the endless cover tunes and Chinese Democracy stuff should be dropped immediately. I like CD but a lot of these songs have been played to death the past 15 years. Enough already. I'm cool with never hearing Chinese Democracy, Better, and This I love again. If they insist on playing CD material, then choose the stuff that isn't played much like If the World, Sorry, Prostitute, etc.

#1 thing that needs to be cut are the cover tunes. They will lose nothing by dropping Live and Let Die and The Seeker from the setlist. Knocking on Heaven's Door is just gratuitous. A five minute song is dragged out for 20 minutes -- atleast give us some reggae Axl.

With live and let die and knocking though they really made them their own, they are not "covers" in the same way that the seeker is, which I too could do without. Really would like to hear sailing again if they were to replace seeker with another cover, I thought axls voice on that song was incredible. 

9 minutes ago, amaninjapan said:

Because although the premise of his argument was sound, it went off the rails when he started comparing apples to oranges.

 

If a gas station owner wants to start selling his gas for $5 a gallon when the two gas stations across the street are selling gas for $2 a gallon, then that's fine. That's your "supply and demand" argument in a nutshell. Gas station owner hikes his gas to $100 a gallon six hours after the second plane hit the world trade center? That's immoral.

 

Buying a couple lithos for cost price and selling them to people who physically couldn't be at the venue for a reasonable profit? Nobody's really arguing against that because you've at least put in some time and effort. you lined up for a few hours and maybe braved the elements (hot as balls or raining cats and dogs) and you buy a few lithos. But when the person next to you puts in the exact same time and effort and they buy say, 30 lithos instead of 2 lithos, then there's less sympathy to go around. Regardless of whether you're willing to admit it, there is a difference between the two people.

 

If I had to choose between who to buy from, I'm gonna buy from the former and not the latter. Additionally, if I'm going to sell/trade then I want to sell/trade with a fan, not a reseller. I've been fortunate enough to be able to choose who I trade/sell my lithos with. Remember someone in this forum sold a spare litho to someone in good faith because they said 'their friend really wanted one' and then saw that exact same litho on Ebay for sale for like ten times the price? Yeah, fuck that. I've had several resellers make me reasonable offers for some lithos and I've refused because I'd rather trade or sell to a fan and I think there's many people just like me on this forum. A few members here have sold a litho to me for cost price when he could easily have sold it on Ebay for 5-10 times what they paid for it. At one stage I had many spare Osaka lithos and now they're going for hundreds and hundreds of dollars - and yet I don't regret trading them at all because I know they all went to good homes and not into some Ebay auction.

 

I feel like this argument has run its course and my interest in it is vastly out of proportion to how long I've spent talking about it. Let's just all agree to disagree.

I won't get into this too much because I do get why people are upset and it is certainly shitty for someone to scoop up a bunch of lithos so fans have no choice to go to the secondary market. Same goes for concert tickets.

but there is no such thing as a fair profit in private business. The guy has found a gap in the market that seems to make him money and the prices seem to reflect the demand. 

But, yeah, I get it. Really. And I think the other poster does too, he just seems to disagree with some of the comments regarding the legitmacy of reselling, which in this case, at worst, is a dick move, but the business world works this way. A limit should be put in place at shows if at all practical, but if someone wants to buy a litho from a show they weren't at the price should be whatever the market decides it is, if you weren't there not sure anyone should have a say in the cost other than the person selling and the person buying.

34 minutes ago, soon said:

Elton seems to be utilizing a tactic that is sometimes called 'claiming the centre' and Im fine with him doing so.

Claiming the centre means that you state that your point is widely accepted and assert that the people you're speaking with already agree with you.

Its only useful the you are clearly in the right.

Elton John is using Axl as a figure head of a group who are or were homophobes and redirecting them by saying that they never were homophobes; they've always understood the truth.

Because homophobia is indefensible many will be successfully redirected.  

Might sound unbelievable but it works incredibly well.  People are given a chance to restate their belief with their dignity intact.  Being entrenched in a point of view is sometimes the fault of many factions, not just the entrenched. 

Those lyrics and Axls initial explanation were homophobic.  

Axl having been assaulted while hitchhiking to LA is an absolute horror and he has every right to be hurt and outraged, but it seems that homophobic rhetoric is what he found to make sense of his suffering.  That is sad.  The issue is sexual assault, not sexual orientation.  

Personally I believe that homophobic rhetoric is all Axl had to express his pain, but that he didn't actually care if peaceful individuals were lgbtq.  He was young and uneducated.  Axl didn't mind turning that album in to David Geffen for instance.

Or

Elton is just wrong: being gay doesnt mean you are an authority on the subject of homophobia, especially if you're rich enough to live an insulated life.  Something tell me its been a minute since Elton was alone at a gas station when truck full of people playing One In A Million pulled in.

This is a very interesting post and sounds very plausible. 

Whether you are a fan or not of either Axl or eminem, they are very talented songwriters, so someone like Elton, who would surely recognise such talent, may be inclined to give some benefit of doubt due to the quality and depth of their lyrics.

He might be inclined to look for a reason to give them the benefit of the doubt, which I think with eminem and Axl is deserved, even if in the moment they clearly have said homophobic or racist things in their music. I guess it would be different if they said something in public, not within their art, like Mel Gibson, for example.

I do get that one in a million has homophobic lyrics but I always understood the last verse as an explanation for the previous verses from someone further down the line in the story, Axl looking back at himself and trying to explaining his views, sort of don't point your finger at me, I'm a product of you and your society.

With eminem, he seemed to want to attack the PC culture and said pretty much whatever he wanted to get a rise out of the public, which worked very well, but in the context of his alter ego, that seems valid too. Bit miffed that he still plays the same card now and calls people "fag" but goes after trump, who really says less directly offensive things, but again, one Is art one is in politics. So there is a difference.