James Bond

Holy shit. On one hand, it's nice to hear from him in that regard but obviously terrible news about the stroke. All the same, he is nothing short of a badass. Long live Nicko I say. He's doing just fine all things considered, and each consecutive show has just gotten better (although I'm trying not to listen to too much so I'm somewhat spoiler free).

He's looking like EVH circa 2012 in that picture. Danny Elfman is a terrific gig for a player like Robin. Love it.

I was reading some of the comments on Nuno's Instagram post and even his fans are calling him out on the arrogant response.

What did I miss?

Would legitimately be hilarious if there were a couple songs featuring Axl and Duff getting released under the "Slash & Friends" banner instead of Guns N' Roses. Jokes aside, this is probably the most I've looked forward to a Slash release since World On Fire. I'm well over Myles. I'm glad he's mixing it up.

It's a solid enough tune. Good groove. I wouldn't say Izzy on it is anything more than a novelty. It's very much a "Slash solo song" in that the guitars lack any sort of interplay like that which made the AFD unification so magical, but it's cool nevertheless.

Fuck you lot. I just want a new toy truck.

I believe it was part of the marketing that the paying customers would get to be involved. I don't think it was hidden until they got there or anything. It may sound crazy but I think it was all marketed as part of the experience over the last couple of years since these dives began. They had this big mission to document the wreck yearly. Get one OceanGate employee on board, one Titanic expert, and three paying customers who effectively fund the expedition. Get those customers involved in operations and there you have it. All supposed to be part of the fun I suppose. I know much is being made of the questionable construction of the submersible at this point, but interestingly they have provided some truly amazing footage of the wreck. It was on these OceanGate expeditions that we were given the first 4K look at the ship (not counting James Cameron's recent 4K transfer of the 1997 film, although there was quite a bit of model shots mixed with real wreck footage).

Seems like a flimsy excuse. If they're implying that the additional buffering required for 4K rendering of broadcast caused audio issues, that should be a general buffering issue that affects everything should it not? The whole sound should have had that warbled quality to it. The sound quality overall was perfectly fine - it was Axl's mic that was dropping from the mix. How would that alone be affected by 4K televisions?

I hear a big rockin' solo coming in just after it ends. Chorus is super strong! Loving it. Would love to hear it full and complete.

Vocals aside, that has got to be one of Axl's best physical performances of the last several years, maybe even ever. It was like watching 1990s Axl and he's bloody 61! He looked like he was having a blast and it's to hear him speaking a lot more again. I got chills when he was doing things like getting the crowd to clap on Rocket Queen and introducing the band. The guy still has charisma in spades and that more than makes up for the vocals. The restructured set is great and, despite the sound mix issues, it's nice that Duff and Melissa are doing a lot more to strengthen some choruses and help him out when needed. It's a very professional looking show. The vocals are what they are. I think we know Axl is doing everything possible at this stage, but anybody who doesn't follow the band might find it a bit jarring at the extremes of the Mickey as it were. That's to be expected. I like Frank but have always hated the way his drums were mixed and how much compression was in the live mix versus when you hear him in the soundcheck and/or side stage footage. Finally I thought things were sounding great on his end. Really adds a lot more cohesion to the band as a whole. Nice to hear a shorter version of Rocket Queen too.

Jungle is a funny song these days. It used to be one of the guaranteed "Axl will sound great" songs even in the darkest days of his voice, but I've been pretty underwhelmed with it in recent years. The crowd energy/singing was amazing to see though.

You mean KOHD is going to be the second song of the night?

Now all we need is a Tweet where he says he's been feeling less bloated and we'll have come full circle.

Live Era/Vegas '92 is pretty lean and mean, as were the other 1992 versions. I love it in that ballpark. Now? I think it's one of those songs that's just been stretched too much in recent years. Even with Myles it sometimes hits 20 minutes and it just doesn't need to.

The Monkees? Uh oh. I was hoping we wouldn't get any more covers.

Imagine they just opened the next show with Shotgun Blues or something just to fuck with us.

Click Baito

I'd argue that Sweet Child O' Mine doesn't change keys at all and is actually entirely in D Mixolydian (but a half step down). Not taking away anything from your post - just being a fellow theory nerd.

Five songs shorter compared to the first night. If my eyes aren't deceiving me on setlist.fm, then these are the songs from the first night that were cut: 1. Don't Cry 2. My Michelle 3. Reckless Life 4. Nice Boys 5. Street Of Dreams I'm sure it just had to do with timing, local curfew, etc...

Would you say he's looking less bloated and cracking jokes?

Nicko's drumming has become the "Axl's vocals" of Iron Maiden after these first couple of shows. He's skipping fills and simplifying the drum parts in addition to some more relaxed tempos (which I actually like). Since he's the oldest guy in the band he can be expected to slow down with age, but it's drastically different from just a few months ago which is somewhat worrying. I do hope he's okay. But, of course, it's impossible for people to discuss that without getting annihilated by the die hard fans. Reddit and YouTube are full of the usual comments: "It's unreasonable to expect him to drum like he did in the eighties." "Must be the sound in the YouTube videos." "I was there and he played the songs exactly as he always has." But, on a positive note, super cool set list so if/when they announce more gigs I will definitely try to hit one. I'm not trying to be pessimistic by any means but part of me thinks there won't be much fuel in the tank beyond this tour with Maiden as we know it. I'll see them while I still can. I also think it's time to tune down to E-flat. Bruce still has good tonality and overall power, but that semitone would make a huge difference on some of the higher tracks.

I gave Street Of Dreams a listen. I don't think it's nearly as bad as I was expecting based on the comments. Slash has done far worse on some of the Chinese songs with regards to mindless noodling, but there's definitely something there. I could feel it going in a good direction before Fortus took over on the second half. I think it kind of just proves that it would be better if he just sat and created something from scratch for them instead of improvising them every night. Chinese Democracy itself and Better are the only two he seems to be pretty consistent on for what he's come up with. I love the Slash, and I love how no solo of his is ever quite the same thing twice, but I do find some of his renditions of things these days be it with Guns or Myles to be far removed from what he used to do. More speed and flashy driven versus the more nuanced approach. I get that he's older, better, and obviously doing what comes naturally to him these days. He's changed and evolved, but I'd love to see these Chinese songs reinterpreted with "Classic Slash" solos as opposed to some hit or miss improvisation. Save that for the solo sections.

Couldn't agree more. I swear you could probably dig up older posts of mine (and many others) that have said they should make more use of Melissa's vocals for parts like this. She's there - just let her take the highs. Not that we need her to start singing Paradise City but for songs like this then absolutely. Nice to see that happening. Really enhances the overall sound. I'm genuinely excited for the band again. Amazing what a few small tweaks can do.

Only managed to find a short clip of Pretty Tied Up but I'm glad Axl sang the chorus in his natural register. Sounds terrific that way instead of swapping to the Mickey voice for the chorus. Anything Goes has never been a favourite of mine but that sounded pretty darn good. Bad Obsession sounded absolutely mint. Love it.