bmus1

Very strange venue for GNR to be playing. There's only 5,000 seats, and the lawn fits about 20,000, but half of that or less actually has a view of the stage (the sloped lawn section is very small). Compared to Xfinity in Hartford with 7,500 seats and a 22,500 lawn that has eyes on the stage no matter where you're standing.

I'm still crossing my fingers for an eventual HS remix, Absurd feels more similar sonically to Perhaps than it ever did with HS imo. Edit: I disagree with myself, it's mostly the bass and drums that sound way better in Absurd versus Hard Skool.

Axl needs to utilize Melissa’s vocals way more.

Can you expand on this?

My brain sings "Perhaps solo why" to the tune of "Perhaps I was wrong" every damn time I scroll by this topic

It's funny that people were bummed that Axl was supposedly only singing half of the chorus based on the soundcheck leak, but now that he's doing the whole thing it's even worse

muhtherrr fuckerrrrs!

I thought the same thing as they were playing it, those verses are not a reach. I know muscle memory is a big part of it, but if that's the case Axl needs to show up at rehearsal. Also I'm not sure why but it sounded like Dizzy bonked 3 or 4 wrong notes on the piano intro/re-intro in person, but over video it sounds mostly correct.

I also am an LP believer, but I'm managing my own expectations and am still expecting a Lies 2 format. Nothing makes me think anything more than the 3 singles, The General, and Atlas are done. But that would be enough to round out a release with their strongest live songs.

Haha, 21 here! I think it was one of the best spots in the entire venue. The sound was a little more muffled in the aisle in between the A and B sections.

You were right with me then, we were row 12!

This was my second GNR show after Foxboro N1 2016, and the first as a "real fan" and not a guy who likes Appetite and a couple other songs. I remember being bummed at Foxboro by all the Chinese Democracy and last night I was sad they only did two songs from it The band sounded great and can definitely entertain an entire stadium. There were actually a few points where I was like "dang this is a lot of deep cuts in a row" but the audience was still loving it. The only drag I felt in the set was Perhaps -> Absurd because it was bookended by two jammy songs. The audience around me could've used a sing-y hit somewhere in there. Perhaps sounded rough, but it was nice to get to see the second performance. The setlist is definitely written specifically to save Axl's voice early on, and give him a few "classic Axl" moments scattered throughout without going too crazy until the end. I knew songs like Bad Obsession and PTU were probably added to help Axl's voice, but seeing the set play out in person shows how much more baritone voice he's using now than the 2016 sets, and the band sounds much better because of it. Axl's falsetto + rasp is also improving, so even though I'm not dying for a 2023 live album, the Mickey moments with the super clean falsetto weren't happening too much. When Axl did switch to that voice though the volume drop on the vocals was a little ridiculous, and my mom asked once if his mic died, I believe during Perhaps. And on the flipside, when Axl came back from falsetto voice with a lower note, from where I was standing the vocals were 5x louder than anything else for a few moments. Definitely noticed a lot of fader riding on the mixer; a lot of Slash's solos weren't punched up until 1-2 seconds after they started, and Axl's vocals had that same up and down effect. Highlights overall were Bad Obsession with Chrissy (amazing surprise, it's so GNR to have the guest song be the second on the set because they don't want to move the song to later), Reckless Life, This I Love, and SCOM. Knocking On Heaven's Door is also super fun in person even though I'm usually not listening to it on my own time. It was really Richard's only time in the spotlight too (besides ChiDem, and the Nightrain solo after) so it gave a little boost of energy to have what felt like a guest guitarist up there for a song. I remember in 2016 there was way more co-lead guitar moments and I'd love to see that return. RF is really fun to watch. Lowlights were Absurd (I love the song but Axl almost sing-songs this one now) and Rocket Queen just drags with the jam. Like I said before, I think this was worse too after the DTJ jam, Perhaps, and Absurd all preceding it. Overall, I'm so gd fortunate to have gotten to see them, and on the floor no less. At least 12 people around us left about 10 minutes to the rain so we had about 6 seats in our row and directly in front of us all to ourselves. The rain was so much fun and added to the ambience so much. It wasn't too cold and after you're soaked you don't notice anyway!

If they did a Hard Skool EP 2 but with the four studio songs I'd buy that in a heart beat. Keep the live stuff to live releases, or at the very least make it a full LP if you're using live tracks to round out a tracklist. The big question is if in 2024 will they do another A/B side with Atlas, or will Atlas be the single to push a release containing all 5 songs.

I was just listening to it with one headphone on and noticed the fill at 3:08 stick out in the left speaker. It sounds like it's the most obvious Richard playing on all 3 of the reunion singles? It could be Slash too but all of his fills are on the right guitar, unless he did both rhythms.

Lol they edited the description of the 7" to remove the bit about Slash/Duff/Axl writing Perhaps together this year.

If you add the length of time between Absurd and Hard Skool to Perhaps's release date, you'll get 10/6 which is the day GNR plays Power Trip.

Just put in my order!! This'll be my first GNR vinyl also, and it's fitting it'll be the first GNR song I've heard for the first time via an official release and not leaks or albums already out.

This version improves on the demo in every way for me. I love how much more clear the vocals are, especially in the choruses. The new drums also level up the chorus even more, and they're all around a better fit for the song. The layers that were removed from the demo make sense and help leave room for the band, and Slash's little riffs in the verses make more sense for the song than the NuGuns sounds there. I'm honestly really impressed that they managed to make a song this old make more sense.

Isn't that killswitch guitar at the beginning of Absurd uncredited to Bumblefoot? That wasn't "recreated" by Fortus.

I always thought the old drums were Brain. Were The Village Sessions all Josh Freese? I personally prefer the new HS to the old, but I can see how it's up for debate, especially with the different drum track. Perhaps feels much more like an improvement on every front. Love these new drum fills.

There’s clearly more thought put into this mix, the layers, etc. than HS.

GNR is making me feel like it’s 2006 instead of 2023, and frankly that’s fun for a few minutes. This has been a long, ridiculous ride.

The only link I have saved that didn't get nabbed is a copy of Soul Monster on SoundCloud. Slightly good news for a new album, slightly bad news for Soul Monster fans?

I spent some time thinking about this, but I can't come up with another group other than GNR where the singer goes from dramatically loud to dramatically soft singing at a moment's notice with a live band on stage. The amount of compression to compensate for the switches between the Axl voice and the Mickey voice doesn't exist in a live setting with the drums sometimes 10 feet away from Axl's mic. Pop acts typically have compression dialed way up on their mics, but their stage layout either has their bands isolated far away, or even off stage/to a backing track. Dave Matthews has a giant "button" on the ground in front of his microphone that will mute the mic when he's not standing in front of it to prevent bleed. When he stands on it to talk to the audience, or during a quiet section of the song, you can noticeably hear the crowd noise coming through the PA, and his voice is way more consistent volume-wise than Axl's is. I'm sure the sound person has their work cut out for them and has to ride the fader a LOT to get Axl's voice to sit nicely song-to-song without distorting the mic feed with crowd and band noise. There's no amount of vocal chain magic on a live stadium stage that can fully accommodate switching to and from quiet, weak Mickey voice without assistance from someone on the board too. And because of how random Axl will switch his voice, that has to affect the mix a ton. tl;dr Mickey quiet, Axl scream loud. In a controlled environment that's fine, but on stage... I feel for their sound mixer.

A "Lies II" format is the only thing in the realm of any possibility of a new LP.