Is this the best Chinese Democracy Tour so far?

[Rovim]

Can you guys clarify what you mean by the word 'safe' - because my meaning of the word with respect to music & touring doesn't fit with what you have said in the subsequent paragraphs of your posts?

R.

I think there is a gap between what this band sounds like when you put Chinese Democracy in your stereo and when you go to see a show now. The shows are fuckin' great

but when I think why Axl brought Bucket, Finck and Brain to Guns in the first place, and hearing the band now while still listening to Chinese Democracy, I see and hear 2 different bands.

This tour is safe in the sense that musically speaking, Axl hired Bumblefoot to replace Bucket to play in that style and it was the best he could have chosen imo, but if Axl

replaced Robin, which was really a modern, loose, outside of the box type player, in Ashba, which is more of an old school hard rock player, how does that serve the purpose

of this band or the new material?

I mean, even image wise, they look different. even Bumble - his crazy persona now replaced with a serious look while never moving too much while Ashba looks and plays like

a Slash fan. on top of that you get Fortus - a great guitar player which I love but if in the old line ups he balanced the 'modern' playing of Bucket and Robin, now you get D.J and him playing in similar style, while Bumble is the player that's left to balance his crazy playing along side his 'Gn'R' playing. I don't get that.

Exceptance comes with the price of compromise. Maybe Axl just learned to embrace what Guns should be? but isn't the album an artistic success? how can I be satisfied from the outcome of how the album sounds, and than see them live now and not really get the connection with how this current band looks and sounds on stage?

I am thrilled to see how the fans seems to really love and support this band in this tour but to me, it's not what it was suppose to be. on it's own, it's an amazing tour so far

but if the album turned out exactly like Axl wanted in the end, the live experience of a Guns show after Slash, I feel, was not imagined by Axl like this. jmo.

Edited March 31, 2010 by Rovim

[ITW 2012]

The next Chinese Democracy tour will be the best one. CD II should be out by then and we'll finally get a tour that's shaped around all new songs. I've been to all three CD tours and this one has been the best due to Axl's voice and the album actually being out. Robin's departure has also done a great deal in tightening up the live playing. I'd still kill to hear the 02 lineup with the 2010 Axl though. Bucket is the best guitar player GNR has had since Slash and you need go no further than track 6 on Chinese Democracy for proof of that.

[karlossacanell]

Sure... at leats for me is the best one. Axl is on fire, setlists are great normally and this band is doing well

[oki]

2009-2010 lineup is the best lineup since the original line up ...ashba is amazing ..he's the guitarist that gnr want after slash..ron,richard,dizzy,tommy,frank all are great ı think..ı want a studio album with this lineup..because this is the second best line up in gnr history..

[Spoon87]

Yes, of course it is!

There are so many aspects which make this tour the best so far. The guys are a unit, they sound fucking tight, the mood is great, the shows are spectacular (from what I can tell via youtube and concert reviews on here) and most of all, Axl enjoys performing again! If all this continues this way, they'll be on top of the rock world again! Then they'll create a hype similar to what they experienced in crazy South America, wherever they go!

I just hope I'll be able to see a show from them this year, so that I can verifly my opinion I gave above!

[Guest Satanisk_Slakt]

It seems to be. I was sceptical that it was so much CD-songs at first, but they've been great live, even the shitty ones like Shackler's Revenge. It will be great to see Axl in June.

[bacardimayne]

The fact that they played 13 of 14 CD songs live in Tokyo makes this the greatest CD tour yet. Hearing TIL and Shackler's live was probably the most awesome moment of my life.

[Young_Gun]

Bumble has taken on a Buckethead-like presences compared to the 06-07 tour for sure. Moves around alot less and has a serious look on his face alot of the time. Only difference is Bucket never did backing vocals. BBF still is more active then Bucket but compared to his 06-07 self, much has changed. His playing has improved 1000% though He plays note for note now which is awesome.

[kyrie]

Ok, I've been to six shows, two on every CD tour.

Each had their special moments:

02 in London, crazy show, awesome crowd, crazy guy gets up into the rafters running around, band was really energetic that night.

06 in Ottawa, you could tell the band was a little tighter, and Axl's voice was better.

10 in Toronto, one of the best Toronto crowds I've seen in years (Toronto is known for lame crowds), miles past what Toronto 02 and Toronto 06 had as far as energy. Axl sounds great, DJ has stage presence far beyond what Bucket did and a fair bit past Finck, the band sounds tighter than ever - I don't cringe at parts of November Rain anymore, for example (the solos in that were always hit and miss live). GN'R are playing tongs of new material, people have lighters out for This I Love, we get to hear Catcher in the Rye...

Toronto 2010 was probably the best setlist I've seen this band do (or Hamilton, which got TWAT instead of Catcher). I wish the crowd had been 2002 London style crazy, but it wasn't bad.

Overall - this is definitely the best tour yet. It's a huge thank you to the fans. I mean look at the dates - 13 shows in Canada, 5 in Brazil, a bunch of countries they've never played in... this is an AWESOME start. Europe in the summer and hopefully North Amercia in the fall, Australia/New Zealand at some point, and I really hope they get to do South Africa at some point also.

After that? Second leg? They could tour the fuck out of Japan - hit the capital of the other islands since they've really only played Honshu. Matsuyama, Sapporo, Fukuoka (the other three capitals), then throw in another Tokyo gig, another Osaka, another Chiba (sure it's right outside Tokyo but they've done it before), and some others - Nagoya, Sendai, Kanazawa, Hakodate (next largest city in Hokkaido), Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. With trains being awsome there you get a lot of fans from surrounding cities, and you cover it like you covered Canada - only it has a way higher population (over 120 million compared to our 30 million) who LOVE concerts. Oh and at the end fly down to Okinawa and do a show that'll get lots of army grunts

[gunsguy]

The best one? YES by far! why? They are a band now, not searching for that something, they have found it and are better for it. This band now is the one you all need to see

[appetite4illusions]

Absolutely.

[karlossacanell]

Bumble has taken on a Buckethead-like presences compared to the 06-07 tour for sure. Moves around alot less and has a serious look on his face alot of the time. Only difference is Bucket never did backing vocals. BBF still is more active then Bucket but compared to his 06-07 self, much has changed. His playing has improved 1000% though He plays note for note now which is awesome.

Yes, he is doing a great job... he has explained it in several interviews, he has learnt every part, he plays with his own amps and he is playing better than he did in 2006...

[Todo Poderoso Timão]

It's hard to answer this question.

But for most part I agree with Rovim.

Ok, I recognize this current band is musically better, but the guys I learned to love after years missing Slash were Bucket and Robin.

Is Bbft more 'creative' than Bucket? Maybe. DJ plays better than Robin? I think so. But it's a question of passion and love.

I"m not complaining at all! Ashba is amazing, I simply LOVE Ballad of Death, and so is Bbft and his solos, Pink Panther and etc. But, in the same way, we could find another guy, younger than Axl only to sing "musically better" than Axl, so the band would be "musically better". That's NOT the point, obviously! It's a matter of LOVE. Did you understand my point?

Losing Bucket and mainly Robin was like losing Slash in the past.

As I said, I learned to love Robin and Bucket the same way I always did regarding Axl Rose.

Maybe it's a matter of accepting and get used to it.

[AGS]

hell yeah! it is! i saw them live in Buenos Aires and im still shocked... what n amazing show.

if u told me when CD was out that Shacklers Revenge (one of my fav GnR tracks ever) would be played live... i wouldnt believe it... that song live has so much power, the chours are so emotional... great song by Bucked n Axl...

the best thing could happen, is a new album with contribuitions from the "new" guys... DJ, Frank n Foot (well, the guitars from ron in CD and other tracks are amazing, love his fretless work, i love how Frank add some new beats to every song, they sound more complete...)

can we estimate in front of how many fans they played since the start? if someone can give some data from the Asia tour it would be nice to see all the numbers...

[Powerage5]

Without a doubt.

[MistaBrownstone]

2009-2010 lineup is the best lineup since the original line up ...ashba is amazing ..he's the guitarist that gnr want after slash..ron,richard,dizzy,tommy,frank all are great ı think..ı want a studio album with this lineup..because this is the second best line up in gnr history..

I almost never post here, just read but when I saw this I had to comment, this is exactly how I feel, Ashba is to me at least the best thing to happen to GnR in a long time, I fuckin love that man, on and off stage. I mean I think the other members are great too, not like I'm saying they're nothing but, something about Ashba in particular. This lineup is amazing and to me work well together as a band, love them.

To answer the threads question, yes, yes I do.

[Freddie Mercury's Ghost]

2002 was a joke, and although those players wrote the material on Chinese Democracy, the current lineup will no-doubt put out something AWESOME in the future.

Seriously, get the band as it is in the studio ASAP.

[Rovim]

2002 was a joke, and although those players wrote the material on Chinese Democracy, the current lineup will no-doubt put out something AWESOME in the future.

Seriously, get the band as it is in the studio ASAP.

Seriously?

A - 2002 Gn'R had an all star line up: Axl had his top choice of players in Guns and musically, those musicians defined the sound of what the New Guns N' Roses material

sounds like.

B - When you say 'the current lineup will no doubt put out something awesome', should I just take your word on it? I mean how do you know? and why would Axl just erase or not use amazing recorded material? He obviously didn't do it with Bucket's guitar parts or even Paul's...

C - Seriously, Axl said that for the next album (cdll) it's the same players which makes sense to me, as he also stated that he views the album we got as half of the whole Chinese Democracy concept.

Edited April 1, 2010 by Rovim

[BassLikeHot]

Fuck y'all. The Buckehead/Brain/Axl/Stinson/Pitman quintet is the meal ticket. You've got Stinson hitting that rolling bass lick ("Riad"), the killer Brain/BH dynamic (can't be overstated enough), Pitman adding the sub-bass/density, and Axl doing his Stephanie Seymour thang.

[axlfan88]

2002 was a joke, and although those players wrote the material on Chinese Democracy, the current lineup will no-doubt put out something AWESOME in the future.

Seriously, get the band as it is in the studio ASAP.

Seriously?

A - 2002 Gn'R had an all star line up: Axl had his top choice of players in Guns and musically, those musicians defined the sound of what the New Guns N' Roses material

sounds like.

B - When you say 'the current lineup will no doubt put out something awesome', should I just take your word on it? I mean how do you know? and why would Axl just erase or not use amazing recorded material? He obviously didn't do it with Bucket's guitar parts or even Paul's...

C - Seriously, Axl said that for the next album (cdll) it's the same players which makes sense to me, as he also stated that he views the album we got as half of the whole Chinese Democracy concept.

Exactly. None of the guitarists in the current line-up has the brilliance of Buckethead.

[Roderick]

This tour is far from being the best Chinese Democracy tour. and just so we're clear: I love this band and this line up and it's great to see Axl happy and kicking ass and the chemistry is there, but to be honest, I don't think it was even Axl's first choice.

Robin, Bucket and Brain were huge assets to Gn'r both in studio and on stage. unforutunatly, we never got to the point were we could see and hear Bucket on stage playing the

There Was A Time solo or Robin playing the This I Love solo with Brain.

I think this tour is great but it's also very safe, compared to what the band was in 2002 or even in 2006. Robin and Bucket were a great unit imo, and Fortus have that 'old school' feel that balanced Bucket's out of space playing and Robin's loose playing so we got the best from both worlds. also Bucket and Brain always had amazing unity in their playing so all of those things made the band very exciting for me.

Now, the band is respected and Gn'r is looked at as more of a rock n' roll band. Ashba is mostly loved and brought his old school vibe to the band and that's cool,

but I can't help but feel we lost something original and fresh with Robin and Bucket (the album is evidence for this) and what we have now is a very good compromise that we

had to except because Axl had to except. I'm not comlaining. this is a good time to be a Gn'R fan and the shows are great but I feel Axl first choice was perfect.

damn i agree with this completely, the 2002 lineup was the most interesting and ooriginal, what a shame it couldn't reach it's full potential. Bumble is amazing in the band too (also seems to be ag great guy) though but bucket was more intersting.

i personally am not a fan of having ashba in the band though for various reasons, i prefered robin who was more original, even if he was sloppy or loose, and wasn't a slash wannabe

oh and brain seems to be a better drummer than frank (who is good too but still)

Edited April 1, 2010 by Roderick

[ManetsBR]

As long as they hit the states it will be. In terms of band quality, it definitely is.

no riots.

Wrong.

[bacardimayne]

2002 was a joke, and although those players wrote the material on Chinese Democracy, the current lineup will no-doubt put out something AWESOME in the future.

Seriously, get the band as it is in the studio ASAP.

I have to agree. The 2002 lineup had some great musicians (Bucket/Brain), but it also had Axl at his absolute worst, and Finck fucking stuff up. I'd love to see what kind of record this band would put out if given the opportunity.

[dimitrisaxl]

2002 line up was the best for recording CD because of the talent but the worst on stage. There was no chemistry between them and the styles of BH & Finck didn't look lige GN'R.

[Rovim]

2002 line up was the best for recording CD because of the talent but the worst on stage. There was no chemistry between them and the styles of BH & Finck didn't look lige GN'R.

It's getting old... MGS '02 was amazing, Boston '02, Pittsburgh and so many other shows were brilliant. Besides, it's not like the Bucket/Robin/Brain line up had a chance to play

the whole album live.

Buckethead played the old Gn'R material like only he could and the songs they did play, sounded great. Robin played There Was A Time with great emotion in '06 and Brain was the best drummer this band had imo.