Axl's voice

[Freddie Mercury's Ghost]

I can't recall any full concerts where Axl sounded great. Only on certain events such as the VMA's or the Freddy Mercury tribute.

2010 comes closest to a perfect Axl concert to me.

Argentina 1992 was the best full show Axl ever did vocally, IMO

[AxlIsGod.]

I can't recall any full concerts where Axl sounded great. Only on certain events such as the VMA's or the Freddy Mercury tribute.

2010 comes closest to a perfect Axl concert to me.

2010 was probably the most consistent Axl we've had. My favourite clip has to be the late show 88.

[SweetRose]

This is two of my favs.

[Snowmass]

I can't recall any full concerts where Axl sounded great. Only on certain events such as the VMA's or the Freddy Mercury tribute.

2010 comes closest to a perfect Axl concert to me.

Argentina 1992 was the best full show Axl ever did vocally, IMO

Chilling....dominant. This (boys n girls) was GnR. Epic shit. Nice post.

[bran]

axl has plenty left in the tank

[trqster]

I can't recall any full concerts where Axl sounded great. Only on certain events such as the VMA's or the Freddy Mercury tribute.

2010 comes closest to a perfect Axl concert to me.

2010 was probably the most consistent Axl we've had. My favourite clip has to be the late show 88.

This.

[Larry B]

Axl sounds like a demented grandmother these days.

[Guns n' Swedes]

I can't recall any full concerts where Axl sounded great. Only on certain events such as the VMA's or the Freddy Mercury tribute.

2010 comes closest to a perfect Axl concert to me.

2010 was probably the most consistent Axl we've had. My favourite clip has to be the late show 88.

This.

Totally agree! I wonder if he would have sounded this good for a whole concert that night.

[Jordan Rose]

Tried to find a thread about Axl not getting in shape for shit but this one will have to do. From a 15,000 word profile on Springsteen in the New Yorker:

At 62 he remains dispiritingly handsome, preposterously fit. (“He has practically the same waist size as when I met him, when we were fifteen,” says Steve Van Zandt, who does not.) Some of this has to do with his abstemious inclinations; Van Zandt says Springsteen is “the only guy I know—I think the only guy I know at all—who never did drugs.” He’s followed more or less the same exercise regimen for thirty years: he runs on a treadmill and, with a trainer, works out with weights. It has paid off. His muscle tone approximates a fresh tennis ball. And yet, with the tour a month away, he laughed at the idea that he was ready. “I’m not remotely close,” he said, slumping into a chair twenty rows back from the stage.

Preparing for a tour is a process far more involved than middle-aged workouts designed to stave off premature infarction. “Think of it this way: performing is like sprinting while screaming for three, four minutes,” Springsteen said. “And then you do it again. And then you do it again. And then you walk a little, shouting the whole time. And so on. Your adrenaline quickly overwhelms your conditioning.” His style in performance is joyously demonic, as close as a white man of Social Security age can get to James Brown circa 1962 without risking a herniated disk or a shattered pelvis. Concerts last in excess of three hours, without a break, and he is constantly dancing, screaming, imploring, mugging, kicking, windmilling, crowd-surfing, climbing a drum riser, jumping on an amp, leaping off Roy Bittan’s piano.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/07/30/120730fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all

Edited July 24, 2012 by Jordan Rose

[Jordan Rose]

The band rehearses not so much to learn how to play particular songs as to see what songs work with other songs, to figure out a basic set list (with countless alternatives) that will fill all of Springsteen’s demands: to air the new work and his latest themes; to play the expected hits for the casual fans; to work up enough surprises and rarities for fans who have seen him hundreds of times; and, especially, to pace the show from frenzy to calm and back again. In the past several years, Springsteen has been taking requests from the crowd. He has never been stumped. “You can take the band out of the bar, but you can’t take the bar out of the band,” Van Zandt says.

The E Street Band members are not Springsteen’s equals. “This is not the Beatles,” as Weinberg puts it. They are salaried musicians; in 1989, they were fired en masse. They await his call to record, to tour, to rehearse. And so when Springsteen sprang out of his chair and said, “O.K., time to work,” they straightened up and watched for his cue.

Huh . . . two . . . three . . . four.

As the anthemic opener, “We Take Care of Our Own,” washed over the empty seats, I stood at the back of the hall next to the sound engineer, John Cooper, a rangy, unflappable Hoosier, who was monitoring a vast soundboard and a series of laptops. One hard drive contains the lyrics and keys for hundreds of songs, so that when Springsteen calls for something off the cuff the song quickly appears on TelePrompters within sight of him and his bandmates. (The crutch is hardly unique—Sinatra, in late career, used a TelePrompter, and so do the Stones and many other bands.) Although more than half the show will be the same from night to night, the rest is up for grabs.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Jordan Rose

[rock4eva]

I can't recall any full concerts where Axl sounded great. Only on certain events such as the VMA's or the Freddy Mercury tribute.

2010 comes closest to a perfect Axl concert to me.

Argentina 1992 was the best full show Axl ever did vocally, IMO

Chilling....dominant. This (boys n girls) was GnR. Epic shit. Nice post.

Thank you for this video, love the interpreter. Poor girl was trying to keep up with him as he paced the stage

[ARX77]

Tried to find a thread about Axl not getting in shape for shit but this one will have to do. From a 15,000 word profile on Springsteen in the New Yorker:

At 62 he remains dispiritingly handsome, preposterously fit. (“He has practically the same waist size as when I met him, when we were fifteen,” says Steve Van Zandt, who does not.) Some of this has to do with his abstemious inclinations; Van Zandt says Springsteen is “the only guy I know—I think the only guy I know at all—who never did drugs.” He’s followed more or less the same exercise regimen for thirty years: he runs on a treadmill and, with a trainer, works out with weights. It has paid off. His muscle tone approximates a fresh tennis ball. And yet, with the tour a month away, he laughed at the idea that he was ready. “I’m not remotely close,” he said, slumping into a chair twenty rows back from the stage.

Preparing for a tour is a process far more involved than middle-aged workouts designed to stave off premature infarction. “Think of it this way: performing is like sprinting while screaming for three, four minutes,” Springsteen said. “And then you do it again. And then you do it again. And then you walk a little, shouting the whole time. And so on. Your adrenaline quickly overwhelms your conditioning.” His style in performance is joyously demonic, as close as a white man of Social Security age can get to James Brown circa 1962 without risking a herniated disk or a shattered pelvis. Concerts last in excess of three hours, without a break, and he is constantly dancing, screaming, imploring, mugging, kicking, windmilling, crowd-surfing, climbing a drum riser, jumping on an amp, leaping off Roy Bittan’s piano.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/07/30/120730fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all

As Im sure most can attest to, for me its hard to not get winded just trying to stand and sing every song at the show. I can only imagine trying to sing and run or walk... I will say this Axl is in better shape than some think, but he could absolutely be more fit than he is. Some say he is good shape for 50... Well yeah for a 50 YO accountant but not for a 50 YO professional athlete or model or movie star or in this case rock star. His only job is to take care of his body and voice. He's not getting up at 5 AM every day and commuting an hour both ways to work or catching 5 AM flights and living out of a suitcase and cheap hotels while trying to make a living. I hate to use Slash as an example but Slash is a guy that got a little pudgy a while back but within the last few years has gotten in GREAT shape and is pretty jacked. If axl could get back to the shape he was in in 2006 he would be good to go.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

Sorry to bump this but I was looking at videos from Estranged from 2012 and comparing them to 91-93 and when Axl used rasp or whatever in 2012 it kind of sounds like it did in 91-93 same with Jungle and Nightrain IMO.

[Estranged Reality]

His voice in Philly

The thing that makes me really sad about this show is that it's literally the first time they've played in my area in years, and I wasn't able to go because of school (and finances, sure, but mainly school). And then it turned out to probably be his best vocal performance since 2010, and one of his best period since the '01/'02 comeback.

Really wish I coulda gone to that gig.

[Tyler Drama]

I was there

[SR_GR]

I think he sounds great at the moment, as he has from at least 2010. Rasp or no rasp, I do not care.

Of course he is very fit. He is running around hot stages under even hotter stage lights for more than three hours and singing.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

His voice in Philly

The thing that makes me really sad about this show is that it's literally the first time they've played in my area in years, and I wasn't able to go because of school (and finances, sure, but mainly school). And then it turned out to probably be his best vocal performance since 2010, and one of his best period since the '01/'02 comeback.

Really wish I coulda gone to that gig.

That sucks I had to go to a wedding the day of the Hartford show

[drtydane]

And u call urselves fans. I took time off for nyc an Worcester. Its my fav band ffs

[Black Sabbath]

His voice in Philly

The thing that makes me really sad about this show is that it's literally the first time they've played in my area in years, and I wasn't able to go because of school (and finances, sure, but mainly school). And then it turned out to probably be his best vocal performance since 2010, and one of his best period since the '01/'02 comeback.

Really wish I coulda gone to that gig.

I'd say it's a tie between that show and Atlantic City, which I was at. It was just amazing.

If I remember correctly, I didn't go to Philly because of some financial reasons, and I would have had to go alone (though I went to Camden alone, which is an even worse jungle, but still). Still beat myself up over it a bit seeing as how I most likely would have met Bumble before the show, along with Axl after the show.

[Guest Broskirose]

I went to Camden alone, which is an even worse jungle

[Black Sabbath]

Granted I met up with GNRSkidRow1 inside, but still.

I was lucky enough to park literally right next to the venue, run in, and after the show, run out and get the fuck out of there.

Scariest part was when I had to get cash out to pay for parking. I had to drive a block to the bank, get out of my car and walk up to the ATM and get money out. It was slightly terrifying.

[Tyler Drama]

Shoulda parked in the aquarium!