Prostitute 6/4/2014: How Good Was It?

[magisme]

On the forum, the performance was almost universally praised. I recall having a complete nutter relapse, if only for a couple days. Still, I pretty much came in my pants, volcano62 style. New song in the set list, voice on point, energy - I was all about it.

So I'm at my brother's apartment the other day - I've brought him up before but for the uninitiated all the GNR shows I've been to I've attended with him and while I'm a slightly bigger GNR fan in general he's a bigger nutter, for all of them - and as we do we began to talk about music, and as happens we came to GNR. You have to understand that my brother will not say anything bad about Axl, but he's not crazy either, like he thinks Hogan ears suck and he admits that current GNR just means Axl and not really GNR, and all that, but he won't say anything super critical, and he certainly doesn't have a distaste for anything about Axl. I forget what it was we were talking about, but I said to him, "Doesn't _____ bother you?" And he said, "Axl can't really do anything wrong for me. How can I be mad at Axl? Do you remember being 13 and listening to GNR? Nothing was better. He brought us that. I can't ever be upset with him." I still don't have a good rebuttal for that and for about 5 minutes I thought maybe I'd start to go a lot easier on Axl.

Anyway, as I was feeling bad about myself for those 5 minutes, I said that Axl can still pull it off when he wants to and asked him if he'd seen the Prostitute performance. He hadn't because he's a normal superfan who doesn't feel the need to take his fandom to the internets, so I showed him the video. His response: "Oh, man. He's so old and slow. You can see he wants to get into it at times, but he just can't. He's gotta call Slash. It's almost too late."

I tried for a few minutes to get him excited about the performance, pointing out the screams and such, but he was unimpressed. He didn't have anything negative to say about the screams, but they didn't thrill him.

His reaction threw me for a loop since I'm always the more critical of the two of us. Changed my whole perspective on shit.

Now that we've had some time to come off the high of Prostitute's unexpected appearance. How good was it really? For the record, I still love it but I see what my brother was saying.

Edited April 8, 2015 by magisme

[IncitingChaos]

Better audio here.

Your brother is right about his stage movement and presence here. A lot of it was Axl just trying to read the lyrics though. He couldn't get too into the song because he didn't know the lyrics. I do admit he's slow now though. But also he didn't have his pre planned stage movements like jungle.

He focused on singing here and did a great job! The vocals are undeniably great here. He hit almost every note for once.

[tentonneskeleton]

I guess for someone who doesn't watch much of the recent performances, it doesn't seem as much of a great performance as it would to people who have. Especially if he'd be comparing it to Illusions-era level of performances, instead of Chinese-era performances.

Personally, there are a few key moments here that I love, but overall it's not something to get crazy excited about. I went nuts the first time I watched it, but the more I watch it, the less excited I get.

[MrSoftie]

Still gives me chills. He hit every note, with power, there was rasp on a normally rasp less song, I can't complain about Axl's singing. But yup, he stood pretty still and just focused on the singing.

[Silent Jay]

He's sometimes out of tune for sure. But when i heard the scream and the outro, it made me look like a crazy fanboys again. And Prostitute itself was a nice surprise.

There was a time both night was much better. Axl just killed it.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Silent Jay

[SoulMonster]

It was a really good performance. Probably not very exciting for casual fans there in the audience, because the song is, well, medicore and he didn't give a great stage performance, but for all of us who recognized it as the first really well sung version of a very rare live song, and you could see the effort he made and the kick he got from doing it.

[jbhutto]

Ax man hits all the big marks here. Maybe less impressive in comparison to 2010, 2006, etc, but a step in the right direction for current Axl. He might not be moving too much but you can see several times that he's into it. It was a triumph given his current state and a solid performance in general.

[D-GenerationX]

I guess for someone who doesn't watch much of the recent performances, it doesn't seem as much of a great performance as it would to people who have. Especially if he'd be comparing it to Illusions-era level of performances, instead of Chinese-era performances.

Personally, there are a few key moments here that I love, but overall it's not something to get crazy excited about. I went nuts the first time I watched it, but the more I watch it, the less excited I get.

I would be in this camp.

I think the performance is pretty good. But more so when compared to the horror show we were seeing in the South American clips from 3 months prior.

[The Glow Inc.]

I doubt any non Guns fan would watch that and would say that it's a great performance to be honest.

It sounds awkward and the song itself doesn't help as it doesn't have much drive nor direction in my opinion.

I mean, just look at the audience...

[bacardimayne]

Does the guy actually know the song?

[Mendez]

https://youtu.be/Gou0gOyoYEo

Same vocal performance as the 6/4, only you can hear him clearer without all the echo and singing fans (which IMO made him sound better by masking his weaker falsetto on verses)

[RussTCB]

I can't be the only person that would love to watch video of magisme trying to convince anyone else that a recent Axl performance was good.

[Spirit]

https://youtu.be/Gou0gOyoYEo

Same vocal performance as the 6/4, only you can hear him clearer without all the echo and singing fans (which IMO made him sound better by masking his weaker falsetto on verses)

It's not the same performance though. That's from the 6th.

[tinyrobot]

Does Slash make you younger?

I need to call that man!

[Black Sabbath]

I was there and it really was that good. I get chills every time I watch it and see Axl nail that first scream and you can tell he knows he did it.

[CheapJon]

I can't be the only person that would love to watch video of magisme trying to convince anyone else that a recent Axl performance was good.

That would be amazing.

I'm a bit heartbroken about the fact that I'm with Mags' brother on this one, damn.

[Apollo]

Specifically what other singers use a monitor to help them with the lyrics? People on here always say that it's a common thing but never mention which bands.

[ChineseDemocracy2004]

Those fans in Vegas were lucky.

Edited April 8, 2015 by ChineseDemocracy2004

[Spirit]

Specifically what other singers use a monitor to help them with the lyrics? People on here always say that it's a common thing but never mention which bands.

Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Elton John.

[RussTCB]

Specifically what other singers use a monitor to help them with the lyrics? People on here always say that it's a common thing but never mention which bands.

Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Elton John.

Ozzy as well. I've seen newer acts use them a lot too.

I honestly couldn't care less if someone used a teleprompter or not. As long as the performance overall is good, I'm down with however it happens.

[Rdeyahlxp]

I remember cringing a little every time I hear those 2 guys at the beginning of the video creaming their pants and screaming PRAWSETUDE and I still do lol. I probably can't say that too loud, because I recall reading that they moderate here ...

[Bards]

It was cool. It's always nice when they dip into cuts they don't usually do. I enjoyed it. Not epic or monumental or anything, but I'm glad it happened as opposed to didn't happen.

[Tom2112]

I get what he's saying... but Axl is old! or at least getting old, some fans just don't care for the facts of life... people get old, the odds of Axl hitting us with a show with 1993 energy in 2016 - on, are very unlikely.

This performance had some points where he absolutely nailed it, but I think Axl finds this song difficult to nail and It's obvious. He talks about You could be mine being hard and painting himself into a corner... The entire CD album is far worse, with seemingly no thought put into "how am I going to sing this live?". Good performance not great.

[Bumblefeet]

It's a song that doesn't work too great live because of the busy arrangement. I wish Axl would get a piano out for it and just play it more intimate instead of the powerhouse track that it is on the album. There is actually a nice melody to it but it kind of got buried under all the guitars and production.

I do like that they played it live but I feel that they do a better job with Catcher, IRS and TWAT.

[Nosaj Thing]

In comparison to the utterly awful performances of 2011-2014, I would say it was truly great. In comparison to 2010 performances, decent, but not that good.