06/11/22 - Solvesborg, SE - Sweden Rock Festival

[Powderfinger]

14 hours ago, Swedish said:

My thoughts on the show from last night:

The band was about 35 minutes late (for a show that already started at 10pm) and the people around me, as well as what sounded like a big chunk of the crowd, where booing them for about ten minutes before they hit the stage and it felt like they never really won the crowd over again. 

As far as Axl’s performance is concerned, it was as you would expect based on recent shows, not better not worse (apart from WTTJ which sadly sounded really bad, something the crowd very much noted because the anticipation from the crowd seemed to die out REALLY fast). My friend that hadn’t seen them before however said that she thought Axl sounded a lot better overall then she expected.

Set list wise I quite enjoyed how they have shaken things up a bit, especially by not having the whole ballad chunk after Slash’s solo anymore. With that said however they got to cut down the amount of jams and stuff. It gets really tedious, especially at a festival. Some covers need to go as well, they played two back to back covers during the encore when they had already gone an hour over their designated end time. However I’m really glad that I got to see Reckless Life, You’re Crazy, Absurd and Hard Skool.

Overall I thought the show felt like another day at the job for the band, something that I felt rubbed off on the crowd as well. It was an okay show, I’m glad I went, but it’s definitely one of the worst GNR shows I’ve attended. However I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was a festival gig and because the show went on until around 1:40 AM.

 

Did you see Mercyful Fate the night before Swedish? 
 

Any insight as to why they were 30 mins late, was it a festival thing or band thing? 

[cineater]

2 hours ago, Axl S said:

Now I'm picturing Slash having to miss a show and Axl getting on the phone to Bumble and Robin to call in a huge favour.

They still have the option to reschedule if it's not a festival.  Dizzy plays guitar too, I think.  One would think they have already got back up plans.  What is just occurring to me, they were probably on top of before the tour even started.  Or maybe not, they were out on the streets before the tour started.

[AxlRoseCDII]

9 minutes ago, cineater said:

They still have the option to reschedule if it's not a festival.  Dizzy plays guitar too, I think.  One would think they have already got back up plans.  What is just occurring to me, they were probably on top of before the tour even started.  Or maybe not, they were out on the streets before the tour started.

Are you suggesting Dizzy Reed takes guitar duties from Slash for a few shows??? Even if he technically could...that would be a complete joke...

[Alejandro GNR]

I decided to watch some videos from yesterdays show...

Axl is at the worst he’s been since Bridge school. Just listening him attempt some rasp in BiB and nearly choking and sounding dreadful really worries me.

Am I the only one who thinks this singing is unacceptable?

[Powderfinger]

15 minutes ago, Alejandro GNR said:

I decided to watch some videos from yesterdays show...

Axl is at the worst he’s been since Bridge school. Just listening him attempt some rasp in BiB and nearly choking and sounding dreadful really worries me.

Am I the only one who thinks this singing is unacceptable?

No you’re not the only one. It’s pretty bad. 

[2020_Intensions]

If Axl can't figure his voice out he needs to just retire .. He's going to completely ruin his image again if he keeps this up 

[swirkh]

I don't get why they slow down songs. Slower songs only enhance the weakness of Axl's voice. In 2018 there was also barely any rasp on Jungle, but they played it at faster tempo so it still sounded acceptable.

There aren't many videos from Sweden, but I watched a couple. Jungle was atrocious, BIB was ok IMO, SCOM & November Rain sounded as usual.

I'm seeing them next Monday in Warsaw, and I'm gonna have a good time regardless of Axl's weak vocals. But I still hope he improves over the following couple shows. Even a tiny bit, to match Europe 2018 level.

Edited June 13, 2022 by swirkh

[Lies They Tell]

1 hour ago, swirkh said:

I don't get why they slow down songs.

Considering that everyone and their mother were complaining about the fast tempo back in the day, it's not really surprising that they've slowed it down.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Lies They Tell

[RocketTess]

I was there. It was not a good show for them. The first big problem was that they were late. I think they lost the audience respect because of that. The second was the sound, Axls voice was bad. Third, I think (since it was a festival gig) they should have shortened the set. 
 

The interaction with the audience is not there, compared with other bands. Axl isn’t trying to get the crowd going. 
 

I’m really happy we got the whole set though, they were schedueld for 2,5 hours and played 3. 
 

 

[Stay.Of.Execution]

2 minutes ago, RocketTess said:

he first big problem was that they were late. I think they lost the audience respect because of that.

 

When did audiences become such pussys?

[RocketTess]

18 minutes ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

When did audiences become such pussys?

Last time Guns played Sweden Rock they were an hour late. All I heard people talk about before the show was if they would be late or not. They really have anger issues with Axl being late. I don’t care about it, they played 30 min longer than they should have. I’m happy 🤗

[DurhamGirl]

Surely Slash, Duff and everybody else touring with them can hear how Axl is sounding, if so why is nothing said, is it all about money at the ruination of the bands legacy.  I really dont get it, I am sure the young Axl would have been appalled at the deterioration  of his voice.    I find it really sad. 

[Rovim]

15 minutes ago, DurhamGirl said:

Surely Slash, Duff and everybody else touring with them can hear how Axl is sounding, if so why is nothing said, is it all about money at the ruination of the bands legacy.  I really dont get it, I am sure the young Axl would have been appalled at the deterioration  of his voice.    I find it really sad. 

what could they say to Axl that would actually improve his vocals? and the thing is: Axl is not young anymore, so why would you expect him to sound like when he was half his current age?

I also think this is just the second show of this year's tour so he always improves at least somewhat as the tour progresses. It's not that bad except for a few very challenging songs imo.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Rovim

[Swedish]

6 hours ago, Powderfinger said:

 

Did you see Mercyful Fate the night before Swedish? 
 

Any insight as to why they were 30 mins late, was it a festival thing or band thing? 

Sadly I missed them because of work so I only went on the Saturday, but I arrived to the camping spot late Friday night so I heard a bit of the show from there and it sounded great!

It seemed like the delay was a band thing, the stage looked ready and every other band that played that day started, as well as ended, on time.

[Lies They Tell]

4 minutes ago, DurhamGirl said:

Surely Slash, Duff and everybody else touring with them can hear how Axl is sounding, if so why is nothing said, is it all about money at the ruination of the bands legacy.  I really dont get it, I am sure the young Axl would have been appalled at the deterioration  of his voice.    I find it really sad. 

I don't get this mentality. What exactly do you think is the solution? Axl can't get his old voice back. He won't have rasp in his voice no matter what he does, so what exactly are Slash and Duff supposed to say or do? What is Axl supposed to do?

Should they just quit? Is that the solution? There's tons of people who still want to see them live, so why should they quit just because some people have an issue with the fact that an old man can't sing like he used to.

Some people have suggested that they should replace difficult songs with songs that suit Axl's voice better. But they can't stop playing WTTJ, SCOM, PC, NR etc...

Some people have suggested that they should play the songs in a different key, but that won't change the rasp issue. As far as I can tell Axl can only really sing with rasp when he is using a low voice. You can't sing songs like WTTJ, SCOM, PC and NR with a low voice. You can maybe sing them with a mid voice, but that is raspless as well.

So I don't get this mentality. Do you just want GNR to quit? Do you want Axl to use playback and lipsync instead of using his real voice? Is that the solution? I feel like the simple solution would be to just stop going to the shows if you don't enjoy the performances. Nobody is forcing you to watch the shows.

Or are you just concerned about Axl's reputation? There's always going to be people like the swedish reporter. There's always going to be people like Justin Hawkins who appreciate the fact that an old man like Axl can still hit the notes. So I don't think you need to worry about Axl's reputation. If you don't like the performances don't go watch the shows. But let others enjoy it as long as GNR still exists.

[Stay.Of.Execution]

57 minutes ago, DurhamGirl said:

Surely Slash, Duff and everybody else touring with them can hear how Axl is sounding, if so why is nothing said, is it all about money at the ruination of the bands legacy.  I really dont get it, I am sure the young Axl would have been appalled at the deterioration  of his voice.    I find it really sad. 

And what do you know about the band's legacy?

[Alexmee239]

35 minutes ago, Lies They Tell said:

You can't sing songs like NR with a low voice. 

Lmao, listen to Live Era and even NITL Selects. 

[jamillos]

35 minutes ago, Lies They Tell said:

I don't get this mentality. What exactly do you think is the solution? Axl can't get his old voice back. He won't have rasp in his voice no matter what he does, so what exactly are Slash and Duff supposed to say or do? What is Axl supposed to do?

Should they just quit? Is that the solution? There's tons of people who still want to see them live, so why should they quit just because some people have an issue with the fact that an old man can't sing like he used to.

Some people have suggested that they should replace difficult songs with songs that suit Axl's voice better. But they can't stop playing WTTJ, SCOM, PC, NR etc...

Some people have suggested that they should play the songs in a different key, but that won't change the rasp issue. As far as I can tell Axl can only really sing with rasp when he is using a low voice. You can't sing songs like WTTJ, SCOM, PC and NR with a low voice. You can maybe sing them with a mid voice, but that is raspless as well.

So I don't get this mentality. Do you just want GNR to quit? Do you want Axl to use playback and lipsync instead of using his real voice? Is that the solution? I feel like the simple solution would be to just stop going to the shows if you don't enjoy the performances. Nobody is forcing you to watch the shows.

Or are you just concerned about Axl's reputation? There's always going to be people like the swedish reporter. There's always going to be people like Justin Hawkins who appreciate the fact that an old man like Axl can still hit the notes. So I don't think you need to worry about Axl's reputation. If you don't like the performances don't go watch the shows. But let others enjoy it as long as GNR still exists.

Jesus Christ, nobody is asking them to stop playing Jungle, SCOM etc., there's nothing you can do about that. But the solution would be "Hey Axl, why the fuck do you keep insisting on doing songs like Better etc., when it's clearly a pain to do and listen to?" Case solved, but I suppose that takes balls.

[Lies They Tell]

 

27 minutes ago, jamillos said:

Jesus Christ, nobody is asking them to stop playing Jungle, SCOM etc., there's nothing you can do about that. But the solution would be "Hey Axl, why the fuck do you keep insisting on doing songs like Better etc., when it's clearly a pain to do and listen to?" Case solved, but I suppose that takes balls.

Better sounds pretty much the same as most of the other songs they play. Getting rid of one or two songs won't change anything.

If your solution is that they should replace most of their songs with something else, then what would the replacement songs be? Axl sings with a high voice on most of their material.

There's like Bad Obsession and what else? Down On the Farm maybe? Sure they can replace a couple of songs, but at the end of the day what would be the difference? As long as songs like WTTJ, SCOM, PC and NV have no rasp, people like the swedish reporter will say that Axl sounds terrible. Replacing Better with Bad Obsession won't change that.

Besides, when they release new material, I'm sure that there will be plenty of songs that Axl has sung with a high voice. Should those songs never be released or should those songs never be played live? Or should Axl re-record all the vocals and sing them with a low voice instead before they release them? I certainly hope that he doesn't re-record all the great raspy vocals with some low voice shit just to please some random people on the internet.

There may be some very minor things that Axl could do with the setlist, but overall these demands are pretty unrealistic. Even if he would bring back Bad Obsession and Down On The Farm, that wouldn't be a permanent solution. People would get bored with those songs quickly and they would start complaining about the setlist. So eventually they would have to replace those songs with something else again and they don't have many songs that can be sung with a low voice. Axl always sounded good on The Seeker, but tons of people wanted him to sing something else instead.

 

[Swedish]

A local newspapers review of the show: https://www.smp.se/noje/axl-rose-ar-dod-synd-bara-att-nagon-gravde-upp-liket-706e1c0a/

 

The headline is: “Axl Rose is dead, it’s a shame that someone dug up the corpse and put the mummy on the stage in Blekinge”

[jamillos]

3 minutes ago, Lies They Tell said:

 

Better sounds pretty much the same as most of the other songs they play. Getting rid of one or two songs won't change anything.

If your solution is that they should replace most of their songs with something else, then what would the replacement songs be? Axl sings with a high voice on most of their material.

There's like Bad Obsession and what else? Down On the Farm maybe? Sure they can replace a couple of songs, but at the end of the day what would be the difference? As long as songs like WTTJ, SCOM, PC and NV have no rasp, people like the swedish reporter will say that Axl sounds terrible. Replacing Better with Bad Obsession won't change that.

Besides, when they release new material, I'm sure that there will be plenty of songs that Axl has sung with a high voice. Should those songs never be released or should those songs never be played live? Or should Axl re-record all the vocals and sing them with a low voice instead before they release them? I certainly hope that he doesn't re-record all the great raspy vocals with some low voice shit just to please some random people on the internet.

There may be some very minor things that Axl could do with the setlist, but overall these demands are pretty unrealistic. Even if he would bring back Bad Obsession and Down On The Farm, that wouldn't be a permanent solution. People would get bored with those songs quickly and they would start complaining about the setlist. So eventually they would have to replace those songs with something else again and they don't have many songs that can be sung with a low voice. Axl always sounded good on The Seeker, but tons of people wanted him to sing something else instead.

 

I didn't say most songs, I'm saying adjust the playlist to the current abilities as much as possible. BiB probably still could have been done in 2017, yet he waited for his 2022 form. Why? Why not play Prostitute instead of Better? People may get bored, but Guns keep playing the same songs anyway, so that's nothing new. It's not black or white, like either keep all or lose all.

[kiwiguns]

1 hour ago, jamillos said:

Jesus Christ, nobody is asking them to stop playing Jungle, SCOM etc., there's nothing you can do about that. But the solution would be "Hey Axl, why the fuck do you keep insisting on doing songs like Better etc., when it's clearly a pain to do and listen to?" Case solved, but I suppose that takes balls.

Did it ever occur to you, that to there ears there is nothing wrong with what they are hearing, you know those musically tuned ears of a musician. Maybe take a step back and see it from another perspective.. 

Justin Hawkins as a fellow musician and admire voiced his opinion and summarised things perfectly..Case solved.. 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by kiwiguns

[Gnrcane]

2 minutes ago, kiwiguns said:

Did it ever occur to you, that to there ears there is nothing wrong with what they are hearing, you know those musically tuned ears of a musician. Maybe take a step back and see it from another perspective. 

Or they have Axl's vocals very low in their IEM mix and barely hear it.  Slash doesn't really need to hear Axl at all.  Duff needs to hear him a little for backing vocals.

[Lies They Tell]

9 minutes ago, jamillos said:

Why not play Prostitute instead of Better? 

Why would he play Prostitute instead of Better? Prostitute is one of the least popular songs from Chinese Democracy (unfortunately). And he certainly wouldn't sound raspy on it. So for people like the swedish reprter, it would be just another Mickey sounding song, except Better is one of the biggest hits from CD and Prostitute is one of the least popular songs from that album.

But this is a weird topic to even discuss cause it's so subjective. What counts as Mickey and what doesn't really depends on who you ask.

Does Walk All Over You sound like Mickey? It's clean and high pitched for sure. Does the 2022 version of Back in Black sound like Mickey? I don't know. He's screaming his ass off, so I don't think it's exactly the voice that people have traditionally called the Mickey voice.

So I don't even know what the bad sounding songs and the good sounding songs are supposed to be. What songs should be replaced with what? This is all so subjective that it shouldn't be surprising that Axl doesn't sing exactly the songs that you would want him to sing.

[Alejandro GNR]

3 hours ago, swirkh said:

I don't get why they slow down songs. Slower songs only enhance the weakness of Axl's voice. In 2018 there was also barely any rasp on Jungle, but they played it at faster tempo so it still sounded acceptable.

There aren't many videos from Sweden, but I watched a couple. Jungle was atrocious, BIB was ok IMO, SCOM & November Rain sounded as usual.

I'm seeing them next Monday in Warsaw, and I'm gonna have a good time regardless of Axl's weak vocals. But I still hope he improves over the following couple shows. Even a tiny bit, to match Europe 2018 level.

BiB OK?!?! Have you listened the part he goes “Yes, I'm in a bang With a gang
They've got to catch me if they want me to hang 'Cause I'm back on the track
And I'm beatin' the flack Nobody's gonna get me on another rap So look at me now I'm just makin' my play Don't try to push your luck, just get out of my way

He sounds like he is about to choke and spit his throat....and not in a good way at all