07/31/21 - Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium

[Dean]

4 minutes ago, vloors said:

This was worse than Berlin. The cracks, random missing of lines, he struggled even singing Mickey.

Listen back to Berlin, it was exactly the same. The vocal approach on Dead Horse was similar to This I Love where he sang in a lower register as he couldn't hear himself.  That's just off the top of my head, but the catastrophe's were very similar.

[Tom2112]

13 minutes ago, Dean said:

Was the show overall as poor as Berlin? The issues seemed really similar and so did the vocal performance, which makes me lean toward Axl getting back on form soon enough, which was the case following Berlin. Is NV November Rain? I really don't think that's sounded good since 2002, at least vocally, but Rio 2011 wins the 'worst ever' for me. Shit show from start to finish. 

Agh I think the prize can be given to the other night, at least Axl could sing all the words of November Rain in Berlin. He was utterly gassed. I actually think this is the least prepared that I've seen from Axl, and he sets a high bar. 

I don't want to shit on people's enjoyment of the show they paid good money to see. I just could not believe how bad he sounded when I loaded up the videos. I don't think it was a sound issue, I think that we all know Axl didn't put the work in beforehand. 

Maybe he will sound better on the next show.

I haven't even got to the setlist being NITL verbatim. 5 years removed from the tour kick off, same songs, sane order and if anything they are sounding worse with less production. They should be able to play this set in their sleep and sound brilliant. 

The rest of the band actually sounded quite good. Frank's snare sounded much better, he finally replaced it!!🥳

[Stress Fracture]

I long for the days when Rio 2011 was considered a disaster.

[Rovim]

this show was brutal from the youtube clips I've seen. Terrible. Dead Horse was sad and the sound was shit. but it's hard for me to come to a conclusion about the general condition of Axl's voice based on just the first show of this leg of the tour. History shows that it doesn't reflect Axl's vocal ability.

in the past there were many occasions where it seemed like Axl was done as a singer. the Axl rehearsal of wttj for this show was good enough for me to believe I need to hear more to judge it accurately.

you can't seriously say Axl's voice is gone for good based on 1 show after more than a year of not performing live. Premature Even factoring his age imo, so I think I'll give Axl a chance to gain some momentum before I write throat eulogies.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Rovim

[Naupis]

Can someone explain why November Rain has been allowed to go to hell?

It is practically unlistenable now and I am embarrassed for him.

How does he manage to sound so freaking bad when he's sitting stationary at a piano and all he has to do is sing. It's not a fast song, and yet he can't keep up with lyrics and sounds abysmal.

It makes me sad what has happened to the live performance of this song.

[GNRmello77]

I watched the entire show as well and despite axl's terrible performance I also want to point out how cold the performance was. Like it lacked any soul, nothing between the band, only forced I'm feeling awkward interactions by Axl with the crowd. And they sucked. Slash sucked Frank dizzy.. no confetti and no final bow, very very stale and cold

[YOUCOULDBEMINE.]

Axl had more than a year to do anything about himself. But he got worse.

I’m sorry guys but I’m done. There hasn’t been an album since 2008, Axl hasn’t sounded great since 2010 (with the exception of Axl/DC in 2016), the “reunion” is a lame excuse to get some extra cash. Axl is Vince Neil 2.0 and there is nothing on this planet that will make Axl look or sound better. This is the absolute worst and I lost all my interest in this band. 
 

No amount of studio magic can make that man still sound good. So there won’t be an album, or a song. 
 

I can’t believe I’m even fed up, because it has been like this for 5 years. But fuck this band and fuck Axl.

[jamillos]

8 minutes ago, YOUCOULDBEMINE. said:

Axl had more than a year to do anything about himself. But he got worse.

I’m sorry guys but I’m done. There hasn’t been an album since 2008, Axl hasn’t sounded great since 2010 (with the exception of Axl/DC in 2016), the “reunion” is a lame excuse to get some extra cash. Axl is Vince Neil 2.0 and there is nothing on this planet that will make Axl look or sound better. This is the absolute worst and I lost all my interest in this band. 
 

No amount of studio magic can make that man still sound good. So there won’t be an album, or a song. 
 

I can’t believe I’m even fed up, because it has been like this for 5 years. But fuck this band and fuck Axl.

I totally understand, but don’t give up. Rock the Rock is full of rasp, even in the middle positions that he doesn’t do live any longer, and yet it’s from the same period as Berlin 2018. 
This show sucked horribly, but he sounded great and full rasp on Jungle done at the sound check two days before the gig…
GN’R – defying logic ever since the 90s. 

[allwaystired]

Not looked at any clips, as what's the point? I'll take everyone's word for it that it was dreadful.

Did they look like they gave a shit though? 

The setlist was obviously pathetic. If you can't find the time in over a year to sit down and plan a new set, then frankly, that's disgraceful, whatever anyone says. Look what bands like U2, Muse, Coldplay etc all do with Arenas and Stadiums and the efforts they make with stage sets, pyro, etc. Hell even bands like Motley Crue and Kiss put on a show to see. 

 

 

 

[jacdaniel]

Anyone who has ever even played a musical instrument will understand how simply boring it is to keep playing the same things over and over and over again.

I can't say I blame Slash for going into auto pilot mode

[Tom2112]

2 minutes ago, Rovim said:

this show was brutal from the youtube clips I've seen. Terrible. Dead Horse was sad and the sound was shit. but it's hard for me to come to a conclusion about the general condition of Axl's voice based on the first show of this leg of the tour. History shows that it doesn't reflect Axl's vocal ability in general.

in the past there were many occasions where it seemed like Axl was done as a singer. the Axl rehearsal of wttj for this show was good enough for me to believe I need to hear more to judge it accurately.

you can't seriously say Axl's voice is gone for good based on 1 show after more than a year of not performing live. Premature Even factoring his age imo, so I think I'll give Axl a chance to gain some momentum before I write throat eulogies.

Of course he will improve, I don't expect this to be his best performance. The point remains that he died a death on stage, and if he was being fair he'd come back and give these people an apology show because they paid for the finished product not day 1 of rehearsal. Let's be real here, anybody with tickets for the first 1-4 shows is going to get a pretty god awful Axl. We all know it, but it doesn't make it acceptable.

[nikothebellic]

The new line-up has hit live rock bottom, and not only Axl — Slash butchered NV and technical crew was sloppy as well. But it’s not something you can’t restore or improve, honestly, it was expected, just not in such scale. The main thing is what the band will learn from this experience.

Maybe Covid break affected them too much (though they had long breaks before and sounded better), but, as far as I am concerned, they need to conduct official warm up shows, therefore, not to fail expectations of those who come on the first show of the tour. For example, I would never attend GNR 1st show of the tour, cause I know what it may be, so if its going to be Europe 2022, it’ll be at least 8th or 9th. And it’s not right. Maybe, general public isn’t bothered like that, but why even they should judge the band based on half-powered performance?

All thing considered, they must conduct 3-5 pre-tour warm up shows in small clubs and auditoriums. That’s gonna be a good news story, and allow to perform in more intimate atmosphere, play 10-15 tracks every night with no complex songs. So, basically they need to do Trobadour 2016 before every leg. Fernando, hope you’re reading this!

[EvanG]

4 hours ago, kiwiguns said:

So you clearly have made up your mind and formed an opinion before actually seeing the band. Your negativey is already clouding your judgement. 

The final nail in the coffin would have been hammerd in a long time ago and here the band is, surviving COVID-19 and they are still attracting people to live shows. 

Those are the people the band caters towards and that's the reality of the situation.

We on this forum are the minority and the majority are the causal fans, who aren't picking apart Axls vocals or the bands set list to cater towards those vocals. 

The discounted tickets are not the bands concern, thats the promoters issue, as the promotor won't recover those costs or make a loss on that show. 

Live Nation will recover those costs from other sold out shows on this tour or the Australian/New Zealand tours.

The band will already have received up front payment. 

In terms of Axls vocals. 

Like all of us, he has aged and things we use to do, we either struggle or cannot do to our full potential. 

I am amazed that people would think Axl is some super human, and his vocals and preformence should be at the same level as two weeks ago or 20 years ago. 

Roger Federer's in his prime was the worlds greatest tennis player. 

Today he is now ranked number 9 in the world. He can still hit a tennis ball, just not at the same level he once did in the past. 

I agree with this entire post, except the Federer analogy. He's number 9 in the world because he hasn't played many matches in the last 1,5 year due to surgery. (and due to covid he hasn't dropped even further on the ATP rankings)

[Rovim]

15 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

Of course he will improve, I don't expect this to be his best performance. The point remains that he died a death on stage, and if he was being fair he'd come back and give these people an apology show because they paid for the finished product not day 1 of rehearsal. Let's be real here, anybody with tickets for the first 1-4 shows is going to get a pretty god awful Axl. We all know it, but it doesn't make it acceptable.

I wasn't really talking about fair or acceptable though. it seems a lot of people don't think it will improve cause they're already saying it's over based on the first show. It's too early to label it as "doomed" is all I'm saying.

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Rovim

[EvanG]

1 minute ago, Rovim said:

It's too early to label it as "doomed" is all I'm saying.

That's mygnr for you... haha.

[nikosgnr]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:33 PM, TheGeneral said:

... we'll get an official studio release soon.

Edited August 3, 2021 by nikosgnr

[DTJ80]

7 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

As others are saying on here: He may be thinner now, but his voice is still shit. I agree with most of you here that they should revamp the setlist to focus primarily on low-register songs, with the exception of the “AFD big three” and November Rain, as those four tracks will probably always need to be part of the set no matter what.

 

6 hours ago, mystery said:

Or downtune or rephrase vocally. Also new music tailored to his current voice with more limited rasp would help but Axl has an aversion to releasing anything.

Mixing and matching a song or two from a new album would also greatly freshen the setlists. The newest songs from them are 13 years (really 21) years old.

 

4 hours ago, ZoSoRose said:

Lol, what. What an apologist post.

I've seen GNR 7 times, soon to be 8. Also have seen Axl/DC and a lot of other alumni and member based shows. I am by no means a negative poster, dude. I do have ears, though, and they allow me to hear. His voice is just bad

This is an online forum, so naturally we are going to discuss what's going on. I don't expect to have Axl come out like in the 90s, but vocals that don't sound terrible would be nice. I think Axl sounded great in 2016, but it's been a steady decline since.

Look at Robert Plant, the dudes voice has changed and he always sings songs to accommodate it. Either through setlist choice, new arrangements, or downtuning. Axl doesn't even attempt to make things work based on his current limitations. 

All valid, obvious and easily implemented ideas which we have all discussed time and again on here….and yet nothing happens. So damned frustrating. A setlist of comfortable lower register tunes and saving any power for the ‘big guns’ is the way to go.

The comparison to Robert Plant is an excellent one - I saw him on his Mighty Rearranger tour where he did some Zep stuff which was changed and catered for his lower register…..Black Dog being one and it absolutely worked.

 

[allwaystired]

20 minutes ago, Rovim said:

I wasn't really talking about fair or acceptable though. it seems a lot of people don't think it will improve cause they're already saying it's over based on the first show. It's too early to label it as "doomed" is all I'm saying.

 

Yeah, it will probably improve for sure.....but to what extent? Have we really reached a point where 'acceptable' is enough?

I suppose so really. That's pretty sad though, when you think what it's within their hands to do. 

I REALLY dislike going out and having problems at the beginning of the tour though. People spend their money on this. I once saw Oasis have a couple of technical problems in stage with a blown generator. They had to stop twice. As a result they played a longer set and refunded each and every one of us our ticket money. We all got a cheque in the post, true to their word.

That was over and above of course, but this is a continual thing with the first shows of any GNR tour now it seems, which is totally unfair on ticket holders..

[stezmacc]

Agree with an earlier post. there should be warm up shows in smaller venues. A lot of bands in the UK do this. I wonder if they actually run through the whole set in rehearsal or just refresh their memories on a few songs? 

[Tom2112]

19 minutes ago, Rovim said:

I wasn't really talking about fair or acceptable though. it seems a lot of people don't think it will improve cause they're already saying it's over based on the first show. It's too early to label it as "doomed" is all I'm saying.

 

Well it depends on your definition of doomed. I'd say the run is doomed to be about as good as 2019, which wasn't good. It will improve from show one, and there will be some pretty ok select performances of certain songs along the way... but I'd wager confidently that there won't be a single show the is good from top to bottom. 

I'm all for being proved wrong and eating my words. I'd love for gnr to sound good again, but what we heard Is what we all hoped wouldn't happen... and now people are kicking the bucket to next show and the one after that.

 

[megaguns1982]

At this point I really wish they would just be a studio band. At least in a studio Axl can redo his vocals over and over. Let slash and duff do their solo side projects and let the rest of them go back to whatever it is they can do.

I doubt the Aussie shows will go ahead at this point with our Covid situation right now but I’m more than ok with the prospect of getting my money back and not going.

[Rovim]

1 minute ago, Tom2112 said:

Well it depends on your definition of doomed. I'd say the run is doomed to be about as good as 2019, which wasn't good. It will improve from show one, and there will be some pretty ok select performances of certain songs along the way... but I'd wager confidently that there won't be a single show the is good from top to bottom. 

I'm all for being proved wrong and eating my words. I'd love for gnr to sound good again, but what we heard Is what we all hoped wouldn't happen... and now people are kicking the bucket to next show and the one after that.

 

2019 quality is not the definition of doomed for me, just average/inconsistent. I won't try to guess or predict the extent of a possible improvement. We'll see.

[19AT5]

1 minute ago, megaguns1982 said:

I doubt the Aussie shows will go ahead at this point with our Covid situation right now but I’m more than ok with the prospect of getting my money back and not going.

I hear ya mate. I'm kinda hoping the Glasgow show is cancelled. And it's next year! Was speaking to a few of the lads about this the other day. We've all shelled out cash for this gig and chances are it is going to be poor. Nothing over the past few years gives me hope now! 

[adamsapple]

Axl's condition is one thing, a band playing next to but not with each other is another.

Some tempos were sightly better, but as soon as it was about time to lock in with each other, everyone was off and out of it again.

I never saw any GNR lineup offer this lousy a quality of musicianship from bascially everyone on stage.

I'd say start later, play shorter, change the setlist, let everyone have a little solo slot instead of letting Slash have all of them, make new arrangements for some songs and tune others down.

The entire band is just totally off and disconnected. They should make their first five shows entirely free or just label them a public rehearsal or something.

[Rovim]

 

 

33 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

Yeah, it will probably improve for sure.....but to what extent? Have we really reached a point where 'acceptable' is enough?

I suppose so really. That's pretty sad though, when you think what it's within their hands to do. 

I REALLY dislike going out and having problems at the beginning of the tour though. People spend their money on this. I once saw Oasis have a couple of technical problems in stage with a blown generator. They had to stop twice. As a result they played a longer set and refunded each and every one of us our ticket money. We all got a cheque in the post, true to their word.

That was over and above of course, but this is a continual thing with the first shows of any GNR tour now it seems, which is totally unfair on ticket holders..

when you go to see this band in the beginning of a tour, you kinda know what you're going to get so while I get what you're saying about standards of other bands and how you think it should be based on those experiences, it is what it is and it's Gn'R so I don't expect them to operate like other bands, especially not when it comes to refunds or consistency of quality when it comes to the first shows especially.

this show was one of the worst imo, don't get me wrong. I just think it was really not the kind of show where you can learn much from it when it comes to what will happen in future shows.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Rovim