Greatest GNR Concert Ever?

[adamsapple]

Watched AC/DC at River Plate again the other day and I was thinking is there anything remotely close from any other band/audience? What would be the one GNR show you would show to your kids to give them an idea of the magic? Not just a good performance but to capture a bit of the overall vibe? Mercury tribute? Ritz maybe?

Edited December 13, 2023 by adamsapple
typo

[DSTK]

There's no such thing as the greatest ever gig, there's your favourite 

It's all down to opinion, Mercury show wasn't a GNR gig so it can't possibly be that 

Edited December 13, 2023 by DSTK

[Uncle Bob]

Bridge School

[D4NNY]

Tokyo ‘09 = CD goldmine

[Gnrcane]

Nobody can possibly answer that unless they've been to every GNR show in history.  For all we know, one of their club gigs before they even recorded demos was the greatest ever.

Even if somebody had attended them all, it would still just be one person's opinion.

[ZoSoRose]

23 hours ago, D4NNY said:

Tokyo ‘09 = CD goldmine

This is definitely in the running for the best NuGNR gig. All the jams throughout it really help make it epic, too imo. That era was really cool. The Asia- Canada- South America- Europe run in 2010 was magic. 

 

Honestly, I don't know. Does GNR have a "flagship" gig? I feel like this is a very basic and obvious thread, but no one ever really talks about the gigs on here . So kudos to @adamsapple. For "best ever", it has to include a good amount of original members imo. 

I am a big Zeppelin fan and the most active parts of their site are people talking about old concerts. I have dozens of bootlegs on vinyl from them of all sorts of obscure dates. They also have a few famous shows that are in the running for "best ever" from their fans- LA 1970, Osaka 71, UK 75, LA 77, etc. We don't really do that for GNR. 

Ritz is probably the go- to, but I feel like that is because it is one of the only examples of a full gig that was shot and is widely circulated from that era. Tokyo 92? Great show but there are probably better ones, that was just widely released. 

 

 

I guess of ones I can think of, 

 

RItz, LA 1988

Budokan, Tokyo 1988 (this one is seriously cool!)

Rock N Rio 1991

The Forum, LA 1991 (the longest of the classic band)

Rosemont Horizon, Chicago 1992 (Coma!)

Tokyo Dome, Tokyo 1992

NRG Stadium, Houston 2016 (it would be tough to say a gig when they are old is "best ever", but that is the best out of the reunion shows. Pretty darn great gig with a killer setlist). 

 

It is not the original lineup, but it has to be that forum show or Chicago, right? Bombastic shows with killer setlists. I haven't listened to nearly as many GNR shows as I have Zeppelin, so I could be missing some real gems. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by ZoSoRose

[StrangerInThisTown]

Probably one from 1986-1988 that wasn't recorded (but who knows on how much gold Marc Canter is sitting there that we've never seen)

Edited December 13, 2023 by StrangerInThisTown

[Stay.Of.Execution]

Crowd wise probably this

 

 

[DeNfr]

 

Paris Bercy 2006 was pretty great. last show with Brain I think.

[scottish nutter]

for me the best they sounded was the 1987 welcome to the jungle music awards

[kanecrescente]

1 hour ago, adamsapple said:

Watched AC/DC at River Plate again the other day and I was thinking is there anything remotely close from any other band/audience? What would be the one GNR show you would show to your kids to give them an idea of the magic? Not just a good performance but to capture a bit of the overall vibe? Mercury tribute? Ritz maybe?

I was listening to that Live album at work yesterday😂 One of the most iconic shows ever, what a crowd...

I'd say GNR's most recent Buenos Aires show looked fucking rowdy too, shame about the vocals tarnishing things...

[adamsapple]

33 minutes ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

Crowd wise probably this

 

 

Now that's what I'm talking about. Thanks. That crowd looks amazing!

 

[Jwalker19]

1 hour ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

Crowd wise probably this

 

 

I've actually never seen this one before. I appreciate you sharing!

[JoJo Bonetto]

I am biased to like this one because I was there but there is no official video beyond the one song they did and the audio for Nightrain members, as I understand it. Beyond that, I like all the Ritz shows.

 

[t-p-d-a]

If I met a new friend and he didn't know anything about Guns N' Roses but he shows interest, I would show him Ritz 88

[Gordon Comstock]

I always kinda laugh when I see people say Ritz 88 is their best show - it's not even the best pro-shot performance from that era. It's not a bad show, but it's gotta be one of the most overrated concert broadcasts, I swear people only rate it so highly because of nostalgia and not the actual performance. Ritz 87 blows it out of the water, Music Machine 86 was a great club gig, Melbourne 88 sounds way tighter, and those are just other pro-shots...

I'd love to hear the Greensboro 91 show, almost as long as the Forum show but apparently they played both Coma and Locomotive. I've read they played the alt Don't Cry, too. There's probably tons of gems like that we've never heard or seen, just rotting in the vault...

[waxl1974]

I know this is a biased view but Wembley 91 was my first and best gig that I've seen them play, also being Izzys' last show as a member which made it more poignant. I think Duff mentioned it in his book that it was tight and felt more like one of their early club gigs. I also think the Marquee shows back in 87 were pretty decent. Would love to see video of these shows. The audio is pretty special and was also the first performances of KOHD and Whole Lotta Rosie

[RnRHOFGNR]

June 6th 1992 - Paris France.

One of the best visually and audio recorded performances of the band.  Great song choices and some really good guest appereances this was the band at the the peak of their game.  Although the Ritz show from 1988 is also a good one.

[WhazUp]

It is really hard to say "best" but giving some of my personal favorites:

 

Felt Forum 1988

The Tokyo 1988 shows

Paris '92

Ritz '91

Argentina shows 1993

 

[jacdaniel]

Anything 87 - 91 is usually really good. That’s when they were a really tight rock n roll band and a gang of friends. 

After that things got very bloated and remained that way until today. 

Id love to see them tour again one day as a 5 piece on smaller stages 

[StrangerInThisTown]

1 hour ago, RnRHOFGNR said:

June 6th 1992 - Paris France.

One of the best visually and audio recorded performances of the band.  Great song choices and some really good guest appereances this was the band at the the peak of their game.  Although the Ritz show from 1988 is also a good one.

Except you have to deal with that whole circus 1992 lineup going on with the horns and backup girl singers, they had already made it big and were stars, and Axl was already not in his 20s anymore, so it is a band in their later stages. I think 1987-1989 is what would be their absolute peak in terms of performance, line-up, and pure ferocity in the vibe of the show. There is something endearing about watching a band shortly before they exploded, and knew it was slowly building, which is 1987-1989. They need to release that Cathouse 1989 proshot in full, goddamn.

Edited December 13, 2023 by StrangerInThisTown

[Draguns]

Even though Gordon said he laughs, I would say 1988 Ritz performance would be their overall best concert. You could tell that they were having a great time and enjoyed the crowd along with the spotlight.  That performance was something special.

[Gordon Comstock]

Just now, Draguns said:

Even though Gordon said he laughs, I would say 1988 Ritz performance would be their overall best concert. You could tell that they were having a great time and enjoyed the crowd along with the spotlight.  That performance was something special.

 

It probably seems like I hate on the Ritz 88 show sometimes lol, but obviously it's a good concert. It was a hit on MTV and people are nostalgic for it, it was a lot of fans intro to live GNR shows, I get why people call it their favourite. But 'best overall' is wild, it's not even close imo to the best on the AFD tour... but a sloppy GNR show was still a great rock show.

I think if we had some of Marc Canter's recordings or show like Ritz 87 in great quality it would put the Ritz 88 show into better perspective. I'd love a box set of 'semi pro shot' shows like Cathouse 89 or the other 91 warm up shows. Ritz 88 is still a good show but it's very overrated.

[DarkLotus1111]

17 hours ago, Uncle Bob said:

Bridge School

That was God awful. Axl should've been arrested for such a shit performance. I rather listen to fat Vince Meal sing Motley Crue songs in Simlish than endure that Bridge School performance. Poor kids.

[Amir]

17 hours ago, RnRHOFGNR said:

June 6th 1992 - Paris France.

One of the best visually and audio recorded performances of the band.  Great song choices and some really good guest appereances this was the band at the the peak of their game.  Although the Ritz show from 1988 is also a good one.

Baffles me that they included a bunch of songs from that on the UYI Deluxe CDs... but not the epic performance of Civil War :/