Why do people rave about GNR gigs nowadays?

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Buddy of mine saw them at Powertrip festival, said they were just awful. He said AC/DC was the best of the bunch.
 
It's the Don Dokken effect...he's still touring and getting paid; long after his skills have diminished. It happens to everyone, Father Time wins. But as long as the cash is there to grab, why wouldn't they still tour? They could care less apparently, when it comes to the court of public opinion.
 
I like to remember the good ole days . This was the 2nd time I saw them , first time they opened for The Cult in ‘87
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and their name wasn’t printed on the ticket stub
 
I'm going to go against the grain here. Sure, Axl Rose voice is long gone. He can still belt out some pretty impressive notes but he sure cannot do it non-stop for 3 hours like he used to. They are 60 years old (it was legal retirement age where I live not long ago). Sure, Frank Ferrer doesn't swing, or even rock, at all (that's what bothered me most during their performance on a musical level TBH, more than Axl's voice). They haven't done anything new or worthwhile for decades.

Still, I greatly enjoyed the show they gave in Paris last July. They played their ass off. They gave everything they could to the audience and the audience liked it. I liked it. My wife and daughter liked it too. It was pure rock n'roll. The whole show was really enjoyable despite all the shortcomings. OK it's not '88 anymore but I think the vast majority of their audience have accepted that fact for good and don't spend too much time bickering about it all over the intarweb.

Contrary to what several posters wrote above, they did run around the stage, Slash did jump off shit all the time (he even did a headstand just before leaving the stage after 3h30 of show, dragging around 20 lbs double-neck guitars for half of the tunes), Axl changed clothes a zillion times; the whole thing was very energetic. At least it was that way when I saw them a few months ago. I'm sure they have off noghts too, like any band, even younger band.
 
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after seeing them years ago and experiencing axle's prima donna meltdowns firsthand.....fuck him. Rest of the band was cool.....if I had the chance-as Kabib said-" I would smesh him...."
 
I went to GnR in Dayton, Ohio when I was a youngster in college. This was during the days when Axel, being the asshole he was, would make the entire building full of people wait for hours before he decided it was time to perform. Soundgarden opened, and I recall the crowd being hostile toward them. GnR finally came out, and it must have been 1AM or something absurd like that. Not too long after they started, Axel cut his hand badly on a mic stand, and I don't even remember what happened after that except that when we left, we stepped out into a blizzard which made the drive back to campus a huge pain in the ass. It was not a fulfilling show whatsoever. Were they even good when they played, I don't know.
 
Always been surprised at how sloppy Slash and Axl are. Slash's "shredding" to me always sounds like a 13 year old me shredding pentatonic blue scales haha.
 
Jack Luminous said:
I'm going to go against the grain here. Sure, Axl Rose voice is long gone. He can still belt out some pretty impressive notes but he sure cannot do it non-stop for 3 hours like he used to. They are 60 years old (it was legal retirement age where I live not long ago). Sure, Frank Ferrer doesn't swing, or even rock, at all (that's what bothered me most during their performance on a musical level TBH, more than Axl's voice). They haven't done anything new or worthwhile for decades.

Still, I greatly enjoyed the show they gave in Paris last July. They played their ass off. They gave everything they could to the audience and the audience liked it. I liked it. My wife and daughter liked it too. It was pure rock n'roll. The whole show was really enjoyable despite all the shortcomings. OK it's not '88 anymore but I think the vast majority of their audience have accepted that fact for good and don't spend too much time bickering about it all over the intarweb.

Contrary to what several posters wrote above, they did run around the stage, Slash did jump off shit all the time (he even did a headstand just before leaving the stage after 3h30 of show, dragging around 20 lbs double-neck guitars for half of the tunes), Axl changed clothes a zillion times; the whole thing was very energetic. At least it was that way when I saw them a few months ago. I'm sure they have off noghts too, like any band, even younger band.
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I saw them last year too and they were great. Much better than when I saw them in 92.
 
ghosty999 said:
Always been surprised at how sloppy Slash and Axl are. Slash's "shredding" to me always sounds like a 13 year old me shredding pentatonic blue scales haha.
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Not my experience at all. Saw Slash with Myles Kennedy some years ago and I was really surprised at how much cleaner and faster he was compared to his glory days of the early 90s (saw them in 92). He clearly spent some time woodshedding. He also was playing very cleanly with Guns last summer. No matter how much people shit on him (don't know why really. Jealousy ?), he's a really good guitarist. The funniest thing was witnessing Richard Fortus trying his best to outshred Slash (which he easily did as he's really lightning fast), yet his solos were much less interesting.
 
Saw them last month.

Slash's tone was weak and his playing was too noodly. He was riding the volume pots on his Pauls a lot... that's great if you're playing in a blues rock band, but with Guns it just made him sound soft. Slash's sound is supposed to be hard edged and snarly.

Axl, I must give kudos. That dude worked his ass off. He pushed his voice hard. Some songs he was weak, but there were songs where it seemed like he pushed through and belted. And in those moments, goosebumps. He went so hard on Reckless Life that afterwards he ran into his little tent side-stage and had a hacking coughing fit (I was close enough to hear it). He is not a fat lazy fucking Vince Neil who can't be assed to sing half the words. He is doing his best to live up to the extremely high standard he set for himself in his youth and I have to respect him for actually trying.

I would say the biggest issue is the setlist. There are a lot of covers and ballads and they are stacked poorly. The last six songs were November Rain, Wichita Lineman, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Nightrain, Patience, Don't Cry and Paradise City. How about spacing it out a little? The order of the set is probably determined by Axl's voice (the first six songs were all lower register), but still. On the Skin N' Bones tour they dragged a couch on stage and did an acoustic set, capped with an acoustic November Rain. How about something like that?
 
Jack Luminous said:
Not my experience at all. Saw Slash with Myles Kennedy some years ago and I was really surprised at how much cleaner and faster he was compared to his glory days of the early 90s (saw them in 92). He clearly spent some time woodshedding. He also was playing very cleanly with Guns last summer. No matter how much people shit on him (don't know why really. Jealousy ?), he's a really good guitarist. The funniest thing was witnessing Richard Fortus trying his best to outshred Slash (which he easily did as he's really lightning fast), yet his solos were much less interesting.
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Sadly the times I've seen him live, he's alwyays sounded like this:

 
I find them stale. I didn't think the show i saw a few year's back was particularly good. Axl sounds terrible, drumming has no soul. Fortus is the guy with skill, I wish he had played more lead. Slash is not the right guy for extended solo spots. Nice to see him adding harmonic minor to his list of scales to abuse in one position though..
 
Saw GNR open for Aerosmith in Cincy when Appetite was breaking out. Life changing for this teenager at the time. Saw them again a couple years ago in Columbus.

I missed the dirty rawness that the early show had. The production was too much with all of the LED screens onstage and extra musicians. Slash was good and Axl was just OK. The chick with the laptop and keys was hot!
 
VonBonfire said:
Slash is playing Magnatone now so no doubt the shows will only get better going forward.
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Doubt it. If you were a rock act would you rather stand in front of a wall of Marshall’s or a wall of magnatones??? Unless you’re Billy Gibbons.
 
They just look like they are going through the motions...totally disconnected from putting energy into what they are doing.
 
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