Guns N’ Roses - Live in New York
2006
Famously, nowhere beats Paris in the
Spring. But for Guns N' Roses fans, New York this Spring has
definitely been the place to be. For that's where W. Axl Rose
has been living these past few months, holed-up with his
entourage at the mega-expensive Trump Tower hotel. Indeed, the
famously reclusive singer has been spotted out on the town with
surprising frequency of late, the disguises he is known for
wearing in public while at home in Los Angeles left behind as
he blends into the crowds roaming Manhattan's notoriously
nefarious nightlife.
Often seen hanging out at 'late-late'
clubs like Stereo, in the Chelsea district, which only gets
going at 4.00am, he even treated patrons to a sneak unofficial
preview of the neo-legendary 'Chinese Democracy' album when he
turned up there at 5.30am one morning back in February.
According to owners Barry Mullineaux and Mike Satsky, Axl was
enjoying himself so much he allowed two private CD copies of
the album, each containing 10 tracks, to be played in the club.
“He was talking with everybody
freely about how he's been off for 10 years, and how even
though Slash and the rest of the guys [had started] Velvet
Revolver, he's been holding back,” explained Mullineaux.
“He was freely answering questions about his work, the
band, what happened with the split [with the original line-up],
the direction he's headed in - and the music sounded
great.”
He added that Axl “kept telling me
to put back track number three… He wanted to play that
one over and over, like six times. He was really getting into
it and rocking out. Everybody was surprised at how good it
sounded.”
As a result, it came as no big surprise
locally when it was announced in May that Guns N' Roses would
be playing four 'warm-up' shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom on
West 34th Street, in preparation for the band's forthcoming
European tour, including a headline appearance at the Palais
Omnisports in Paris on June 20.
What was less expected was that Axl would
show up on New York DJ Eddie Trunk's syndicated Saturday night
radio show to publicise the gigs - then proclaim that the
decade-in-the-making 'Chinese Democracy' album would finally be
released in the autumn!
The first official interview Axl had given
since the debacle of the curtailed 2002 US tour (cancelled
after a catalogue of riots and no-shows from the recalcitrant
singer), it began when guest-host, former Skid Row singer,
Sebastian Bach, called Axl on his cell phone and broadcast the
subsequent conversation live on air. Asked if and when 'Chinese
Democracy' was ever coming out, Axl chuckled and said,
“Sometime this fall or late fall. It will be out this
year.”
But don't think from all this bonhomie
that the mad, bad Axl Rose of old has somehow been transformed
into a pussycat. As if to underline that fact, insiders say he
threw a massive tantrum just a few days before the Bach/Trunk
interview, when the band's management tried to resist his
decision at the last-minute to add a third guitarist to the
line-up. With Buckethead having bailed out for the second and
final time in 2004, Axl had initially been content to continue
the band with the twin guitar shape of long-time cohorts Robin
Finck and Richard Fortus, but the closer they came to the four
Hammerstein shows, the twitchier Axl became about going out
without a recognised “shredder.”
In the end, he got his way of course and
although his name was only officially revealed onstage by Axl
halfway through the first Hammerstein show on May 12, it came
as no surprise to insiders that the gig should go to New Yorker
Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal - a virtuoso guitarist known for his
'fusion' playing (he has been described as a heavy metal Frank
Zappa). Come the day of the first show, rumours about a new
guitarist in the band had reached such a dizzy peak there was
talk of Izzy Stradlin having rejoined the band, even outlandish
speculation that both Slash and Duff McKagen had also secretly
signed on.
In fact, with the exception of the
Bumblefoot/Buckethead swap, the line-up that took to the
Hammerstein stage to deafening cheers at just after 11.00pm -
an hour and 15 minutes later than advertised - was almost
identical to the line-up which had ground to such an
ignominious halt in 2002: Axl on vocals; guitarists Finck,
Bumblefoot and Fortus; bassist Tommy Stinson, keyboardists
Dizzy Reed and Chris Pittman, and drummer Brian 'Brain' Mantia.
The Hammerstein holds maybe 3,000 people
(including the roped-off VIP area where Sebastian Bach, Fred
Durst, Lenny Kravitz and actor Ethan Hawke look on). You got
the feeling that Axl was determined to cram the whole
arena-sized show into this modest theatre. Red arc lights shot
out from the stage as dry ice flooded the room, long vertical,
cream-coloured GN'R banners with new the Chinese fonts draped
the sides. At different points throughout the night there will
be flash bombs and storms of confetti.
The first song, predictably, was 'Welcome
To The Jungle'. As soon as the ringing guitar lines began
echoing round the hall people started going crazy. “I
wanna hear you scream!” Axl roared unnecessarily. The
song sounded more or less how you remember it from the
'Appetite For Destruction' album, as did the next two, 'It's So
Easy' and 'Mr Brownstone'. But of course the whole thing looked
completely different. Finck - whose job it is to replicate
Slash's sinuous guitar lines - has a full beard, something you
never saw in the original band. Fortus - designated Izzy's role
- looks like any other guy in a band: if he suddenly wasn't
there you wouldn't notice. Only Buckethead's replacement,
Bumblefoot, slotted in without fuss: an equally silly name and
equally tedious gimmick (replacing the Kentucky fried-chicken
bucket for a bumblebee-coloured, foot-shaped guitar). While Axl
himself looked exactly what he is: an older guy singing a young
man's songs; carrying more weight than when he wrote them 20
years ago. Wearing shades, dressed in a black leather shirt
unbuttoned to the waist to reveal a large silver crucifix,
battered blue jeans, his gold-coloured dreadlocks tied-back in
a ponytail, he ran around the stage frantically but soon
appeared to run out of breath, encouraging the crowd to sing
those lines he couldn't finish himself.
In fairness, he is 44 now and this was his
first show for over three years, so you couldn't expect him to
be note-perfect, and over the course of the four shows he would
pace his performance better and find his voice. By the time he
reaches Paris in June, he should be flying. Assuming, of
course, the tour gets that far - by no means guaranteed. But
that's another story…
The first of the new songs, 'Better',
didn't go over as well as the older, classic material though
the band attacked it enthusiastically enough. When they kicked
into 'Sweet Child O' Mine', however, the place exploded!
'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' - “This is about a place I've
been one too many times,” Axl announced melodramatically
- followed to similar acclaim. But audience reaction noticeably
cooled again during the second new number of the night,
'Madagascar', at the end of which Axl introduced the band - and
the audience discovered who the new third guitarist was, his
name received by mostly blank stares (everybody was really
hoping for Izzy).
The moment was quickly forgotten, though,
as Brain's galloping drums signalled the intro to 'You Could Be
Mine'. Once again, though, the mood was strangely dissipated
when the climax segued into a tedious solo spot from Reed,
which eventually led into another new number, 'The Blues'. The
remainder of the set followed the same pattern: 'Out Ta Get Me'
received like a long lost friend; Bumblefoot's guitar solo,
which followed, treated to polite applause. Despite video
backdrops featuring religious symbols, Martin Luther King
speeches, and so on, most of the new stuff sounded wearyingly
self-important, multi-keyboard sounds and sonic layers
endlessly repeated. Not one guitar riff you would recall the
next day.
It was gone midnight when Axl seated
himself at the piano for a typically overwrought stab at
'November Rain', the needle only going into red again when
Sebastian Bach jumped onstage for 'My Michelle'. The funniest
moment came between the last of the new songs - 'Chinese
Democracy' and 'There Was Time' - when Axl cried: “I see
you people singing the new songs. You downloaded them,
fuckers!” He added: “You can hold your breath a lot
longer than David Blaine. I want to thank you for
that!”
The finale of the show was, again, a story
of complete contrasts: a wonderfully evocative 'Patience'
followed by the intense but baffling 'IRS', culminating in an
absolutely steaming version of 'Nightrain'. The encores kicked
off with the best piece of guitar work all night from Finck,
leading into the instantly recognisable, chiming riff to
'Paradise City', and the show ended with Axl diving into the
audience.
And that's it. Nobody walked off; nobody
got hurt. Nobody really knew what to make of the new material,
despite the jokes about illegal downloads. And nobody saw Izzy.
Would the other three shows be the same?
Yes, almost identical, except that they added 'Rocket Queen' to
the set. Word was out by now too and touts who had been
charging $200 for a ticket were now asking up to $500. Business
appeared brisk, though, as did sales of the $85 GN'R
sweatshirts.
Of the four shows, the best moment,
tellingly, came during the last on May 17, when Izzy did
finally show up, joining Axl on stage, where the two men
embraced, before the band ripped into 'Think About You',
followed by 'Patience', during which Izzy looked like he was
crying, and 'Nightrain', the latter also featuring a preening
Kid Rock. Axl had tried to preface Izzy's appearance with a
short speech but his words were drowned out by the screams as
his old school friend sauntered on.
And that should have been the end of this
story. Except, of course, being Guns N' Roses, it wasn't, and
the following night Axl put in a surprise appearance at the
newly-opened Plumm club on West 14th Street. The occasion: the
27th birthday party for TV actress Rosario Dawson. The
unexpected surprise: a 'secret' acoustic set by Guns N' Roses!
Spotted lurking in the crowd were Dawson's boyfriend, Sex And
The City star Jason Lewis, as well as Lenny Kravitz, Kid Rock,
Mickey Rourke, Mischa Barton, Peter Beard, Molly Simms, Damon
Dash, Ann Dexter Jones, Wentworth Miller, Lydia Hearst, and
others.
There was the predictable commotion when
Axl arrived. Settling into his own private booth, an even
bigger commotion suddenly broke out when fashion designer Tommy
Hilfiger suddenly started hitting him! The fight started,
according to Axl, after he moved the drink of Hilfiger's
girlfriend, Dee Ocleppo, so that it wouldn't get spilled. At
which point, he said, Hilfiger went ballistic and started
“smacking” him.
Speaking to LA radio station KROQ the next
day, he said, “It was the most surreal thing, I think,
that's ever happened to me in my life.” continue
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