Paradise City for GN'R fansGuns N? Roses frontman raves, burns and rages until almost 1 a.m.
Guns N? Roses lead singer Axl Rose was in better fighting form at the Halifax Metro Centre on Thursday night than he was when the band was in Halifax more than three years ago.WHILE watching Guns N? Roses end its Canadian leg of the Chinese Democracy tour at the Halifax Metro Centre on Thursday, it was hard to get the words of poet Dylan Thomas out of my head.
Yes, it?s a bizarre allusion ? please, no Use Your Allusion puns ? but the Welsh bard might just as well have been referring to Axl Rose & Co. when he penned the classic lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Not that Rose is about to breathe his last. In fact, the volatile frontman seemed to be in better fighting trim this time around than when the band was here over three years ago. There sure was a lot of raving, burning and raging on the stage on Thursday night. The dying of the music business light indicates that we?ll see less of this kind of spectacle, not to mention the sort of rock excess that lets a long-awaited album simmer for 14 years.
But considering the number of tracks still left in the can, it?s likely we won?t have to wait until 2025 for a followup.
The phrase "long-awaited" didn?t apply to the Guns N? Roses set; unlike other stops on the tour, the arena lights dimmed a mere 40 minutes after leather-clad rock demigod Sebastian Bach led 8,000 or so through a fist-pumping finale of his Skid Row hit Youth Gone Wild.
After a bit of Leonard Cohen?s recording Everybody Knows, up stepped recent GN?R addition DJ Ashba, teasing out the opening riff to Chinese Democracy, his guitar literally smoking from the cigarette stuck in his Gibson headstock.
With a burst of flashpots, out strode Rose in a black fedora, shades, an open white dress shirt and huge dangling crucifix, staking his claim on a massive stage that stopped just short of centre ice.
Shaped like a trident, with left and right prongs coming within a few feet of the lowest lower bowl seats, the setup became a battleground for Ashba and fellow guitarists Ron (Bumblefoot) Thal and Richard Fortus to scramble over and fire off six-string volleys to the delight of anyone within eye contact.
"All we?ve got is precious time," crowed Rose in his distinctive snarling growl, referring to the one element he can never seem to get enough of, before travelling back in it with Guns N? Roses? initial breakout hit Welcome to the Jungle and its first ever single release It?s So Easy, urged along by ex-Replacement Tommy Stinson?s insistent bass line and a burst of red fireworks.
"Can you scream?" asked Rose from the lip of the stage, and the compressed sea of bodies on the floor obliged as he sashayed and did a variation on the good foot. It was one of Rose?s few comments to the crowd over the course of the two hour and 20 minute show ? a far cry from the rambunctious, verbose repartee of Bach and opening act Danko Jones ? but hardly a surprise.
I doubt anyone was expecting the kind of intimate chatfest seen just the night before in the same venue with Jann Arden.
"Are you having a wonderful time?" Rose later asked, with mock gentility before introducing his rhythm guitarist with "Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Fortus," and a bow and sweep of his hand.
Fortus, grinning through his long bangs and resembling the lost love child of Pete Townshend and Keith Richards, with a mod shirt and dangling scarf, accompanied images of choppers on the giant video screens with a series of thunderous notes that morphed into the James Bond theme, Live and Let Die, joined by his bandmates? variations on the classic melody.
Of course this signalled another burst of pyro and Rose?s confident strut through a plus-sized version of the Paul McCartney classic. Somehow, when he roars, "You?ve got to give the other fella heeeeeell!" I think Rose probably means it more than McCartney does.
Roughly a third of the show was given over to Chinese Democracy tunes, some of which were improved when transferred to the stage and trimmed of the album?s excessive gloss, the end result of 14 years of tweaking and overthinking arrangements.
If the World?s simmering groove provided a decent soundscape for Rose?s keening vocals and some rapid-fire runs by Thal, who also shone on Better, making the fretless half of his custom double-neck guitar rumble, groan and gnash its strings with feral intensity.
Wisely, GN?R stayed away from most of Chinese Democracy?s meandering power ballads, although a grand piano was rolled out for dapper Dizzy Reed to play a thoughtful intro for Street of Dreams, a maudlin ballad about lost innocence that nonetheless features some impressive vocal work by Rose, who climbed atop the Baldwin keyboard as all three guitarists were going like blazes in the big climax.
Thursday night turned into Friday morning as Ashba?s glittering black Gibson chimed out the distinctive opening arpeggio of Sweet Child o? Mine and Rose wrapped his familiar bandana around his forehead for a rendition that seemed more subdued than in years past, giving the anthem a more nostalgic, wistful tone.
"Where do we go now?" he crooned, which seemed like a good question, since they?d just dropped the original band?s biggest hit into the dead centre of the show, but it continued to build with an emotional November Rain, the percussive force of You Could Be Mine ? the kind of flat-out rocker Chinese Democracy could have used more of ? and an extended Knocking on Heaven?s Door, drawn out to epic lengths by Ashba?s lyrical, soulful solo and Rose?s searing sandpaper wail.
After screaming through a possessed version of Night Train, with Thal working his wah pedal like he was trying to stamp out a scorpion, GN?R returned after an extended standing ovation with some special guests, the cast of Trailer Park Boys, including some drunken ramblings from Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth) and a rap from J-Roc (Jonathan Torrens).
Finally, Mike Smith as Bubbles got the band and the crowd to join in on "a little something we sing down at the legion," that notorious ode to life?s simple pleasures, Liquor and Whores, while Lahey did headstands in his underwear and bathrobe.
Finally, at about 1 a.m., the crowd was practically blasted toward the exit by the last of the pyro during Paradise City, in hopes that this city?s ticketing for the overnight winter parking ban hadn?t started yet.
Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1166203.html
Author