September 23rd 2017. Rock In Rio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

[PermissionToLand]

Yesterdays is a great song. Less is more.

I wish Slash would get that with the solo. He's been adding notes and it's not as good as the original solo.

[DeN]

painful

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Ive finally started to watch the whole show. Coma is pretty painful to hear.  For whatever reason, the RIR shows generally don't seem to be their best night performancewise.

[estebanf]

I think at this point we all should have learned the ''Rock in Rio lesson''...

Axl sounded bad in the RIR2011, then sounded like a posessed devil at Santiago de Chile just three days later and continued sounding excellent all the 2011 tour. It makes no sense, doesn't it? I attended the RIR 2011 edition, and when I got home I couldnt believe what people were commenting!

Axl sounded terrible in this RIR2017 edition, and what we have heard from Sao Paulo and what we are going to hear in the next concerts from youtube will sound great as always. Yes, of course he has high and low points, his voice is not regular, but how much more time are we going to kill Axl for the only reason that he's only pro-shotted (is this even a word? ) in Rock In Rio? isn't the conclussion obvious? Have you ever attended a GNR concert in which he sounded THIS bad? I would bet my soul you did not.

Axl's voice is not ''stream friendly'' in general, but much less in the RIR stream. Axl voice is fine. Trust me.

What worries me A LOT is Slash. I am used to hear him DESTROYING all the ChiDem songs. I kinda accepted it. I don't expect nothing good from him, not even ''decent'', and I also dont expect anymore the band to tell Richard to take care of these solos. Just to mention one example: check the Chinese Democracy solo, which was divided between DJ and Ron in the past, and now its between Slash (the first part, thank God!!) and Richard, and you will clearly hear two things in two different paradigms. Something amorph, with no sense at all. The classic bluesy/sloppy nonsense by slash followed by the crystal clear exact-like-the-album part of Richard. Slash destroys Sorry, destroys TIL (it hurts to see such a beautiful song completely butchered by his 1 minute participation), destroys Better... but now he started to destroy his own songs! Can anybody tell me what did Slash play in the Estranged solos at RIR? What did he do with Yesterdays? This is new and surprising: i was able to predict that Slash was going to destroy the chidem songs, but not his own songs!

At this point, and admitting I have always wanted GNR to play more and more ChiDem songs (like in Japan 2009), I have to say I would like the band to stop playing these songs. The new generations that are hearing these songs for the first time with Slash's live performances are gonna hate them. And I will not be ble to blame them.

[zombux]

there's much truth in what you say my friend. I'd just like to add one more - Richard is also struggling a lot to play Bucket's notes. I can't blame him, he's doing everything he can, but this just shows how drastically this band lacks a guitar guy, who can play clearly note by note, no matter how complicated the guitar track is. what's the point of having songs with excellent guitar melodies (written by Slash in the past and Buckethead somewhat after him), when the only guy who could ever play or rather replicate those properly was Bumblefoot?

[PermissionToLand]

I think at this point we all should have learned the ''Rock in Rio lesson''...

Axl sounded bad in the RIR2011, then sounded like a posessed devil at Santiago de Chile just three days later and continued sounding excellent all the 2011 tour. It makes no sense, doesn't it? I attended the RIR 2011 edition, and when I got home I couldnt believe what people were commenting!

Axl sounded terrible in this RIR2017 edition, and what we have heard from Sao Paulo and what we are going to hear in the next concerts from youtube will sound great as always. Yes, of course he has high and low points, his voice is not regular, but how much more time are we going to kill Axl for the only reason that he's only pro-shotted (is this even a word? ) in Rock In Rio? isn't the conclussion obvious? Have you ever attended a GNR concert in which he sounded THIS bad? I would bet my sould you did not.

Axl's voice is not ''stream friendly'' in general, but much less in the RIR stream. Axl voice is fine. Trust me.

What worries me A LOT is Slash. I am used to hear him DESTROYING all the ChiDem songs. I kinda accepted it. I don't expect nothing good from him, not even ''decent'', and I also dont expect anymore the band to tell Richard to take care of these solos. Just to mention one example: check the Chinese Democracy solo, which was divided between DJ and Ron in the past, and now its between Slash (the first part, thank God!!) and Richard, and you will clearly hear two things in two different paradigms. Something amorph, with no sense at all. The classic bluesy/sloppy nonsense by slash followed by the crystal clear exact-like-the-album part of Richard. Slash destroys Sorry, destroys TIL (it hurts to see such a beautiful song completely butchered by his 1 minute participation), destroys Better... but now he started to destroy his own songs! Can anybody tell me what did Slash play in the Estranged solos at RIR? What did he do with Yesterdays? This is new and surprising: i was able to predict that Slash was going to destroy the chidem songs, but not his own songs!

At this point, and admitting I have always wanted GNR to play more and more ChiDem songs (like in Japan 2009), I have to say I would like the band to stop playing these songs. The new generations that are hearing these songs for the first time with Slash's live performances are gonna hate them. And I will not be ble to blame them.

As a big Slash fan (to make a huge understatement), I actually have to agree. Some time around the Apocalyptic Love tour, he seemed to lose that amazing melodic sensibility I loved him for and started doing all his solos off the cuff. Which he could get away with in 1992 because he had that innate melodic sensibility, but now his improvisations are very meandering and directionless, lacking in melody and structure. And also, since he started pushing his technical chops (slightly; it's overstated how much he has progressed and understated how proficient he was on the UYI tour), he seems to go for quantity over quality. Frankly, he's become the kind of wanking soloist that was the antithesis of why I liked him in the first place. And now it seems to have set in fully, as World on Fire had almost entirely improvised solos (according to Slash himself), and he has clearly not bothered to learn the existing CD solos or write his own instead. I fear for any future possible GNR material that he will put very little effort into actually WRITING solos. And if Axl has a beautiful ballad for him, we will not hear those incredible soaring bends of November Rain or Yesterdays.

However, I will say that his old style shines through occasionally. I was impressed by his solos on Wish You Were Here. I think having to literally compete back and forth with Richard forces him to think more melodically there. It's funny, think about how the tables have turned since his "battle" with Zakk Wylde where Slash was the one with superior melodic sense, and now Fortus is pushing him melodically.

[rebelhipi]

I have to agree with estabanf.

Even with Velvet Revolver i thought Slash was the least impressive member in a live setting.

[ITARocker]

Yep slash has lost is touch a little in soloing, but at the same time i could say for sure that his sound is great and heavier than ever, he's really on point more than bumble or ashba for sure, when u listen to him live u notice the difference. his musical presence is on another level

[Bazfreak]

Esteban is right. People should understand that youtube videos shall not be compared with live streams. In general, RiR mixing is plain awfull and really destroys the sound. Even Steven Tyler did not sound that good...its a systemic mixing issue with RiR Brazilian TV broadcast. There are a lot of people saying...Axl recovered his voice in Sao Paulo show....Jon Bon Jovi recovered his voice after a shitty RiR perfomance....they are wrong...the voice is sounding the same in the PAs however theres no live stream mix ...just youtube...comparisoms with different sound sources are just stupid!
EDIT: Public in general left the concert in awe for Slash. Nothing but major praise and admiration for the guy... i would say he outshined Axl.

[ITARocker]

Esteban is right. People should understand that youtube videos shall not be compared with live streams. In general, RiR mixing is plain awfull and really destroys the sound. Even Steven Tyler did not sound that good...its a systemic mixing issue with RiR Brazilian TV broadcast. There are a lot of people saying...Axl recovered his voice in Sao Paulo show....Jon Bon Jovi recovered his voice after a shitty RiR perfomance....they are wrong...the voice is sounding the same in the PAs however theres no live stream mix ...just youtube...comparisoms with different sound sources are just stupid!
EDIT: Public in general left the concert in awe for Slash. Nothing but major praise and admiration for the guy... i would say he outshined Axl.

We agree about bad mixing but shit voice is shit voce. In 2006 mix was the worst ever (really... 3 guitars and u cant hear none)but voice was good... If u are gasping, you cant reach notes, u cant sustain screams...Its not about sound system

[rebelhipi]

I watched the gig today. I think it was a great show. Not their best night, but i wouldnt call it a ''offnight'' by any means.

Coma was far from a so called ?trainwreck? Axls timing was off in one phrasing, and recovered well. Also Slash broke a string but changed guitars without missing a note.

This had my favorite version of Double Talkin' Jive from this tour. The extended intro caused from technical difficulties worked well, and reminded me of the way they used to play this song in the 90s.


I noted the Slash has absolutely no time to catch his breath until the gap between Nightrain and Sorry.

Slash's take on the solo of Sorry has improved from last year.
I dig their take on Wichita Lineman

Also great versions of acoustic Patience, Dont Cry, Live And Let Die, Estranged to name a few.

[martyngnr]

Esteban is right. People should understand that youtube videos shall not be compared with live streams. In general, RiR mixing is plain awfull and really destroys the sound. Even Steven Tyler did not sound that good...its a systemic mixing issue with RiR Brazilian TV broadcast. There are a lot of people saying...Axl recovered his voice in Sao Paulo show....Jon Bon Jovi recovered his voice after a shitty RiR perfomance....they are wrong...the voice is sounding the same in the PAs however theres no live stream mix ...just youtube...comparisoms with different sound sources are just stupid!
EDIT: Public in general left the concert in awe for Slash. Nothing but major praise and admiration for the guy... i would say he outshined Axl.

It's not really a fair comparison. Jon Bon Jovi has sounded awful for many, many years, and without Richie Sambora to carry the vocal load they are a mess.

[Koskenkorvasieni]

All this talk about Slash destroying solos of ChiDem material, yet nobody seems to remember Robin Finck basically murdeded all of Slash's classic solos and left a lot of fans ears bleeding during his tenure in GNR. As I'm watching and listening to RIR 2017 right now, Slash is playing beautifully and he's adding his own flavor to ChiDem solos rather than MURDERING them like Finck murdered his solos.

That's just my honest opinion and opinions are always subjective, but nevertheless I felt like I had to say it.

As for Axl's voice, he's always been a hit n' miss type performer. Some nights he sings like a god and others are a struggle, but the same can be said for pretty much every singer who does long tours, especially those who use a lot of higher register in their singing. And it ain't nothing new either. Axl's voice was shot during the 1991 leg of the UYI tour and 1992 he sang like an orgasm. But he always kept rasping in those days, which often resulted in tthroat problems later on in the tour and as I recall, the Montreal riot was partly because of Axl leaving the stage due to throat problems. At least he's learned to compensate now, even if it is a bit chipmunk-y...

[Boromir]

Never been a fan of Coma, and i find it really hard for Axl vocally.

Couldnt care less if they would drop it at some point.

[DAVE ROCK]

All this talk about Slash destroying solos of ChiDem material, yet nobody seems to remember Robin Finck basically murdeded all of Slash's classic solos and left a lot of fans ears bleeding during his tenure in GNR. As I'm watching and listening to RIR 2017 right now, Slash is playing beautifully and he's adding his own flavor to ChiDem solos rather than MURDERING them like Finck murdered his solos.

That's just my honest opinion and opinions are always subjective, but nevertheless I felt like I had to say it.

As for Axl's voice, he's always been a hit n' miss type performer. Some nights he sings like a god and others are a struggle, but the same can be said for pretty much every singer who does long tours, especially those who use a lot of higher register in their singing. And it ain't nothing new either. Axl's voice was shot during the 1991 leg of the UYI tour and 1992 he sang like an orgasm. But he always kept rasping in those days, which often resulted in tthroat problems later on in the tour and as I recall, the Montreal riot was partly because of Axl leaving the stage due to throat problems. At least he's learned to compensate now, even if it is a bit chipmunk-y...

   well said man   +1 here

[rebelhipi]

All this talk about Slash destroying solos of ChiDem material, yet nobody seems to remember Robin Finck basically murdeded all of Slash's classic solos and left a lot of fans ears bleeding during his tenure in GNR. As I'm watching and listening to RIR 2017 right now, Slash is playing beautifully and he's adding his own flavor to ChiDem solos rather than MURDERING them like Finck murdered his solos.

That's just my honest opinion and opinions are always subjective, but nevertheless I felt like I had to say it.

As for Axl's voice, he's always been a hit n' miss type performer. Some nights he sings like a god and others are a struggle, but the same can be said for pretty much every singer who does long tours, especially those who use a lot of higher register in their singing. And it ain't nothing new either. Axl's voice was shot during the 1991 leg of the UYI tour and 1992 he sang like an orgasm. But he always kept rasping in those days, which often resulted in tthroat problems later on in the tour and as I recall, the Montreal riot was partly because of Axl leaving the stage due to throat problems. At least he's learned to compensate now, even if it is a bit chipmunk-y...

Atleast Finck stayed on the same key and octave.

Still to this day my favourite solos of Mr.Brownstone and Its So Easy were done by Robin.
Im not even mentioning Chinese tracks.
I gotta admit Robins take on November Rain was something i was never a fan of.