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Live Review
by SashaS
27-8-2002
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| Axl: epic struggle of man v time |
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Live: Guns N’Roses
Docklands Arena, London
Monday, August 26, 2002
Guns N’Roses on London stage in a decade
A Guns N’Roses show is always a gamble due to the fact that you never know whether it is going to take place. Axl Rose, the only surviving member of the original line-up, knows to cancel at a short notice and tickets mean nothing until it is actually being played, with a usual delay. It never is in doubt that the man is going to be late on stage no matter what. Artists’ timing disregard is about 100 times truer in the Roses’ case.
We all know that waiting increases anticipation but there is a line when one gets pished off by the time Axl and band-mates take to the stage. But then music blows away the negativity by feeling like being back ten years ago. It is that good, it is unchanged, it is that identical. And yet, this is not a complaint, just a statement of the obvious and a confirmation that goodies bypass trends.
With his de rigueur bandana and long hair, this is Rose who is still a star and a buffoon. Guns N’Roses haven’t graced a Euro-stage in about a decade, have had no new album in nine and even the last one, ‘The Spaghetti Incident’, was an album of covers. We have to look to 1991 when ‘Use Your Illusion’ came out in two parts for the last original work.
Since then things appeared to have gone from bad to worse and all other members scattered into unremarkable solo projects while Rose behaved like he had lost his illusion as well. For the past half-a-dozen years he’s been recording, re-recording, changing, editing and re-editing ‘The Chinese Democracy’, but despite their label Insterscope’s pouring money in as if it were a bridge foundation, there is still no release date.
No surprise then than we get plenty of songs from the glorious past: ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ opens the procession of song and there go 'Sweet Chile O’ Mine’, ‘You Could Be Mine’ and ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’, mixed with a clutch of electronically-tinged new songs that still retain basis of bluesy-ness about them, like the title track with its dirty riffing.
New guitarist, Buckethead (so alias’d for his penchant for wearing KFC buckets on his head), tries to outclass Slash at every corner with occasional succees but not during a five-minute solo; Buckethead is known as a solo artist, cult-division, and we’d warmly recommend ‘Monsters And Robots’ (1999) where you can experience an incredible array of styles.
Axl, with his screech still as blood-curdling as ever, appears to be as mad as a rabid dog, so no change there. ‘November Rain’ sounds epic, ‘Mr Brownstone’ appaels more than a memory, with ‘Paradise City’ bringing the curtain down with fireworks. After all it was like being back in 1993 but then – that’s what legends are for, to soundtrack our lives. Where Gunners go from here knows not even Axl.
But, let’s hope we don’t have to wait as long again.
SashaS
27-8-2002
Guns N’Roses album ‘The Chinese Democracy’ will eventually be released by Interscope
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