1987.10.27 - The Paradise, Boston, USA

New band that’s special

GUNS N' ROSES - In concert at the Paradise Theater, Tuesday.

By Jim Sullivan
Special to the Globe

1. Heavy metal will be with us always.

2. Most of it will be an endless parade of worthless cliches, played by bands with swollen egos and limited ideas.

3. Occasionally, young bands like Guns n' Roses will come along, snap your head around, and make you think. “There really is something to this noise after all. Throw away your doubts: Get absorbed in the speedy blur." Such was the case Tuesday night, when the Los Angeles-based quintet made its local debut at the Paradise before a sellout crowd. There was a buzz in the air and high-decibel, pedal-to-the-metal rock ’n’ roll on stage.

Guns n' Roses, fronted by singer W. Axl Rose and guitarist Slash, can’t stake a claim to runaway originality - but they do play the game for real. They believe in the low-life. They do not play dress-up. They've listened to the New York Dolls, Aerosmith. AC/DC, Motorhead, and Metallica. and absorbed all the right aspects. They’re at home with the idea that crunching heavy metal and melodious rock n’ roll can co-exist without compromising either. Their lyrics run along the eternal rebellion/out-looking-for-action axis. Sample: “They’re out ta get me,” scream-sung Rose. “They won’t catch me/I’m inno-cent/They won’t break me." Sung like he meant it.

Slash put it this way after it was all over: "We re not a glam band; we’re not a hardcore band; we’re just a rock ’n’ roll band. I hate to use that cliche.” Of the band’s hard-line anti-authority stance, "The establishment in L.A. didn’t like us much - cops, schools, liquor stores ..."

Guns n’ Roses play with the requisite rough-and-rowdy rawness. fueled by desperation. The main flaw during Tuesday’s 70-minute set was that most of what came out of Rose’s mouth sounded like “Rawr, raaagh, grrrbdz!," but a quick check of the album's lyric sheet - and Rose's more pointed song introductions - gave a clearer idea of what's going on. Which is, basically, living fast and hard and playing music to match.

But these bad boys cut the fun with, dare we say, a certain social consciousness. “My Michelle” doesn’t celebrate excess as much as it suggests the flipside of the too-much-ain’t-enough ethic; ditto for "Mr. Brownstone," for which Rose admonished "Make sure you wake up in the morning." And why else cover Dylan’s "Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” if not to make the point that a little bit of reflection and redemption never hurts? Guns n’ Roses is about living life on the edge, but being smart enough to pull bark at the right time. Climb, bill don’t fall off the mountain.