1988.02.08 - Montezuma Hall, SDSU, San Diego, USA

Hard rockers 'crude, rude, rarely lewd'

Mikel Toombs
Toombs is a free-lance writer.

They may not exactly be deserving of bouquets, but Guns n' Roses shouldn't be shot down just yet -- no matter how appealing that prospect might seem to non-fans of the rough 'n' unsteady hard-rock band.

In fact, the Los Angeles-area musicians use their youthful wildness to their advantage, as they combine a bad reputation with often endearingly unpredictable song selection. It's no wonder that the band is the hottest discovery on the hip hard-rock scene today, an up-from-the-underground success story that managed to sell out Monday night's San Diego State University Montezuma Hall concert well in advance.

True to expectations, Guns n' Roses came out crude 'n' rude, although, intriguingly, given the level of its metal-minded peers, rarely lewd. It was a supremely sloppy show, as one might expect from a bunch that is notorious for putting drinking ahead of thinking.

Still, it was also an occasionally inspiring concert. Like so many other current bands -- including the Cult and Monday's opener, T.S.O.L. -- Guns n' Roses' roots are in the blues-based hard rock of the early '70s, but their interest in the form appeared to transcend trendiness. "I'd like to make my money being real," declared diatribe-prone singer W. Axl Rose, just one of the colorfully named characters in the quintet.

Part of Guns n' Roses' reality included frantic rockers like "Out to Get Me," which was fueled by paranoia and driven by adrenalin, and "My Michelle." The latter wasn't really enhanced by lead guitarist Slash's halting attempts at a prettified introduction, but it turned into a perfectly respectable speed-metal workout.

Equally respectable were the band's ballads, especially "Sweet Child of Mine," for which Rose rasped out a reasonably touching vocal and Slash wrenchingly delivered a sensitive solo to surprising effect. Less imposing were such tedious songs as "Move to the City" and "Rocket Queen," seemingly remnants of the forgettable heyday of hard-rock boogie bands like Mountain and Ten Years After.

"Tedious" was also a good summation for the opening set by T.S.O.L. Somehow spawned by the L.A. punk-rock movement in the late '70s, the veteran band actually had less punk energy than the headliners.

In fact, T.S.O.L. came closer to deliberately re-creating the blues-rock cliches of the late '60s. Still, at times, especially on a set-closing version of the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues," its slow-but-sure-handed approach worked reasonably well.