2002.11.08 - Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, USA

Guns N' Roses Returns to the Jungle
Pop Music* Founding member Axl Rose will lead a new lineup on band's first North American tour in nine years.
September 27, 2002|GEOFF BOUCHER | TIMES STAFF WRITER

Axl Rose, the long-lost bad boy of metal, will return in early November with a reconstituted Guns N' Roses for the band's first North American tour in nine years, although the status of the group's oft-promised new album remains uncertain.

The Guns N' Roses of 2002, scheduled to kick off an arena tour with a Nov. 7 performance in Vancouver, Canada, is far removed from the volatile rock outfit that first rattled the scene in 1985--frontman Rose is the only founding member still on board. No California dates have been announced, but they are expected.

After Rose, the only "old" member still in the mix is Dizzy Reed, who joined Guns N' Roses during the making of "Use Your Illusion 1" and "Use Your Illusion 2." Those 1991 simultaneous releases, along with the mega-selling 1987 album "Appetite for Destruction," were the most potent moments in the band's relatively meager recording output, but the group's searing live performance and allegiance to reckless rock at a time of antiseptic pop made them among that era's most memorable music forces.

The caterwauling Rose has become a reclusive figure in recent years, and his seemingly endless toils on the next Guns N' Roses album, "Chinese Democracy," had many fans skeptical they would ever actually hear the music. An Interscope Records staffer said Thursday that the album is not on the label's schedule of pending releases.

The new lineup boasts three guitarists: Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails), the cartoonish virtuoso Buckethead and Richard Fortus (Love Spit Love). Also on board are bassist Tommy Stinson (the Replacements), drummer Brian "Brain" Mantia (Primus) and keyboardist Chris Pitman (the Replicants).

The group is coming off six dates in Asia and Europe, and it has been playing new material, presumably from "Chinese Democracy," as well as the familiar hits.

Axl Rose comes out to play, again

Patrick MacDonald
Seattle Times music critic

When Guns N' Roses showed up as the surprise act at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, lead singer Axl Rose -- the only remaining original member -- looked chunky and sounded terrible.

After sprinting around the stage, trying to be as energetic as he was a decade ago, Rose got so winded he could hardly catch his breath. Late-night TV comedians got a lot of laughs making fun of him over the next few nights.

And Rose, his long blond hair in cornrows, wasn't the only weirdo on stage. On lead guitar, instead of the brilliant Slash (and what's GN'R without him?), was a bozo named Buckethead, so named because he wears a paper bucket, like the kind you get for takeout chicken, on his head. He also wears a white mask and a long wig.

Rose is rock's Howard Hughes. He was in virtual seclusion for seven years, while rumors circulated that he was sick, drug-addicted or dead. He had walked away from GN'R after the band played a New Year's Eve concert in Las Vegas in 1993. At the time, Seattle grunge was ruling rock, and sexist, arrogant, commercial rock bands like GN'R had fallen out of favor.

Little was heard from Rose until a couple of years ago, when it surfaced that he had recruited new members to make an album. That album, reportedly titled "Chinese Democracy," was supposed to have been released in August, but hasn't shown up yet. The latest word is that it may be out before Christmas.
Even without an album, Rose and his new seven-member band began the "Chinese Democracy" tour in August, as planned. It started, appropriately enough, in Hong Kong, before going on to Japan and Europe. The North American leg began last night in Vancouver, B.C.

When Guns N' Roses exploded onto the scene in 1987, via the powerful "Appetite for Destruction" album, it seemed like the savior of rock. Songs like "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" were antidotes to the slickly packaged pop of the time, like Madonna and Adam Ant.

GN'R became hugely popular, thanks to Rose's screaming vocals and Slash's stylish guitar solos.

The band played a couple of memorable shows here, including a great concert in the Tacoma Dome in the summer of '91. It also headlined a Kingdome show in 1992, playing a sloppy set that echoed throughout the concrete stadium. (It's little known that Los Angeles-based Guns N' Roses played its first show ever here in Seattle, at a club called Gorilla Gardens in 1985, arranged by the original bassist, Seattle-born Duff McKagan.)

After its initial success, the band got too big and lost touch with its audience, and its talent. Rose now faces a long, uphill battle to re-establish Guns N' Roses as a vital rock band.

GUNS N' ROSES SCORCHES SMALL CROWD

GENE STOUT
P-I pop music critic

MUSIC REVIEW
GUNS N' ROSES
WHEN: Last night
WHERE: Tacoma Dome

Axl Rose has been calling his Guns N' Roses comeback the Chinese Democracy Tour. But it was beginning to look more and more like "The China Syndrome" this week.

When the temperamental Rose failed to show up for the opening concert of the North American trek Thursday night in Vancouver, B.C., it appeared the tour was headed for a meltdown. Fans rioted outside GM Place when the show was abruptly canceled before show time. Rose's excuse that he had missed his flight to Vancouver seemed lame.

Fans expected a lot more of the singer-guitarist, whose original band was an arena-rock powerhouse before grunge changed the rules of rock 'n' roll in the early '90s. Anticipation for the latest tour, the first worldwide trek since 1993, was fueled by a successful tour through Asia last summer and an all-new lineup featuring players from Nine Inch Nails, the Replacements and Primus.

But a sinking feeling that the tour was in trouble was only reinforced by the poor turnout last night at the Tacoma Dome, where concertgoers barely filled half the arena.

The subdued atmosphere inside the dome didn't bode well for a night of arena rock. But turnabouts are always possible, and fans can be very forgiving. Rose would get a chance to redeem himself in Tacoma.
The concert began at 7:30 p.m. with opening act CKY, a Pennsylvania "nu-metal" band loud enough to put another crack in the Liberty Bell. Give this band time to grow.

Mixmaster Mike, a veteran of the Beastie Boys and the Skratch Picklz turntablist crew, was far more entertaining with his wacky videos, giant wind sculptures and classy looking turntable platform.

The crowd grew in size as the Guns N' Roses set approached, but it was 9:45 p.m. when Rose and his crew finally took the stage. Concertgoers responded by cheering and hoisting their cigarette lighters in the air. After five minutes of darkness, the show finally flickered to life with five video screens, giant light panels, Chinese characters and several massive explosions.

Rose, wearing baggy pants, a football jersey and trademark bandana, tore into "Welcome to the Jungle," a GN'R classic and guaranteed crowd-pleaser, and the howling "It's So Easy." A volley of scorching pyrotechnics kicked off a powerful version of Paul McCartney's James Bond classic "Live and Let Die."
The show quickly brought memories of high-decibel '80s arena-rock extravaganzas featuring howling guitars, thundering drums and screeching vocals. A lot has changed in rock 'n' roll since Guns N' Roses was founded in the '80s - and a lot has remained the same.

AXL BLOWS OUT THROAT, DONS CHICKEN BUCKET FOR GLITCHY GUNS TOUR LAUNCH
BAND PLAYS TO HALF-FULL VENUE, FACES ANNOYING TECHNICAL OBSTACLES.

MTV NEWS STAFF
11/09/2002

TACOMA, Washington — Crawling from the wreckage of their noisily aborted tour kickoff in Vancouver the night before — which ended in a fan riot and a bloody, club-wielding response by local police — Guns N' Roses came charging into the Tacoma Dome, about 45 minutes outside of Seattle, with considerable pent-up energy on Friday. Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough of it to entirely overcome some annoying technical obstacles that laid in wait.

The Dome is a boomy place at best; with only about half of its 22,500 seats occupied, as was the case with this show, the resulting sonic wallow often obscured the band's remarkable precision. On top of that, singer Axl Rose's microphone line slowly deteriorated throughout the course of the two-hour-plus set: By the end, his trademark wail was jabbing in and out of the mix so erratically that he started overcompensating, and finished the night (we were told) with blown vocal cords.

These sound problems obscured some of the best efforts of an impressive band. The new Guns N' Roses is a big group — three guitars and two keyboards along with bass and drums — and the level of its musicianship is unusually

high. One-time Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and ex-Primus drummer Brian Mantia propel the band with the requisite bottom-end muscle, but with rare agility, too. Chris Pittman is extraordinarily flamboyant for a guy who traffics in keyboards. And former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, who tempers his screaming leads with soulful control, is also a maestro of pure, string-ripping noise.

And then there's Buckethead. You know that a guy wearing a deadpan white mask and a fried-chicken bucket on his head is becoming a serious cult star when a couple dozen fans turn up in the audience sporting KFC headware of their own. And you definitely know the news is out when Axl Rose himself, midway through the old Guns hit "Patience," straps on a little mini-bucket,

too. But the really riveting thing about Buckethead — who's a veteran of the avant-funk-fusion scene — isn't his get-up; it's the jaw-dropping precision with which he can tear through a finger-blurring solo. He's super-fast and lyrical at the same time. He also does a robot-dance interlude that has to be witnessed to be fully appreciated.

All of the band's instrumental fireworks (and the show's explosive, old-school pyrotechnics) serve to illuminate the charismatic presence of Axl Rose, of course. His inimitable shriek remains ... well, inimitable — and he can still hold those keening notes beyond what might seem to be normal human ability. He also probably racks up as much non-stop sprint mileage onstage as most frontmen half his age.

Chinese Democracy, the new Guns album Rose has been promising for the past decade, won't be out till February. (Yes — so they say!) Therefore, the new band's repertoire is heavily studded with vintage tunes: "Welcome to the Jungle," of course, and "Paradise City." And everybody gets to sing along to "Sweet Child O' Mine," too, and "November Rain," "Live and Let Die," and "Mr. Brownstone." Even "Oh My God." (Well, maybe not.)

But the future of Guns N' Roses lies in the direction of the handful of new songs the group is currently playing: the gorgeous ballad "Madagascar," the gut-shaking "Rhiad" and the monumentally riffed-out "Chinese Democracy" itself. These songs, largely composed by Rose and the whole band (there are "probably hundreds" of others, according to keyboardist Dizzy Reed, probably exaggerating a bit), could sustain the ongoing GN'R project into a new creative era. It'd be nice to have them stick around.

—Kurt Loder

Gn'R Satisfy Fans' Appetites

Axl Rose actually appears on the second night

It was a weird night. Friday, at the Tacoma Dome in Washington, Axl Rose flashed video of Martin Luther King on stage. Axl Rose theorized that cops had it in for him on the opening night of the Guns n' Roses tour. Axl Rose showed up! It was a weird night, alright.

The day before in Vancouver, B.C., the kick-off concert for Gn'R's first American outing in nine years was canceled at half-past the eleventh hour. Fans rioted. Different parties offered differing reasons for the bailed show, but all agreed Axl wasn't even in Vancouver. Tacoma fans had their doubts rock's king eccentric would turn up in their town; testimonials of his presence -- "I just saw him, he was running out back" -- sounded more like Sasquatch sightings.

But turn up Axl did, with six new Gunners plus Dizzy Reed in tow. The lineup -- including avant-garde guitarist Buckethead, ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, and former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson -- hardly distinguished itself. Then again, that wasn't their mission. This group was here to provide a facsimile of vintage Gn'R convincing enough to win over fans who'd waited nearly a decade for Axl to come out of seclusion. And that they did. From the opening lick of "Sweet Child o' Mine" to the arena chant of "Paradise City," the band laid out a rock show as familiar as the taste of your first beer.

Not that it came easy. Axl monitored the tiered stage like a party host antsy to be sure his guests were properly mingling. But the new players rarely interacted with each other, instead taking turns engaging their boss. Technical gremlins plagued Axl's mike, and it hardly inspired confidence to clearly see a teleprompter scrolling the night's lyrics, most of which came from Appetite for Destruction (1987).

The band did crack open the new "Chinese Democracy," but the top-heavy rocker owned none of the soul hips that once define Guns n' Roses swing. "Madagascar" included samples from an MLK speech -- but Axl's inaudible vocals killed any context, rendering the tune a mere oddity.

It was a weird night, indeed. And Gn'R fans, thrilled to have their man out of his cave and back on the stage, could give a rat's ass.

CHRIS NELSON

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

But glitches continue following riot of previous night...

Guns ‘N’ Roses finally opened their North American tour on Friday (November 8) in Tacoma, Washington State following an aborted start the night before in Vancouver which led to a fan riot quelled by baton-wielding police.

The band had been unable to make their show in Vancouver as bad weather prevented flights taking off from LA. In Tacoma, tour glitches continued, this time caused by technical problems.

MTV reports that the sound was so muddy causing frontman Axl Rose to strain so hard to be heard, that by the close his vocal cords were blown.

The show saw G’n’R, performing as an eight piece – vocals, three guitars, two keyboards, bass and drums – work through old standards and several new tracks from the continually delayed ‘Chinese Democracy’. From vintage back catalogue, the band pulled ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Paradise City’, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, ‘November Rain’, ‘Live and Let Die’ and ‘Mr. Brownstone’, while ‘Madagascar’ and ‘Rhiad stood out from the clutch of new tracks.

Band guitarist Buckethead – distinctive in his white mask and KFC bucket hat – is also starting to build up a cult following, with pockets of fans throughout the venue aping his attire.

Guns can’t arrive until Rose does

Day 1, singer’s tardiness spurred disaster. Day 2, they’re rocking along the comeback trail.

U.S. tour will test the mettle or new Guns N Roses

By Robert Hilburn
Times Staff Writer

TACOMA, Wash. — Welcome back to the jungle.

After nine years on the sidelines, Guns N’ Roses, the most popular and volatile American hard-rock band of the ’80s, is on the loose again in the U.S.

And one thing’s for sure: The second day of the tour was better than the first.

It got off to a disastrous start Thursday when hundreds of fans rioted in Vancouver, Canada, after the concert there was canceled because lead singer Axl Rose’s plane was still hours away in California. A dozen people were arrested in the resulting melee, and damage to the General Motors Place arena was estimated at $100,000.

On Friday, before 6,000 fans at the Tacoma Dome here, it was back to the music as Rose led the new Guns lineup through a frequently spectacular display of the dynamics that made GNR such an exciting attraction a decade ago.

“You didn’t think we’d be here, did you?” Rose joked early in the show. Though the band had to battle sound problems in the massive building, the musicians seemed as explosive at times as the accompanying pyrotechnics.

Encouraged by the strong crowd response, Rose was in such good spirits that he even strapped a mini-KFC bucket to his head late in the set, imitating the stage trademark of Bucket-head, the avant-garde guitarist who is a centerpiece of the new Guns cast.

The contrast between the Vancouver flare-up and the Tacoma dynamics was a reminder of the contradictions that Guns N’ Roses represented at its peak.

From the moment Rose, a high school dropout from Indiana, stepped on stage at Hollywood clubs in the early ’80s, he was labeled the new Jim Morrison — a wild child whose tales of demons and desperation seemed a little too real just to be products of a fertile imagination.

In public, Rose frequently acted so impulsively in stressful moments that he seemed like someone who had been dropped into a hostile world and was fighting back with the clawing tenacity of a trapped alley cat.

This led to ugly incidents, such as the time in 1991 in St. Louis when he jumped into the crowd to grab a camera from a fan and then left the stage, spurring a rampage that resulted in injuries and $200,000 in damage. Rose acknowledged his inner turmoil and turned to therapy the same year.

What made Rose matter to millions of rock fans was that he could write about his tensions and the rock lifestyle with raw, unfiltered images. The signature song “Welcome to the Jungle” spoke about the decadence and glamour of the Hollywood music scene with a vividness that makes it the hard-rock equivalent of the Eagles’ “Hotel California.”

At the same time, Rose could express lost innocence with rare tenderness and vulnerability in such memorable songs as “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “November Rain.” It was a magical combination, and his partners in GNR presented the music with a mix of bravado and self-affirmation.

But the band split apart after a 1993 tour and Rose set about putting together a new version of Guns N’ Roses and working on a new album.

The only topic of conversation here Friday as popular as the Vancouver cancellation was what GNR was going to be like without guitarist Slash and the other original members. The new lineup has played a few dates over the last two years, and reviews have been generally positive.

But the real test is this ambitious U.S. tour, which includes stops at the San Diego Sports Arena on Dec. 27 and at the Forum in Inglewood on Jan. 3 and 4. Ultimately, Rose needs to convince us that he still has something to offer, and there were moments during Friday’s concert when you were impatient for him to get on with that process.

Rather than rethink the old material and put the songs in new and revealing contexts, Rose seemed too content to merely take us back to the ’80s.

While much of the material remains stirring, some of the tunes, including “Think About You” and “My Michelle,” feel dated. There was also a distance at times between the musicians and the music. It was as if they felt straitjacketed having to step into another band’s shoes.

The most touching moments came when Rose seemed the most introspective. When he sang Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” early in the set, there was a solemnity about him, as if he were thinking about all those who have passed away in his own life, both literally and figuratively. He was equally moving at the piano when he sang “November Rain.”

In the few times he turned to new songs that presumably will be on the new album, which is due next year, Rose seemed consistently engaged, and the band responded well to stepping beyond the shadow of GNR. Where his singing on the high-energy tunes sometimes seemed unduly shrill, he exhibited added character and feeling on the newer numbers. As the tour proceeds, Rose should preview more new songs to show more of who he is today, personally and musically.

He also can’t afford any more incidents like Vancouver.

Though common sense says it would have been smart to be in Vancouver early in the day, like the rest of the band, for the start of the tour, Rose’s manager, Merck Mercuriadis, said back-stage Friday that Rose prefers to arrive at the arena just before showtime.

In this case, Rose’s itinerary would have put him at the GM Place in time to go on at 10 p.m., as scheduled, but he was delayed in getting to the airport by traffic, the manager said. He added that the plane would have been in Vancouver in time for Rose to go on by 11 p.m., and that he tried to convince arena officials to let the show start late, with Rose covering overtime costs.

Instead, arena management canceled the show before fans got into the building, perhaps fearing an even greater reaction later if there were any other delays in Rose’s arrival. The arena manager declined to discuss the cancellation Friday.

If the Vancouver blowup involved another artist, it might be dismissed as simply an isolated incident. But with Rose’s history, it raised a red flag. As the tour proceeds across the country, he needs to understand that his conduct may be as important as his music in convincing the rock world that he again deserves its attention.

Guns N' Roses' Tacoma, Wash., Concert Draws 6,000

By Ernest A. Jasmin
The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

No rubber bullets or tear gas were needed Friday night at the Tacoma Dome. Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose showed up.

The band's Chinese Democracy tour had been scheduled to kick off Thursday in Vancouver, B.C., but Rose was a no-show reportedly because of flight delays causing the concert's cancellation and triggering Canada's second Guns N' Roses related riot.

As a result, Tacoma was suddenly the band's first North American tour stop since 1993. After taking the stage an hour late, the new lineup which features original members Rose and keyboard player Dizzy Reed plus members of Nine Inch Nails, The Replacements and Primus managed to recapture some of its chart-topping magic from the late '80s and early '90s.

A sparse but enthusiastic crowd of about 6,000 reveled in old songs as well as new material from the band's long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" album.

When the band started with "Welcome to the Jungle," Rose's distinctive shriek was more true to form than when the band performed on MTV's Video Music Awards in August. There he sounded more like a winded karaoke singer than the king of butt rock.

That is, he sounded better when fans could hear him. His microphone seemed to have a short causing his voice to fade in and out all evening.

The set featured crowd-pleasing hits including "It's So Easy," "Mr. Brownstone," "Live and Let Die," "November Rain," "Sweet Child of Mine," "My Michelle," "Night Train," "Patience," "Paradise City" and "Knocking on Heaven's Door."

New songs were the hard-hitting "Rhiad" and a song that, based on the set list the band only loosely followed, was either "Chinese Democracy" or "The Blues."

At one point, Rose appeared to be explaining Thursday's fiasco to the crowd, but microphone problems made it hard to understand.

The band's performance of the new song "Madagascar" was accompanied by video footage of Martin Luther King Jr. and scenes from the '60s civil rights movement; an intriguing twist considering the racist, homophobic and anti-immigrant slurs that pepper the controversial G N' R song "One In A Million." Did this represent a change in Rose's world view, or was it just a cynical marketing ploy?

In the night's most bizarre segment, Buckethead a new band member who performs incognito, wearing a mask and KFC bucket with the word "funeral" written on it twirled a pair of nunchucks and started break dancing before his guitar solo.

CKY opened the show, and hip-hop DJ Mixmaster Mike best known for working with the Beastie Boys followed with an impressive but out-of-place set, which ran too long and drew stray boos.

The Dome staff worked with the Tacoma Police Department earlier Friday on a plan of action in case Rose did not show up. Several arrests were made during the Vancouver riot, and more than $100,000 in property damage was reported.

In 1992, Rose walked off stage shortly after starting his performance in Montreal, leading to a crowd riot. There was also a concert-related riot in St. Louis in 1991.