2006.10.27 - Germain Arena, Estero, USA

Waiting for Axl

Tonight's show at Germain Arena promises to be a big hit - or a big letdown

By Jonathan Foerster

I waited all last weekend for Axl Rose to give me a call.

I took my cell phone with me everywhere - into a comedy show on Friday night and movies on both Saturday and Sunday.

I even slept with it on the night stand next to my bed. I turned the ringer volume up as loud as it would go so that if he called me at 3 a.m., I'd wake up.

Axl never dialed me up. One of his legions of publicists called me on Friday night to tell me that Axl could call at any time, but nothing happened.

I'm not surprised.

It's not like Axl is Mr. Dependable or anything. In fact, he's got to be in the running for least reliable rock singer of all time. He has bailed on concerts. He has missed record company deadlines. He has started riots.

He makes David Lee Roth look like the Cal Ripken of rock 'n' roll.

So the idea that he was actually going to give me a call for an interview was a little bit of wishful thinking.

Hell, I'll believe GN'R is actually going to play at Germain Arena, after he leaves the stage tonight.

He hasn't done any interviews for the tour, of which Estero is stop three of 36, despite the fact that ticket sales haven't been spectacular.

Radio ads for the gig have found heavy rotation on local stations trying to drum up support for a show that was expected to sell out quickly. Even the original GN'R linuep would have problems drawing a crowd at $89.50 a ticket; that's a Rolling Stones price.

Is America tired of W. Axl Rose? Probably not.

After all, GN'R's debut album, "Appetite for Destruction," is one of the few '80s hard rock records that sounds as fresh and menacing today as it did nearly 20 years ago.

The band's greatest hits album was certified triple platinum earlier this year after less than two years on the market. It still sells about 12,000 copies a week.

And there's no way "Chinese Democracy" won't debut at No. 1, if it ever sees the light of day.

Slow ticket sales are most likely the result of skeptical GN'R fans remembering Axl's history of letdowns.
He has spent the past 10 years saying he's close to releasing "Chinese Democracy," the album that will show the world he was the real genius behind Guns N' Roses. So far he's spent millions for master tapes he still hasn't turned over to his record company. It took Brian Wilson nearly 40 years to finally release "SMiLE." Maybe Axl's looking to break that record.

He has popped up on the cover of Rolling Stone or Spin or whatever music magazine will believe him, claiming he's finally ready to reclaim his place in the rock 'n' roll pantheon, somewhere in between Mick Jagger and Ozzy Osbourne. He hasn't followed through.

He has toured Europe a couple of times as a warm-up to a triumphant return to the States for a grand tour. But the closest he got was a bizarre performance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, where he debuted a new GN'R lineup that included a guy who plays the guitar while wearing a KFC bucket on his head.

So tonight's gig, if it happens, will be big coup for the folks at Beasley Broadcasting, who are using it to celebrate the 20th birthday of their popular 96.1 K-Rock station.

Even if he just gets on stage and plays watered-down versions of GN'R hits, Axl's performance will most certainly be worth the price of admission.

But if his history is any indication, Axl will do something so spectacular or spectacularly bad that people will be talking about it for weeks.

Then maybe I'll forgive him for not calling me back.

Except for late start, Axl was in full bloom

By Vivek Kemp

When I signed on to review the Guns N' Roses concert, I admit I was gearing up for an hour of music from a tired rock band, making an embarrassing attempt at recapturing former glory.

I mean, GN'R without Slash could just as well be called "Wilted Rose," a 1980s cover band with a unreliable, shrill-voiced, front man. But Friday night at Germain arena, this version of GN'R proved it's fully loaded and Rose is in vibrant bloom.

The nearly sold-out show opened with sets by Sebastian Bach and Papa Roach.

Bach looked and sounded like a caricature of himself, with his trademark blond locks and leather V-cut vest. At one point he tried to give some flavor to the evening by shouting, "I don't usually play an Estereo except in my living room." The music was just as amusing.

Papa Roach, with their special blend of pop rock, had the crowd fist pumping and moshing to hits like "Last Resort."

And while both groups did their best to build hype, they were only sideshow distractions from the inevitable GN'R.

Gripping a cherry-red microphone, Rose started the show with a simple question, "Do you know where you are?"

The crowd answered in unison, like a proud legion hot with dengue fever. "You're in the jungle, baby. You're gonna die."

Flames crawled skyward, accompanied by cannon fire and strobe lights that flickered like mutant camera flashes. The infected crowd chanted along with the band's marquee song, "Welcome to the Jungle."

"And when you're high you never ever want to come down, so down, so down, so down."

The only vaccine Rose offered was nearly three hours of blistering rock and roll, with full-throttle vocals — a mother superior of rock.

The set list was plump with such classics as "Mr. Brownstone," "Sweet Child O' Mine," and the Wings cover, "Live and Let Die." The band also treated the audience to a few songs from the new album, "Chinese Democracy," including songs called "Better" and "IRS."

This was the third stop in a North American tour that includes dates in New York, Ottawa and San Diego. Rose has already developed a disturbing trend of making crowds wait until after 11 p.m. before taking the stage. The band didn't begin Friday's show until 11:02, an hour after they were scheduled.

But there is little room to begrudge GN'R. This band plays an astonishing set that's worth the wait.

Rose has put the same meticulous attention into assembling this cast of musicians as he has composing a stockpile of irrevocable music.

The eight-member group includes guitarists with the chops of Slash, leaving the wary delightfully satisfied. Robin Finck (formerly of Nine Inch Nails), Richard Fortus and Ron Thal attack the music like hell-hounds bent on mauling any doubters.

On keyboards there's Dizzy Reed. On bass, former Replacements member, Tommy Stinson. And on drums, Bryan Mantia, who's played with Primus, Tom Waits and Praxis.

Rose seems to know that if modern-day GN'R stands to thrive, he's going to have to make stars of his band members as well. Between classic GN'R tunes, Rose introduced solo performances from each member.

At one point Fortus and Thal played an Stevie Ray Vaughan-worthy rendition of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," the dueling guitars resonating like two electrified sirens.

Rose was mellow if not withdrawn, often leaving Finck and the other axmen to take center stage. And the front man didn't pepper you with the stereotypical "You guys ready to rock" comments that so many other bands depend on to rouse enthusiasm.

Instead, Rose let the music and the musicians shine and invigorate. And, yes, Mr. Rose, if you wondered, we were ready to rock. We've needed this fix for sometime.

GN'R gave the audience one last dose of fever-inducing rock, with an encore performance of "Paradise City."

As Rose left the stage, chucking his red mic into the crowd, you realized it was never his intention to provide any vaccine for his unique strain of dengue fever. No. He left us just as he wanted us. Infected, addicted, and needing more.