2006.11.15 - Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada

Don't Look For Gunners CD

Band here tonight, but no date for album

By Jane Stevenson
Toronto Sun

There's good news and bad news about the arrival of Guns N' Roses at the Air Canada Centre tonight.

First of all, there has been increased anticipation about this Gunners road trip, because their years-delayed new album, Chinese Democracy, was supposed to finally hit stores next Tuesday.

That's where the bad news comes in.

Universal Music Canada said this week: "We have no indication that a Guns N' Roses record will be released this year."

Now, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the Chinese Democracy saga, wonderfully documented in a lengthy New York Times article last year.

The Times reported that frontman Axl Rose had been working on the album in fits and starts since 1994 and racked up US$13 million in production costs.

COOP FOR BUCKETHEAD

But the article's best bit of news was that one-time band guitarist Buckethead, who wears a mannequin-like mask and a KFC bucket on his head, asked that a chicken coop be built in the studio for him to play in. And it was. Out of wood planks and chicken wire.

You can't make this stuff up.

The good news about tonight's show is that Rose -- the last man standing from the L.A. hard rockers' original lineup -- and his eight-piece-band have been getting mostly rave reviews on their latest tour, which began in May.

The lineup remains heavy on rock veterans. Among the three guitarists are Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails fame and Richard Fortus, formerly of the Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love. Ron Thal of Bumblefoot completes the guitar lineup, while the rhythm section comprises bassist Tommy Stinson, who helped in the development of The Replacements, and drummer Bryan 'Brain' Mantia, who has played with Primus and Tom Waits.

All of these players, with the exception of Thal, were with Rose when he last played in Toronto at the ACC four years ago. (In those days Buckethead was still in the lineup).

The only major hiccup on the latest GNR tour occurred last week when the group cancelled a show in Portland, Maine. There are discrepancies as to why.

Both Rose and band manager Merck Mercuriadis issued a statement saying that "harassment" by state fire marshals was to blame.

"The marshals made it clear that they intended to harass our fans, crew and the band through enforcing rules and regulations that are 200 years old, to an extent that has not been applied to other artists and that we believed would make the gig a potential time bomb that would explode," their statement said.

CAN'T DRINK ON STAGE

An AP story said the fire marshal's office told the group they could not drink on stage -- their taste ran from beer and wine to Jagemeister (a sweet, if foul-tasting, herbal liquer) -- during a pyrotechnics inspection before the show.

Both Rose and Mercuriadis denied the cancellation was a result of low ticket sales, with the show reportedly only half-sold.

Promoters in Toronto weren't revealing exactly how many tickets the Gunners have sold for tonight's show, other than to say tickets have been "selling well" and are still available.

Opening for the Gunners tonight are Peterborough's own Sebastian Bach of Skid Row fame and Suicide Girls, who began as an indie-minded porn site and apparently have graduated to a touring act.

SET LIST

What Guns N' Roses played at New York City's Madison Square Garden last Friday:

- Welcome To The Jungle

- It's So Easy

- Mr. Brownstone

- Live And Let Die

- Robin Finck guiitar solo & jam

- Sweet Child O' Mine

- Knockin' On Heaven's Door

- You Could Be Mine

- Dizzy Reed piano solo (Angie)

- The Blues

- Better

- Richard Fortus & Robin Finck guitar duet (Beautiful)

- Out Ta Get Me

- November Rain

- Ron Thal guitar solo (incl. Ace Frehley solo & Don't Cry)

- My Michelle (with opener Sebastian Bach)

- Used To Love Her

- IRS

- Patience

- Nightrain

ENCORE:

- Chinese Democracy

- Paradise City

Axl Grinds It Out Into Wee Hours

By Ben Rayner
Toronto Star

Well, it's still not Guns N' Roses - I'm not looking for an argument here, it just isn't - but there's hope for Axl yet.

Yes, Rose is on the second GNR tour undertaken without a single other member of the original Guns N' Rpses and named for a non - existent 13 - years - in - the - making that will soon beg immortalization in its own Sammuel Beckett play.

Yet, while the man's famous yowl proved only a slightly less dubious instrument at the Air Canad Centre on Wednesday night than on the first Chinese Democracy tour stop in Toronto four years ago, Axl himself seemed more fit, at ease and prepared to reclaim the spotlight than the guy who blew out the last GNR "comeback" after a handful of troubled dates in late 2002.  This was much less about transparent, "something to prove" effort; it felt like Rose, who gathered strength in vocal and stage presence as the evening - or morning - given the typical late start - wore on, has become a little more cognizant and appreciative of the enviable position he holds.

He might as well suck up his insecurities and throw another record out there.  Obviously fans - many of whom, if the ACC crowd was any indication, are too young to care about the absence of Izzy, Slash and Duff from the roaster - are happy to scoop up an arean's worth of tickets, put up with Papa Roach and Sebastian Bach as opening acts and then sit around, without alcohol service or much in the way of human rights, until the wee hours for a chance to hear Rose and a bunch of hired hands perform half of 1987's Apetite for Destruction.

Although it felt a little half - formed the last time out, the new band, which includes Use Your Illusion - era GNR addition Dizzy Reed, former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and a troika of showboating guitarists - Richard Fortus, new addition Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and ex - Nine Inch Nail sideman Robin Finck - can do authentically out - of - control ("You Could Be Mine" was fierce) and Vegas flashy (Wings' "Live and Let Die", "November Rain") with equal aplomb,  We didn't need all the solo spots that completely derailed the pacing every time Axl left the stage to change his shirt or rest his voice, but they are indeed pro players.

And wouldn't you know it?  There was actually one solid new number, a low slung, riff-adelic, groove rocker called "Better" that offered our first, faint hope that Chinese Democracy, should it ever see the light of day, might not be a disaster.  Fingers crossed, Axl, 'cause our patience is wearing thin.

Guns N’ Roses Better Late Than Provoking Riots

LIVE: Guns N’ Roses with Sebastian Bach
November 15, 2006
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, Ontario

By Aaron Brophy

Going to see the Guns N’ Roses in ’06 is like a strange rock ‘n’ roll chess match. If you’re Portland, Maine, Axl Rose simply tips the game board over and decides not to play. Vancouver or Montreal — if the past is any indication — have the riot squad on standby.

Toronto’s a different game. This show was a near-sellout, and forthcoming GN’R dates across Canada are also expected to tickle capacity, so the thinking was that GN’R’s leader would be predisposed to putting on a good show. What time that show would actually start, though, was the first move of the match.

The doors opened at 8 p.m. and camera call for working photographers was 10:45 p.m. But some advanced scouting had revealed that GN’R had regularly not been taking the stage until midnight. For my first play, I decided to split the difference, aiming for a 10 p.m. arrival.

The timing seemed alright, though a GO Station employee duct-taping the cracked glass on a kicked-in Union Station door near the ACC made for potentially uncomfortable foreshadowing.

Arriving at 9:52 p.m., my ears were quickly assaulted by what appeared to be a Tourettesian loop of “fuckin’ fuck yeah, fucky fuck, yeah, Toronto-OOO!” followed by timed, ear-curdling screams courtesy of hometowner and former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach.

It was time for a defensive dodge and parry. Wandering the hallways of the ACC seemed like a more fitting option than taking in Bach. My decision was fortified by a bellowing “Like it or not Toronto, you’re responsible for Sebastian Bach,” screamed by the former Gilmore Girls actor. “It’s all your fuckin’ fault, man!”

Indeed. And my penance would be to hang around in the hallway drinking beer instead of watching him.

At 10:14, the beer taps were closed. By 10:30 there was nothing else going on, so it was finally off to the seats to see the end of Bach’s set. Bach, it seemed, had achieved a sly small advantage.

Mid-“Monkey Business,” he invited a pack of barrel-chested gomers onto the stage. Turns out it was the Trailer Park Boys, sending the crowd (and core TPB demo) into a tizzy. Bubbles played his audience-defining hit “Liquor And Whores,” while Baz declared this the “greatest night of his life” before bringing the whole thing home with “18 And Life” and “Youth Gone Wild.”

The ACC crowd was genuinely going wild, with fist-pump salutes and a response shocking to jaded rock crit ears and eyes. Sebastian Bach made a successful and triumphant return as a hometown hero.

That was 10:49.

Then, came the wait.

The cries for the beer stalls to open were funny and pitiful. I even watched a woman try to break into one. If anything, the lengthy changeover served more to pacify the crowd rather than rile them up.

By 11:38, the lights were down and Robin Finck’s guitar spasms came out from out of the darkness getting everyone up from their seats. With a blast, the band broke into “Welcome To The Jungle” and the game was on. Rose was all presence and, incidentally, not nearly the wobbling bag of bloat his naysayers like to claim he is.

“It’s So Easy” and “Mr. Brownstone” kept the hit machine rolling and a high-production, pyro ‘n’ explosions take on “Live And Let Die” was amazing. Rose’s screams on this were positively Halfordian in the their power, and the cover would prove to be his vocal highlight of the night.

From there it was “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” — another cover and fan singalong — and then, inexplicably, into what would be the first of four lengthy solo musical interludes.

Guitarists Finck, Richard Fortus and Ron Thal and keyboardist Dizzy Reed were all given ample time to show off their prowess, doing takes on everything from Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” to Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane” to “O, Canada” to the Gunners’ “Don’t Cry” in solo form. But all these instrumentals jammed into a mid-section — that included moderately received, though solid new songs “The Blues” and “Better” and the high school dance dreck of “November Rain” — brought Rose precariously close to being checkmated.

The unlikely combination of Bubbles and Sebastian Bach brought the show and audience back from the brink, though, as they bounded on stage to signal the beginning of the set’s end. Baz yelled and swore some more. Rose referred to Bubbles as “Mike,” no doubt flustering the pathologically-always-in-character cat aficionado, and the head Gunner warned that he was “watching you people like a shithawk.” Whether Rose was referring to Baz and Bubbles or the audience was moot. That quaint bit of underground Canadianna had just enough homestyle awareness to tip things back into GN’R’s favour.

From there it was a fiery duet with Bach on “My Michelle,” then a run of “Used To Love Her,” “Patience,” “Nighttrain,” an entirely acceptable “Chinese Democracy” and a gloried “Paradise City.”

At 1:54 a.m., it was all over. Rose and his crew managed to squeeze out a close victory. The only losers, it would seem, would be the thousands milling about outside Union Station without a way home because Guns N’ Roses played so late that the subway station was closed.