2006.11.25 - The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI, USA

Rose still captivates, even with his thorns

By Adam Graham
The Detroit News

Nearly a decade of seclusion, marked by occasional fits of activity and the lingering promise of a soon-to-be-delivered masterpiece have made Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose one of rock's most enigmatic figures.

Yet he's also frustrating, obnoxious and maniacally egotistical -- perhaps the reason Rose, 44, is the only original member of GNR left. Rose performs Saturday at the Palace of Auburn Hills with his reconstituted Guns N' Roses, which is part tribute band, part nostalgia act and part freak show. And if you're a rock fan, you don't wanna miss it.

Throughout Rose's ups and downs, a hunger remains for the band's work. GNR's "Greatest Hits" record, released in March 2004, has sold more than 3.2 million copies, and it still hangs around Billboard's Top 100, consistently selling more than 10,000 copies a week.

Meanwhile, Rose's attitude and swagger continues to enthrall. Even though it's been 15 years since he's done anything meaningful, he remains one of the world's biggest rock stars.

Admittedly, the only thing that's changed since GNR last played The Palace in 2002 is that everyone is older. Inexplicably, the band's forever-in-the-making "Chinese Democracy" -- rock's longest running joke -- seems no closer to being released now than it was then.

Still, the aura and mystique that surrounds Rose is compelling enough to warrant attention. Plus, you never know when a Guns N' Roses performance may be its last.

Welcome to the Jungle

I saw Guns N' Roses play to a sold-out at Madison Square Garden in December 2002. It was the band's biggest show on its first full-fledged tour since 1993, and much to everyone's surprise, Rose arrived on time and led his band through a triumphant set. Rose is a little bulkier and a little slower, but he still soaked up the audience's loving screams.

The next night, Rose missed his show in Philadelphia -- it was reported that he was watching a basketball game in his hotel room in New York when he was supposed to be on stage -- and fans rioted. The remainder of the tour was sacked, and Rose, who had made unruly behavior his calling card since the band broke through with its rip-roaring 1987 masterpiece, "Appetite for Destruction," went back into hiding, where he'd spent much of the previous 10 years.

Earlier this year, Rose began reinserting himself into public life. Trouble followed.

In May, he fought with Tommy Hilfiger at a New York nightclub, and in June he was arrested after allegedly biting a security guard at a Stockholm, Sweden hotel.

Rose wasn't just rabble rousing for old time's sake. His band was performing as well, and a series of well-received dates gave way to the band's current trek, the second tour behind the mysterious, mythical "Chinese Democracy." Yet the album -- first announced in the late '90s -- seems only to exist in Rose's head, and has become something of rock and roll's answer to Bigfoot.

Use Your Illusion

"Chinese Democracy" -- assuming it does, indeed, exist -- is Rose's follow-up to 1991's "Use Your Illusion" I and II. That double-album was GNR's grand, bloated and blindly defiant rock and roll opus, which was released one week before Nirvana's "Nevermind" changed the shape and course of rock and roll in the '90s.

"Chinese Democracy" separates Rose from his contemporaries, most of whom have long since relegated themselves to the oldies circuit. The promise of the album -- coupled with Rose's erratic behavior -- elevates the band above retread acts such as Poison and Motley Crue.

Although "Chinese Democracy" is rumored to be released every year, several tracks were leaked online and GNR's management released a vague statement in September saying "there are 13 Tuesdays left between now and the end of the year," inferring the album would be released on one of them.

However, the calendar shows we're now down to five Tuesdays. Just how long can he string fans along?
Rose once sang, "All we need is just a little patience," and he's been testing fans' patience ever since. Will that patience pay off?

We can hope, because another teaching from the book of Axl says "nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain."

Whether that lesson applies to his neuroses, however, remains to be seen.

Preview
Guns N' Roses
with Sebastian Bach, Eagles of Death Metal, and Suicide Girls
8 p.m. Saturday
The Palace of Auburn Hills
4 Championship Drive, Auburn Hills
Tickets $37-$75; Call (248) 377-0100

Guns N' Roses rocks Palace with old hits

Adam Graham
Detroit News Pop Music Writer

Few entertainers can get away with the kind of on-stage tardiness that Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has made his calling card. In fact, so lacking in punctual graces is Rose that when he took the stage at 11:35 p.m. Saturday at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the more than 7,500 fans gathered at the arena had a good reason to feel lucky: By Rose's standards, he was early.

"Do you know where the (bleep) you are?" Rose squealed when he suddenly appeared at center stage, in a haze of smoke and lights. And there was only one answer: In the strangely fascinating world of Axl Rose, the world's most mysterious, enigmatic rock star.

Or, as Rose better puts it, in the jungle, baby. It's gonna bring you down.

Saturday marked Guns N' Roses' first local appearance since 2002, and both concerts have supposedly been in support of "Chinese Democracy," the band's long-gestating epic that may or may not ever be released. But the focus of the show was mainly on the past: The band tore through two-thirds of "Appetite for Destruction," GNR's 1987 hard rock masterpiece, while "Chinese Democracy" and 1991's double album, "Use Your Illusion," warranted five songs apiece.

It's no secret that Guns N' Roses is no longer Guns N' Roses; Rose is the sole holdover from the band's heyday. But Rose has assembled perhaps the world's strongest karaoke band behind him: The 7-piece outfit -- which includes three guitarists -- was superb, providing formidable muscle and rendering airtight renditions of GNR classics such as "Mr. Brownstone," "It's So Easy" and "Sweet Child O' Mine." No one in the current band has the stage presence or charisma of Slash or even Buckethead, the bizarro guitarist who handled weirdo duties on the band's last outing, but then that's the point: This is Rose's show, just as Rose has always wanted it.

Rose, by the way, remains utterly transfixing, and he dominated Saturday's show front to finish -- even when he was off-stage, which was a good deal of the time. Rose darted off stage whenever his vocal duties weren't immediately required, whether during brief or horribly elongated solos.

When on-stage, though, he was a monster. Though his voice wavers in and out even in the course of single notes -- arguably, Rose's squawk is about 60 percent shot -- he stone-cold nailed a number of songs, offering urgent, essential renditions of "Out Ta Get Me" and "Nightrain." He hit all his signature stage moves -- arms outstretched, shuffling across stage, propelling himself with one leg while balancing with the other; dashing across the stage at full speed and suddenly screeching to a halt, before hitting notes so hard it seemed he was going to burst a blood vessel in his forehead -- and he did so with purpose. Unlike on 2002's sometimes cartoonish jaunt, this Guns N' Roses looks trained and ready to get in the ring.

Rose, meantime, performed with vitality and vigor, as if his worth, legacy and future were all on the line. All were in strong standing at the close of the show.

Not that there aren't wrinkles that need to be ironed out. The 19-song, 130-minute show suffered from deadly pacing problems; each of the three guitarists was granted his own extraneous, momentum-killing guitar solo, and Dizzy Reed was given his own piano solo. And '80s relic (and opening act) Sebastian Bach joined Rose for a duet on "My Michelle," which would have been better served by Rose himself.

Rose seemed in good spirits Saturday, early on addressing "the good people of Auburn Hills" and later attempting to explain his late arrival time. "For me, this is morning," Rose said at just after 12:15 a.m., "so consider me your Captain Kangaroo."

What's next for the Captain? The Big Questions about the band still remain, and "Chinese Democracy" was never mentioned by name Saturday. But as Guns N' Roses took a well-deserved bow at the end of the evening, minds were elsewhere.

"I think it's been a good night, don't you think?" Rose said near the close of the show. It was, and for now that's enough.

This Guns N' Roses is all about Axl

By Nikki Poisson
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It had to be on the mind of every person in The Palace of Auburn Hills Saturday night. Would he or wouldn't he? And if he did, how long would the show last? The last time he was here, almost four years to the day, he played less than an hour and walked off stage.

Who is he? He's the enigma that is Axl Rose aka Guns N' Roses. As the lights finally went down at The Palace at 11:35 p.m. Saturday, you could feel a sigh of relief and anticipation wash over the crowd of 7,500.

Spotlights waved through the audience. Climactic music played in the background. There was one strum of a familiar song, then another. Rose and his seven-piece band, including three guitarists and two keyboard players, blazed onto the stage in a barrage of pyrotechnics that opened with "Welcome to the Jungle."

The band quickly moved into two other Guns N' Roses hits, "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone." Rose's signature voice - the one that made the band's debut, "Appetite for Destruction," one of the greatest albums of all time - left something to be desired early in the set. The other band members, as well as the audience, seemed to carry the spots where the frontman had problems.

As flames rose from behind the percussion riser, the band tore into "Live and Let Die," with Rose dancing and twirling the microphone in sheer late-'80s fashion. The normally moody singer was, in his own words, "feeling warm and fuzzy tonight."

"Sweet Child o' Mine" found Rose playfully interacting with his guitarists between sips of his drink, running from one side of the stage to the other and doing his signature sway. It also featured one of the night's terribly long solos by Robin Vick.

Flashing lights, large booms and inaudible vocals, either due to the soundman or Rose himself, came along with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "You Could Be Mine." Regardless, Rose stood center stage, using hand gestures that directed his band like the maestro of an orchestra.

When a piano was rolled onto the stage, percussionist/keyboard player Dizzy Reed took center stage to cover the Rolling Stones' "Angie" and remained there throughout "The Blues," which found Rose perched on top of the piano dancing.

"November Rain," showcasing Rose behind the piano while pyrotechnics rained down on stage, was one of the night's strongest vocals. "It's been a good night, don't ya think?" Rose said as he whistled his way into a stripped-down version of "Patience."

Sebastian Bach, former front man of Skid Row and one of the night's many openers, joined GN'R to sing alongside Rose on "My Michelle." It was a nice gesture, but Rose would have done the song more justice minus Bach.

The band unleashed an onslaught of lights, instruments and energy with the set-closing "Night Train." It also unleashed Vick on the audience as he played while crowd surfing. By this time - 1:30 a.m. - plenty of people were filing out of The Palace. However, GN'R had a three-song encore, including "Paradise City" and "Madagascar."

Today's Guns N' Roses isn't the GN'R of yesteryear: Rose is the only original member remaining. But it showcased him to a tee on Saturday. He was so fascinating to watch, you could barely look way. And while questions still swirl about the band and the 10-years-in-the-making "Chinese Democracy," the only question Saturday's audience was left with was: "Have you ever been to a concert at The Palace that ended at 2 a.m."?

Guns N' Roses, Tenacious D Rock The Motor City

Forget the BCS standings. On Saturday night, the Detroit metro area hosted a battle for the title of Most Awesome Rock 'n' Roll Band on the Planet.

Duking it out in separate corners were Guns N' Roses, which really did set rock's standard for awesomeness in the late '80s and rocked the Palace of Auburn Hills with a very late but fierce display of muscular hard rock, and Tenacious D, the comic metal duo of actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass who had a devilishly good time convincing the crowd at Detroit's Masonic Temple Theatre that it was "the greatest band of all time."

Like many college football polls, no clear-cut winner could be determined, but both shows had abundant merits tempered by a few shortcomings.

No discussion of a Guns N' Roses concert can be had without mention of the time issue, of course. The group, whose sole remaining founding member is frontman W. Axl Rose, hit the Palace stage just after 11:30 p.m. Saturday - more than 70 minutes after former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach finished his opening set and late enough for one to see Tenacious D and still make it out to the Palace in time for GNR's start. But it also gave the already fired-up but sparse-looking crowd of just over 7,500 time to get a bit drunker and rowdier and start a few more fights during the wait.

Rose made light his reputation during the two-hour and 15-minute showing, explaining that "for me, this is morning. Consider me your Captain Kangaroo. I'm just here having a good morning workout time with my friends in Michigan." Maybe so, but it was late-night for the crowd, and who, after all, does Rose's self-involved temperament really serve? Certainly not any underage fans who may have had to leave due to curfew restrictions - especially if they drove to the Palace. Certainly not any of the fans who had to endure the lengthy wait.

And certainly not the band or the show itself. Saturday's crowd was a shadow of the size of audience GNR used to command, a function of the band's diminished footprint since its last set of fresh material was released in 1993. And you can bet some of the reluctance to turn out for the show was a function of the near-certainty that Rose and company would be late - assuming they played at all (and last-minute cancellations have been known to happen) or didn't bugger out early, as Rose did during GNR's 2002 visit to the Palace.

As it was, GNR gave the faithful the works this year - and as potent a rock show as any band turns out these days. It was heavy on favorites - "Welcome to the Jungle," "It's So Easy," "Mr. Brownstone," "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Patience," "Nightrain," the epic "November Rain," "Paradise City" and covers of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Live and Let Die" and Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." GNR also offered a generous helping from the long-awaited and still-unreleased "Chinese Democracy" album, including the biting title track, the industrial-flavored "Better," the melodic epic "The Blues," the charged "I.R.S." and the moody "Madagascar."

Changing tops a half-dozen times, Rose looked leaner and even more animated than when GNR was last here, and his trademark wail as in good form. The band, particularly longtime keyboardist Dizzy Reed and more recent guitarists Robin Finck and Richard Fortus, proved able replacements for the original GNR cast, although the solo spots that padded the show - a gratuitous hard rock indulgence in the best of circumstances - seemed particularly superfluous given the late hour, and significant clumps of fans trooped out as the show went on so that maybe half were around as the confetti swirled overhead as the band played "Paradise City" when most bars were making last call.

And that late start is for who's benefit again?

Tenacious D's exposition at the Masonic was a much tighter affair - and as much a comedic theater production as a rock show. The "D" in the D made for a lively night, with the jovial Black and Gass - promoting their new Tenacious D film "The Pick of Destiny" - delivering a scripted presentation of the band that had the sold-out Masonic crowd headbanging, and laughing, throughout the entire two hours.
The basic premise was simple; Black and Gass began acoustically in an apartment set before getting electrocuted by a garage sale guitar (made out of tin foil and a toilet seat) and winding up in Hell, where they form a band with the Antichrist (lead guitar), Col. Sanders (drums) and Charlie Chaplin (bass). They battle Satan himself for their souls - in the playful duel "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)" - and win the right to rock the house in their own uniquely warped way.

It was as silly as it sounds, sometimes to a fault. But Black and Gass are sharp and seasoned enough to pull it, and when an audience is willing to go with the joke it's even better and that was certainly the case at the Masonic, where the D faithful were singing along to ditties such as "Kielbasa," "Dio," "Master exploder," "Kickapoo" and "Car Chase City" like they were, well, "Sweet Child O' Mine" or "Welcome to the Jungle."

The most awesome band of the night? Call it a draw - but know that no one was dozing off towards the end of Tenacious D's show like they were as GNR finished.