2006.12.02 - Target Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA

GUNS N' ROSES

By Chris Riemenschneider
Staff Writer

Saturday: Fans are losing what little patience they still have for the $13 million, nine-years-in-the-making "Chinese Democracy" album. (Promises for an '06 release are fading quicker than the coolness of Axl Rose's cornrows, above.) However, GNR diehards still get fired up for a concert like this one. The question is, will anyone else show up? And what about Rose, who canceled the band's 2002 tour a few dates after Minneapolis, but did play all but one gig on this summer's European tour? With none of the other original members but most of the lineup that played in '02, including local boy Tommy Stinson on bass, Rose at least has a sturdy live band and a still-relevant catalog that the fans can rely on, if not his word. Ex-Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach and hip hard-rock giants Eagles of Death Metal open. (8 p.m. Sat. $39.75-$76.75. Target Center, 600 1st Av. N., Mpls. 651-989-5151.)

Chinese Fire Drill
Devotees have been waiting years for the new GNR album

By D.X. Ferris

Over the past 15 years, Axl Rose has done everything humanly possible to make hard-rock fans not give two shits about Guns N' Roses, a group that critics once anointed the new Rolling Stones. Undeterred by Rose's long string of high-profile shenanigans, as well as the guy's inability to hold onto musicians, his fans keep holding out for that $15 million phantom, the much-talked-about but seldom-heard Chinese Democracy.

The reason for this is quite simple: 1987's Appetite for Destruction stands as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. So fans cling to the chance, however implausible, that Rose and some bunch of rockers calling themselves Guns N' Roses might again catch lightning in a bottle.

On the eve of GNR's December 2 concert at the Target Center (assuming the band doesn't cancel), we present you with a timeline, encapsulating how it all came to this:

Summer 1994: GNR's classic lineup records its last track, a flat cover of the Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil.' Rose lays down two parallel vocals that don't complement each other, a studio trick suggesting a bipolar personality.

June 1994: Rose fires Izzy Stradlin's replacement, Gilby Clarke, claiming that the rhythm guitarist lacks songwriting skills. Over the next 12 years, Clarke's three studio albums say otherwise. Sadly, Rock Star: Supernova may prove Rose right once and for all.

October 1996: Frustrated with Rose's domineering personality, Slash officially resigns, depriving the band of 50 percent of its cool and 100 percent of its top hats. When second drummer Matt Sorum speaks up for Mr. Top Hat, Rose fires him.

January 1997: Rose purchases sole ownership of the name Guns N' Roses. Legally, he can do—or not do—whatever he wishes with it.

August 1997: Bassist Duff McKagan quits, leaving Rose as the only original member. This is when we should have stopped caring.

February 1998: Rose and the new GNR enter the studio. With Nine Inch Nails' Robin Finck on axe and future Perfect Circle drummer Josh Freese behind the kit, Rose appears poised to become the next Trent Reznor rip-off.

November 1999: Band manager Doug Goldstein reveals the new album's title: Chinese Democracy. Unfortunately, he fails to warn fans that it won't see the light of day for many, many years—maybe never. Attempting to build further momentum, the recently released End of Days soundtrack features GNR's electro-damaged 'Oh My God.' Fans' reaction: Oh my god, this sucks.

May 2001: European tour—postponed.

November 2001: Another European tour—postponed.

August 2002: Kicking off the Chinese Democracy world tour in Hong Kong, GNR promises to add the 'final touches' to the record immediately afterward. Several weeks later, Rose leads the new lineup through a three-song medley at the MTV Video Music Awards. The singer's curiously stiff visage suggests Botox treatments. And cornrow braids suggest a newfound interest in hip hop. Will Chinese Democracy be rap-rock?

November 2002: The band cancels the first date of the North American leg of its world tour; a riot ensues. But the group pushes ahead, eventually playing Cleveland's Gund Arena (now the Q). According to one concert attendee: 'It felt more like watching a decent cover band than seeing the real GNR.'

December 2002: After two opening acts already performed, Guns N' Roses cancels its Philadelphia gig. The band soon cancels the rest of the tour.

March 2004: Axl replaces Mr. Top Hat with Mr. KFC Bucket: Buckethead—a man who lives in a chicken coop and wears a KFC bucket on his head—joins the band. But he soon leaves, saying Rose is just too eccentric.

January 2006: 'It's a very complex record,' Rose tells Rolling Stone. Uh...what record?

May 2006: Rose appears on the radio show Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk, announcing that Chinese Democracy will be released this coming fall. We're waiting....

May 2006: Rose and Tommy Hilfiger throw down at a New York nightclub. While Axl slapfights a fashion designer, fans continue to wait for Chinese Democracy.

June 2006: After a fracas with hotel security, Swedish police temporarily detain Rose. Axl reportedly considers re-titling the record Swedish Gestapo.

September 2006: GNR warms up for its U.S. tour, playing Appetite in its near-entirety before a Las Vegas audience.

October 2006: The band cancels the first two shows of its North American tour. According to one promoter, Rose was busy 'putting finishing touches on the album.' 'Better,' a new GNR track, appears in Harley-Davidson commercials. Verdict: It's no 'Mr. Brownstone.'

November 2006: With a lineup that includes—at least for now—ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and former Psychedelic Furs drummer Frank Ferrer, Guns N' Roses cancels its Maine concert six hours before the show. Apparently, the band was worried about getting a $250 fine for drinking bottled alcohol onstage. Because when the reported cost of your unfinished album cracks $15 million, you gotta save money somewhere.

'IT WAS LIKE TALKING TO HOWARD HUGHES'

Sebastian Bach is back, touring with the ever-mysterious Axl Rose.

By Chris Riemenschneider
Staff Writer

No kidding: Sebastian Bach has officially trademarked the name Savage Animal.

"People yell it at me everywhere I go now: 'Hey, Savage Animal!'-" he said. "I thought it was too good to pass up, so I made sure I owned it."

As is fondly remembered by guilty-pleasure TV watchers, the former Skid Row singer tried to push that moniker on his bandmates in this year's VH1 series "Supergroup."

"Because rock 'n' roll is like a savage animal," he growled.

To his credit, Bach never has lost that Spinal Tap-like faith in heavy metal and all its glory. That's probably why the 38-year-old Canadian-born Sebastian Bierk has become VH1's go-to guy for all things metal.

Pointing to his 12-year-old son, whose favorite bands are AC/DC and Iron Maiden, Bach believes metal is due for a resurgence: "You go to the mall nowadays and see stores like Hot Topic, where all the kids shop. It looks like my basement circa 1988."

His unflinching enthusiasm also might explain why he was enlisted as Guns N' Roses' opening act - a job that requires a lot of love for rock 'n' roll high jinx. Bach has been on tour with the ever-erratic GNR since the summer. He filled in for Axl Rose at a European gig, and he has been one of the few people to stick up for Rose and his long-delayed "Chinese Democracy" album.

"Listen, the guy hasn't lost his mind," he said by phone last week from Hollywood, where he taped an episode of "Gilmore Girls" (he has a recurring role as a musician on the show).

Bach sounded eager to rejoin the GNR tour coming to Target Center on Saturday. "I've been waiting a long, long time to get back on a big arena tour like this," he said.

Skid Row opened much of Guns N' Roses' 1991 "Use Your Illusion" tour. But like most people who knew Rose, he lost touch with the reclusive singer. That changed early this year when he got a text message out of the blue from Rose, inviting him to hang out.

"I thought, 'Who is this idiot messing around with me pretending they're Axl Rose?' " he remembered. "But I pressed 'call sender,' and it actually was him, and it was like talking to Howard Hughes."

Bach soon found out that "the guy hasn't changed all that much. He's still a fun guy who likes to party." Bach also has heard the recordings that would be "Chinese Democracy," and loves it: "I've heard some incredible music. He's got like 30-some songs."

So why can't Axl just get it done?

"He doesn't explain that to me because he doesn't need to. It's his album and his art," Bach said, turning philosophical. "Rock 'n' roll is filled with stories of musicians that have gone crazy trying to live up to expectations, like Syd Barrett. At the end of the day, Axl has managed to stay pretty damn level-headed. But he is trying to create a record that lives up to 'Appetite for Destruction,' one of the best albums of all time, and that's taken a long time."
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GUNS N' ROSES
With: Sebastian Bach.
When: 8 p.m. Sat.
Where: Target Center, 600 1st Av. N., Mpls.
Tickets: $39.75-$76.75

Axl: No fan of 'Pigeons of Shit Metal'

The Eagles of Death Metal won't be opening Saturday's Target Center concert with Guns N' Roses after all. Belatedly added to the tour to boost ticket sales and kill the usual long wait for GNR frontman Axl Rose, the hip California hard-rockers dropped out after only one show Friday in Cleveland because Rose badmouthed them. According to Billboard, fans initially booed the Eagles but were won over in the end. Rose, however, still referred to them as "The Pigeons of Shit Metal" during his set.

"At first the audience refused to welcome us to the jungle, but by the time we took our final bow, it had become paradise city," the Eagles said in a statement. "Although Axl tried to November rain on our parade, no sweet child o' mine can derail the EODM night train. We say live and let die."

Ex-Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach, a friend of Rose's, remains GNR's other opener on tour. (See interview with Bach on page 8.)

No question, it's hard to remain a Guns N' Roses fan. Even with a now-steady lineup that includes ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson (but none of the original members), the band still seems to be followed by trouble much as it was tailed by groupies 15 years ago. Rose and his peculiar ways usually don't help matters.

GNR canceled a show in Portland, Maine, purportedly because of a years-old law prohibiting alcohol on stage. Portland fans were offered seats in nearby Worcester, Mass. (a sign that neither show sold very well).

And the band backed off its previous promise that the "Chinese Democracy" album will be out this year. Neither the band's record label nor management are commenting, but most industry experts agree there's no way to pull off a 2006 release.

- CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

GUNS N' ROSES TAKES A GIANT STEP BACHWARD

By ROSS RAIHALA
Pop Music Critic

Who: Guns N' Roses, with Sebastian Bach and the Eagles of Death Metal
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Target Center, 600 First Ave. N., Mpls.
Tickets: $75-$18.25
Call: 651-989-5151

With his mane of blond hair, whisper-to-a-scream voice and sinewy legs born to be wrapped in leather, Sebastian Bach was the perfect pop-metal frontman when he led Skid Row in the late '80s and early '90s.
But these days, with his former bandmates only a few steps away from the actual Skid Row, Bach has settled into the unexpected role of rock 'n' roll renaissance man. He has starred on Broadway ("Jekyll and Hyde," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"), toured with "Jesus Christ Superstar," picked up a regular acting gig ("Gilmore Girls") and become VH1's go-to guy, most recently as a member of the reality show "SuperGroup."

And at the top of all that, Bach is back on the road with Guns N' Roses. He opens the evening with his solo band, then returns to the stage to scream his way through "My Michelle" with Axl Rose in what has been shaping up to be a highlight of the tour.

With a Saturday-night stop set for Target Center, we caught up with the chatty and surprisingly charming Bach. Here's what he had to say:

On what it's like to be back playing arenas: "It was the most amazing thing for Axl to ask my band to join the tour. It's something I've waited for for a long time. I get offers to do those package tours, the nostalgia-oriented ones, but I always say no. But Guns N' Roses, that one I'll do. I'm very, very lucky. There's a lot of firsts on this tour for me. We got to play a sold-out Madison Square Garden. There have been a lot of places I've never played before, and for an old guy like me, it's great."

On what Axl's like behind the scenes: "He likes to laugh. He likes to joke around, like, a lot. And he's got the most unique voice I've ever heard. His speaking voice is this low baritone, Clint Eastwood kind of a voice. And then when he laughs, it's like a boy soprano's highest note that comes out. You know, he's singing better than ever now, and that's a fact. That's one thing about Axl people forget. He is one of the best rock 'n' roll singers that ever lived."

On the sometimes long wait from his solo set to "My Michelle": "Well, I've been on the road since June. And, you know, that whole 'My Michelle' thing is great. I sing my own stuff, then wait two or three hours and jump up there and scream even harder. I've been doing that every day. It's good work if you can get it. The one thing I've learned about myself -- and I learned this when I did 'Jesus Christ Superstar' -- is that my voice is probably the strongest part about me. It's the rest of me that gets tired. My legs and my eyeballs and my arms and my brain. But my pipes are fine."

On his appearance on "SuperGroup": "My favorite part of it was when I tell the powers that be to f-- off. I just love that. And when they brought that stylist in, I'm, like, 'No, I'm not cutting my hair.' They tell me she cut Jennifer Lopez's hair. Dude, Sebastian Bach has cooler hair than Jennifer Lopez. I look at music as a form of self-expression. I don't need a stylist. Why doesn't she have her own band if she's such an expert? Whatever. My father was a famous painter, and as a little boy, I watched him wake up every day, get his paintbrush and paint all day. He did that 'til the day he died. My microphone is my paintbrush. That's what I do."

On getting the call to star in "Jekyll and Hyde" on Broadway: I was, like, 'Do you have the right phone number? Why are you calling me?' They sent the script, and I was on the road with my solo band playing some f------ dump. I was looking around at this club and thinking, hmmm, Broadway or this place? Honestly, though, I didn't think I could do it. The script is so thick, it's like 300 pages or some s--. It's all in old English, and there were these words I'd never heard before in my life. There's 17 songs, and I'm in every scene. But I had a lot of encouragement from people. And I loved doing it. It really was the highlight of my life."

On those who say the 2006 version of Guns N' Roses isn't the real thing: "You know, you've got Slash and Duff doing Stone Temple Pilots songs with Weiland (in Velvet Revolver). They can't do 'Welcome to the Jungle' because he can't sing it. Let's be honest. Then, you've got Axl doing 'Sweet Child o' Mine' and 'Rocket Queen' with some other dudes. I'd rather see Axl singing Guns N' Roses songs than Slash doing Stone Temple Pilots songs. Nobody can sing 'Paradise City' like Axl Rose."

GUNS N' ROSES REVIEW ONLINE

No one tells Axl Rose what to do. That's why there's still no sign of the l-o-n-g awaited album "Chinese Democracy." It's also the reason that Guns N' Roses concerts start whenever Axl feels like it, which at some stops on the current tour has meant a performance kicking off as late as midnight.

Given that Axl's priorities don't necessarily sync up with newspaper deadlines, Pop Music Critic Ross Raihala's review of Saturday night's GNR show at the Target Center will appear in Monday's A&E Live page in the Pioneer Press.

GNR SHOW BIG BUT STALE

By ROSS RAIHALA
Pop Music Critic

Perhaps it's time for Axl Rose to update some of his lyrics. Because in order to be a Guns N' Roses fan in 2006, it takes more than a little patience.

When the latest lineup of the '80s rockers took the Target Center's stage at 11:45 p.m. Saturday night, the faithful general-admission ticket holders had already been on their feet for a good five hours. During that time, the audience of about 9,100 endured four opening acts, two of which were of interest to almost no one. Throw in travel time and navigation of a typically crowded downtown Minneapolis on a frigid weekend night and you're approaching the double digits in terms of hours expended to share 140 minutes in the presence of Mr. Rose.

Was it worth it? Yes and no.

This was a concert designed for drunk people, which meant everything was big and bludgeoning, with three guitarists, fire, pyro and a complete lack of anything approaching subtlety. The show also allowed plenty of time for each of those guitarists to launch into lengthy, indulgent solos -- just perfect for those looking for a bathroom break and another beer.

But in his push to party like it was still 1989, Rose seemed to have forgotten that a significant portion of his dwindling audience consists of grownups with jobs or children -- or possibly wardens who need convincing to grant that weekend furlough. And a fair number of those people don't have the stamina to make it through such a marathon. For proof, I needed only to look to the woman sitting next to me who, midway through GNR's performance, slumped into her seat, plugged her ears and fell asleep. (As it turns out, Rose already had a plan in place to deal with such sleepyheads. Midway through "Out Ta Get Me," a single and utterly incongruous explosion from the stage seemed to serve solely as a wakeup call.)

And that pre-Guns lineup was baffling considering the crowd, with one totally unknown act (Modern Day Zero) and another (Helmet) that has one song that might've been vaguely familiar to those paying attention to major-label alt-rock in the early '90s. Both should have been jettisoned, as the goth strippers of the Suicide Girls and hair-metal survivor Sebastian Bach provided ample amounts of stage warming on their own.

Back to GNR. The band, of which Axl is the only original remaining member, played pretty much the same set list they did the last time they were in town in 2002. That meant almost all of the band's indisputably classic "Appetite for Destruction" alongside a handful of later hits and a few of the new tracks that will appear on "Chinese Democracy," an album that's been promised for at least a decade but has yet to be released. The only significant changes in four years' time arrived in two additional fresh cuts, "I.R.S." and "Better," alongside fan favorites "Down on the Farm" and "Used to Love Her."

Rose's sketchy vocals -- coupled with the aforementioned overkill of three guitarists -- made for a touch-and-go evening. When he was on, Rose's yips and yowls were transcendent. But far too often, his delivery felt clipped and strained. Maybe it was lingering after-effects from the ear/throat issues that caused Rose to cancel a Milwaukee gig last week. Then again, perhaps it was sheer exhaustion. The Target Center performance was actually the band's second of the day -- the particularly lucky residents of Ames, Iowa, had to wait until a half-hour past midnight on Friday for GNR to play for them.

The notoriously prickly Rose said little to the audience, beyond a wee bit of cracking wise about the frigid Minnesota temperature. He did also acknowledge Minneapolis as the hometown of Tommy Stinson, the former Replacements bassist who has been with GNR for eight years. Indeed, of all the recent recruits, Stinson was the only one with whom Rose showed any real obvious chemistry or affection.

As expected, the GNR standards, from "Welcome to the Jungle" to "Paradise City," gleaned the lustiest response. The newer stuff, though, didn't go over nearly as well, even though bootlegged versions of songs like "Madagascar" and "The Blues" have been widely available online since 2001.

Maybe Rose needs to think about the fact that it's only the hardcore followers bothering to seek that stuff out. The rest of his audience, including that snoozing woman next to me, might better appreciate the new songs if they had the chance to legally purchase "Chinese Democracy." If, four years from now, GNR rolls back into town with the same story, one can't help but wonder if anyone will have any patience left at all.

Axl comes up Roses at Target Center

MUSIC REVIEW: GNR's erratic frontman took the stage at 11:45 p.m., but at least he showed up. Or did he?

By Chris Riemenschneider
Staff Writer

All the doubts that Axl Rose would show up for his Target Center concert with Guns N' Roses were finally answered about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, when the blaring guitar intro of "Welcome to the Jungle" filled the Minneapolis arena and 9,100 fading fans awakened.

Alas, Axl never made the nearly 2 1/2-hour gig. The guy who did emerge on stage to scream, "Do you know where you [expletive] are?" sounded like Rose. He even looked like him, although, thanks to Axl's reclusiveness, no one really knows his look nowadays besides cornrows and pale skin.

But this fill-in guy - let's call him Rose's Bud - was too congenial and way too professional to be the ne'er-do-well Axl we've all come to know. He seemed happy to be back, and he looked to be in better shape than Rose did in 2002 at Target Center, when his 12-years-in-the-making "Chinese Democracy" album was supposedly almost done (it's still not out).

Rose's Bud even generously shared stage time with his bandmates. We all know that the real Axl - who long ago split with GNR's original players - would never do that.

The faux Rose did a pretty good job acting like the real one early on. Wearing a half-unbuttoned, vinyl-like black shirt and beat-up jeans, he dropped a few extra F-bombs into "It's So Easy." In "Mr. Brownstone," he threw his mike stand hard against the stage.

Rose's Bud also wasted no time flashing Axl's enormous ego of old, performing his versions of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" and Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" as if they were so definitive, he couldn't pass them up.

After a spot-on remake of "Sweet Child o' Mine," though, things got weird. Part-time Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck played the first of three lengthy axe solos - one for every guitarist in the band. Rose's Bud even let keyboardist Dizzy Reed get a few minutes alone in the spotlight. As if the real Axl would ever let anybody tarnish the baby-grandiosity of "November Rain" by letting them play a piano solo.

Without oddball axe-man Buckethead, whom Rose fired after the 2002 tour, the new GNR looked more workman-like and punkish. Its style reflected its feisty and frill-less approach to classics such as "My Michelle" (sung with opener Sebastian Bach) and the setlist surprise "Down on the Farm."

With Minneapolis native Tommy Stinson still playing the bass spread-eagle style, the band made a solid case for the unreleased songs - you can't really call them "new" anymore - especially the stormy and frayed rocker "Better" and the freakish encore opener "Chinese Democracy." Best of all, those songs were where Rose's Bud really pushed himself vocally, almost as much as the real Axl did back in 1991.

So where was Rose on Saturday? He might have been sidelined by that ear/throat problem that canceled the Milwaukee show Wednesday. Or else maybe he got stuck at Best Buy headquarters in Richfield explaining why the most-anticipated rock album of the '90s (most folks stopped caring around 1998) still didn't make it to shelves for Christmas, as Rose's people promised.

Hopefully, when "Chinese Democracy" finally does come out, Axl will bring along his friend for the tour.