2010.01.28 - Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

Guns N' Roses show worth the wait

By JANE STEVENSON, Toronto Sun

How do you know you're at a Guns N' Roses concert?

You have to wait a really long time for the show begin.

And so it went on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre as a crowd of about 21,000 waited for frontman Axl Rose to begin just over two hours past the scheduled start time - would you believe at 11:25 p.m.? - following sets by homegrown opening acts Danko Jones and Sebastian Bach.

Somebody needs to grease Axl's wheels. Seriously.

Of course, waiting for the 47-year-old Rose is nothing new.

He made fans wait some 17 years for the latest GN'R release of original music, Chinese Democracy, which came out in November 2008, and for which Rose is currently touring the world, including some 13 dates in Canada in January and February.

While fans cooled their heels at the ACC, women in the stands - either in various states of undress or making out with each other - were shown to huge cheers but time dragged on and there were boos as the crowd's impatience grew.

By the time Rose and the latest lineup of Gunners - guitarists Richard Fortus, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and DJ Ashba, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman, drummer Frank Ferrer and one-time Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson - opened with Chinese Democracy's title track, it felt underwhelming.

Especially since Rose made his entrance in a wheelchair, wearing a black fedora over his red scarf and sunglasses (the fedora and glasses he eventually ditched), his blond hair now shoulder length and sporting a moustache, dressed in an unbuttoned shirt and jeans with a large cross and heavy necklaces adorning his chest.

"Sorry about the time delay," said Rose after that first song. "We got a little carried away .... last night. But anyway, we're here."

He even joked later that some local deejay had predicted the band wouldn't go on until 2 a.m.

"I'm early," he cracked.

Thankfully, Rose and company got the crowd quickly on side with the second song, an explosion-heavy version of the GN'R classic Welcome To The Jungle.

Other song highlights were no surprise: A fiery, explosion-laced version of Live and Let Die; the GN'R signature song, Sweet Child O' Mine featuring stellar guitar work by Ashba; the heartfelt ballad November Rain with Rose at the piano; the propulsive You Could Be Mine; a great cover of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door that included an audience singalong; the anthemic Night Train and the show-ending Paradise City complete with more explosions pink confetti and silver streamers. (It's 1:55 a.m when they finally leave the stage although Axl returns to take a bow with his band and distribute shots to some people in the crowd and throw flowers out into the audience.)

Less effective was much of the Chinese Democracy material save for the soulful mid-tempo rocker Street Of Dreams; the dramatic power ballads Madagascar and This I Love, the latter featuring Rose standing on top of Reed's piano.

On the plus side, Rose proved to be a non-stop man in motion, constantly running around his enormous stage that was adorned with large video screens and lighting columns, two circular staircases, three mini-catwalks, and elevating platforms for the guitarists to play on.

He also performed his trademark side-to-side dance moves and stomped his right leg so hard, it's no wonder he kept running off to a little black tent at the side of the stage where he changed his sweat-soaked shirts.

Rose was generous frontman too, sharing the spotlight with nearly all of his musicians who were given extended solos with special mention to Reed on a mirrored grand piano and the heavily-tattooed Ashba on a glittery black guitar.

Axl even performed his own instrumental piano medley of Elton John songs.

So far the best reported sidebar about this tour is that the Rose has banned Guns N' Roses fans from wearing Slash T-shirts or top hats (I'm pretty sure Ashba was symbolically wearing a squished one) at the shows.

The incredibly silly move has been denied by Rose's camp even though TMZ claims a member of the concert security team has confirmed it.

Rose and Slash has been at odds since the guitarist left GN'R in 1996 and then wrote about their feud in his 2007 autobiography.

Someone will have to ask the former GN'R axeman, who will release a solo album later this year, what he makes of it all when the guitarist shows up at Canadian Music Week in Toronto in mid-March to be a keynote speaker and play some tunes.

Or not.

Can't we all just get along?

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Axl Rose is forgiven for lateness after singing G'n'R classics

By Carla Gillis

GUNS N’ ROSES with SEBASTIAN BACH at the Air Canada Centre. Thu, Jan 28 Rating: NNNN

Oh, Axl. That was a long wait. Two hours after their scheduled set time, an eight-piece Slashless, Duffless, Izzyless version of Guns N’ Roses launched into the underwhelming title track from Chinese Democracy.

All was forgiven when they followed it up with three slices of Appetite awesomeness: Welcome To The Jungle, It’s So Easy and Mr. Brownstone.

Rose, finally rid of those godawful cornrows and with his bandana back intact, looked widened and wealthy as he ran around the massive stage, squawking lyrics, changing shirts and joking about his tardiness (apparently, there had been a big party the night before). The newer tunes didn’t ignite like the old ones, though his virtuoso guitarists, looking like Sunset Strip sluts, made the solemn ballad This Is Love memorable by hanging D-cup tossed-onstage bras from their headstocks.

Earlier, my teenage obsession, Sebastian Bach, proved time hasn’t diminished his feistiness or Halfordesque wailing abilities, as he and his scraggly band stomped through vintage Skid Row tunes and songs from 2007’s Angel Down. The Peterborough native gave plenty of Toronto shout-outs in between whipping his microphone above his head in a rock-star frenzy. Be still my beating heart.

GN'R Bring Chinese Democracy Tour Across Canada

(HoundsTV – Toronto) If there is one thing Guns N’ Roses 2010 Canadian tour has confirmed – Axl Rose still lives and loves the rock star lifestyle – relentless touring, late night partying, and lots of pretty ladies.

Axl and his Guns N’ Roses mates have been in eastern Canada the last week finishing up a 13 show trek across Canada to kick off a 2010 world tour in support of Chinese Democracy – Axl’s long awaited, and massively under-appreciated gem of a GN’R album.

The talk among many, many, many of the reviews has been the unpredictable late start to the GN’R shows occurring each night. For the Hamilton, London, and Montreal shows – Axl has been taking the stage around 10:30 and playing 2 1/2 hour sets ending around 1 a.m. We are not quite sure why so many people have been whining about the late starts -

BUT PEOPLE! Its a Guns N’ Fuckin’ Roses concert – not Disney on ice. So what if Axl is taking the stage at 10, 11 or 12?

But up here in Canada, venue officials and police do have concerns about rock concert crowds spilling out into the streets at very late hours. So all Canadian arenas have bylaw curfews (usually 11:59 p.m.) where the music is supposed to end or the concert promoter starts paying heavy penalties. The promoters and management of the GN’R tour surely paid some big penalties that night in Toronto when Rose was still on stage past 2 a.m.

In fact, when Guns N’ Roses took the stage at 11:30 in Toronto, discussions did occur with venue officials and GN’R management about cutting the set significantly shorter – to maybe 1 1/2 hours to help get the ACC crowd out still by about 1 a.m. Rose’s management refused. In the end, one or two songs were cut from the planned set list to try for a 2 a.m. finish. The word through Axl’s people was the GN’R set was minimum 2 1/2 hours and they were giving the fans ONLY a full set – no matter how late or whatever financial penalties they would incur.

So why did Guns N’ Roses take the stage so late in Toronto? It might have something to do with the fact Axl didn’t leave his downtown Toronto hotel till 11:15 p.m. for the show.

And why wasn’t Rose ready for the Toronto stage? Perhaps it had something to do with a very good time Axl and his GN’R mates had in Montreal the night before (actually, more the morning of..)

Rose made light reference to his previous night of Montreal debauchery kicking off the Toronto set, “Sorry about the time delay. I got carried away jumping off shit last night…I actually don’t remember a thing..”

After GN’R’s Montreal show the previous night, the band hit up a private club in old Montreal eventually emerging from the club at 6:30am in quite the high spirits. From there, it was time to head back to Toronto for the Air Canada Centre show that evening. And that evening started with

Rose going from his Toronto hotel room at 11:15 pm – to an awaiting vehicle speeding through traffic the ten minute drive south to the ACC – and joining his GN’R mates on the Air Canada Centre stage with the lights dimming just before 11:30 pm.

And the rush showed in a very uninspired opening of Chinese Democracy where Axl’s voice was clearly a little off. Rose exited halfway through the song to switch mics. The second song of the night, Welcome to the Jungle, was better and the songs familiarity helped to get the crowd going – but it was clear Axl’s voice was still ramping up (and Rose was maybe still waking up?)

By the time Live and Let Die rolled around forty-five minutes into the set – Rose was surely finding his voice and it was sounding strong. Axl and the band did a great version of Catcher in the Rye – in honor of J.D. Salinger who passed away that day (remarked by Rose.)

But its when the GN’R set passed the 1 a.m. mark and Axl delivered You Could Be Mine, Knockin on Heaven’s door, and November Rain you knew you were seeing classic Axl, in almost perfert form – and well worth the wait.

After the ACC show. Axl, his Guns N’ Roses bandmates, Sebastian Bach and many more partied well into the wee morning hours at a King St. Toronto club.

Guns N’ Roses wraps up the 2010 Chinese Democracy Canadian tour with three final dates out east in Quebec City, Moncton, and Halifax this week.

Axl delays GNR gig for over two hours

A Guns N' Roses concert at the Air Canada Center in Toronto was delayed for over two hours on Thursday night (January 28th), according to Spinner.com. It was around 11:30 p.m.when the lights went down and singer Axl Rose came onstage . . . in a wheelchair. Rose told the audience, "Sorry abut the time delay. I got carried away jumping off s*** last night." But before the shock could settle in, Rose leaped out of the wheelchair and the band launched into the track "Chinese Democracy."

Because the concert had to end by 2:00 a.m., several songs had to be dropped from that night's set list, including "Patience."

Rose also dedicated the song "Catcher In The Rye," from 2008's Chinese Democracy, to reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who died last week at the age of 91 and who wrote the classic novel of the same name.

Rose has been known for coming onstage late since the original Guns' 1991 Use Your Illusion tours, on which he would often keep audiences waiting anywhere from 90 minutes to two and a half hours.

His absences sparked riots at two previous shows in Canada -- in Montreal in 1992 and Vancouver 10 years later.

Guns N' Roses is currently in the midst of a Canadian tour in support of Chinese Democracy, but the band has yet to announce U.S. dates.

A rep for the band denied recent reports that Rose wanted fans wearing Slash T-shirts or top hats banned from venues on the trek.