2016.07.16 - Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

Concert review: Guns n’ Roses – Rogers Centre, Toronto – July 16th 2016

By Jean-Frederic Vachon

The lights drop a mere 30 minutes after the advertised GNR set time, and the “Looney Tunes” theme echoes throughout the stadium while the band makes its way on stage. Duff McKagan rips into the bass intro to “It’s So Easy” and the last twenty years seem to disappear instantly. Slash joins him, and when Axl Rose starts singing it hits you: Guns n’ Roses are back. The real Guns n’ Roses. Well most of them, at least.

Not in this lifetime. This is how Axl Rose had described the chances of he and Slash ever reuniting. Well hell has frozen over (or any other similar metaphor): it’s 2016, Slash and Duff are back in Guns n’ Roses and the band is back playing stadiums. Could they live up to the hype, but more so, could they live up to fading memories of their glory days? For sure, the trio looks a little worse for the wear, but the magic is still there as Axl’s distinctive voice duels with Slash’s guitar lines, backed by Duff’s bass and harmonies.

“Mr Brownstone” is next, oozing swagger and attitude. “I used to do a little but a little wouldn’t do so the little got more and more.” Its lyrics on heroin addiction remind us that some of these guys are lucky to be alive to reunite. Then the title track from the much maligned “Chinese Democracy” gives us our first taste of how the post-breakup music could have sounded had the band stayed together. It’s less polished than what the previous incarnation played, but GNR shouldn’t be about being perfect.

“You know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby. You’re gonna diiiiiiiiieeeee!” As the intro to “Welcome to the Jungle” rings out, Axl lets out a long high-pitched scream. His voice has changed with age, but he can still belt these songs out. He also seems much more zen, for lack of a better word. Whatever meds he’s been taking, it looks like they finally kicked in. He looks happy, and in a good mood, but he can still channel the anger when the songs need it. One has to wonder what the band’s fate could have been had he been like that in the 90’s when they went from being the biggest rock band in the world to near extinction.

They then dug deep into their catalog to pull out “Double Talkin’ Jive”, a rarely played track from “Use Your Illusion I”. The song’s extended jam sections allowed Slash and second guitarist Richard Fortus plenty of opportunities to show their guitar chops, and it turns out that Fortus complements Slash’s playing very well.

There’s not a lot of rock bands that can play to a stadium crowd. A select few can fill them, but rare are those whose material is expansive enough to thrive on a huge stage. The “Use Your Illusion” material fits the bill to a T. “Estranged” brought out the bombastic side of the band, and Slash’s touch on the solos was a welcome return to form. “Live and Let Die”, as always, was a primal spectacle with explosions underlining the band’s energetic performance. Overall, the visuals were very simple, with on stage ramps that let the band members occasionally walk up behind the drums and two keyboard stations, where Frank Ferrer, Melissa Reese and Dizzy Reed discretely plied their trade. Two gigantic screens flanked the stage on each side and showed the band members throughout the show.

The band returned to “Appetite For Destruction” with a slightly messy version of “Rocket Queen”, before that familiar drum intro announced another concert favourite “You Could Be Mine”. As a nod to that song’s placement in the movie “Terminator 2”, the screen behind the band showed animations of a cartoon Axl made of liquid metal. On stage, the real world Axl was more active than I expected as he ran across the stage, hopped around or even attempted his famous serpentine dance move.

Duff then took the mic for a spirited rendition of The Misfits’ “Attitude” that was so tight it was more hard rock than punk. Another “Chinese Democracy” track , “This I Love”, had Axl put all his guts and soul into singing. The band lit it up, and breathed new life in a track that often gets overlooked. “Civil War” is another track that seems to expand to the size of the venue, and it felt huge as it built to its climax, with Slash rocking the double neck Gibson and ending it by quoting Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile”. The band followed with a mellower deep cut, “Coma”, its hypnotic guitar riff and complex arrangement simply mesmerizing.

Slash then took centre stage for his solo spot, where he showed his shredding skills. Slash can be very sloppy at times, but last night he was in the zone and his playing was mostly impeccable. His solo morphed into the theme from “The Godfather” by Nino Rota, first played faithfully to the original melody and then, as the band joined in, it became a display of guitar virtuosity from the man with the hat. Predictably, it segued into their breakout hit “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.

Strangely, instead of capitalizing on that high, they played two “Chinese Democracy” tracks: the newly added “Sorry” (it was only its second performance of the tour), and “Better”, that didn’t live up to its name as the band sounded lost at time and unable to relate to it. Things got better, much better, with “Out Ta Get Me”, which Axl introduced by relating how they were detained at the Canadian border when customs found a fire arm on their bus. “Hey, it wasn’t MY gun” quipped the singer.

Fortus and Slash played yet another solo spot, this time based on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”. While these spots are really good, you can’t help to think they could use that time to play another track of theirs. Seven covers for a band with such a strong catalog is a strange decision. But maybe it’s for the best; Axl might decide to play a deep cut from “Democracy” instead…

“November Rain” got its usual enthusiastic reception from the crowd, and thank god Slash is back to play the fantastic ending solo. Nothing against Bumblefoot but he used to play it note perfect but without any soul. “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” has this chameleon quality where it can be an intimate song when played in a club, or an amazing gospel hymn when played in a stadium. This song drew another inspiring performance out of Axl, even though by that time he’s struggling a little with his voice. The set finished with “Nightrain”, driven by so much energy that it was hard to believe these guys had played for more than two hours.

After an encore break so short it barely qualifies as such, we were treated to a jam on The Rolling Stones’ “Angie”, which segued into “Patience”. The softer song was a welcome change of pace after a night of mostly unbridled rock. A leftover from the pre-reunion setlist, the band played one last cover, “The Seeker” by The Who. I absolutely adored it when they played it the last time I saw them, but this time it was unfocused and ultimately pointless.

As per their tradition, the finale was “Paradise City” which lost some of its effectiveness by played a tad too fast, but nonetheless offered a perfect climax amidst a ton of confetti. The band took its bow and saluted the crowd, and Axl seemed genuinely appreciative of the sold-out (or close to it) crowd’s reaction.

It’s easy to be cynical about a band reuniting in its old age, and this tour may very well be solely motivated by the dollars Live Nation dangled in front of them. But they’ve managed to recapture the magic, which is not always the case. Axl sings better than he has in years, and he seems to have finally reached a happy place.

Guns n’ Roses are back, and they’re playing great. No one knows how long it’ll last so let’s enjoy the ride. They might be the last true rock band to be able to play on such a scale. And now that the impossible has happened, can we dare to wish for the return of Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler?

Opening act was Toronto natives Billy Talent who had the ungrateful task of playing to a near empty stadium, a situation compounded by the fact that they started half an hour before the time listed on the tickets. They got a good reaction from the crowd, but their music was an odd pairing with the headliners. But they are pros and put on a good show.

Guns N’ Roses live in Toronto – July 16, 2016

By Matt Lewis

So I grew up in a religious and very conservative household as I am sure some of us metal heads did. One of the bands that was definitely off limits was Guns N’ Roses. Despite coming late to the party Guns was one of those bands that had the allure of being a bad influence and warping my impressionable young mind. They were loud with dirty guitars and some amazing metal tunes, and Axl Rose had a voice for the ages. Axl and friends had toured near me before but I refused to see them. I didn’t want to ruin the image I had of what they should be like. When it was announced that four sixths of the original lineup was getting back together for the obvious title of “Not in this lifetime” tour, I thought this is probably the closest it is going to get to the band I thought I would never see.

July 16th in Toronto, it was a madhouse at the Rogers Centre and the crowd was surprisingly diverse in age ranges. Of course, there were many mid-40s to early-50s women dressed like it was 1985 trying to recapture the magic of their youth, also they were a number of bros, which I thought was odd. I guess it’s cool now to like Guns. More than a few kids with their parents as well. The wife and I were in the 500 level; I was only willing to spend 100 bucks a ticket on a gamble so as we made our way to our seats through the mob of fans standing in line paying 12.50 a beer (fuck that), we could hear an awful sound going off every couple of seconds. We thought it might be the opener Billy Talent warming up that happened to be ear piercingly awful. They had a video of guns Shooting every 15 seconds and god damn was that annoying. We almost wished we were watching Billy Talent. That went on for about 15 minutes and then the lights came down and the intro started.

Guns came on about 10 to 10 which was fantastic. I checked before this show to see if Axl was still pulling this two hours late nonsense and thankfully they kept it pretty professional. They opened with “It’s So Easy” and then into to “Mr Brownstone.” Teenage me couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The band seemed comfortable up there and who knows how the tour is going with Axl’s personality but they played well. I was able to see Slash perform once in person with Velvet Revolver before they had released their first album and I had forgotten how incredible a player he is live. Despite only being to see him on the videotron it reminded me that even though I’m able to play some guitar, I could practice 24 hours a day and never play as effortlessly as Slash.

The setlist was really good although it had some flaws. While it’s nice for Axl that the band plays songs off of Chinese Democracy, nobody cares. I could have done with four less Chinese Democracy songs (they played four in total). They played a couple of covers including “The Seeker” and their version of “Attitude” and “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory” from the Spaghetti Incident. The first Slash solo break was great; I generally dislike the idea of guitar solos but Slash turned the wankery into the theme to The Godfather. The second guitar solo duel with Richard Fortus was fine, I guess, but went on too long, as in more than a minute.

I also felt like it took about 45 minutes for the band to hit their stride. They were good but when they played “Civil War” it was an epic performance. This was about half way through their set and when you are playing two and half hours it does take some time to warm up. Almost all of the hits were here including “Welcome to the Jungle,” You could be Mine,” “Rocket Queen,” “Night Train,” and “November Rain,” but surprisingly “My Michelle” was absent, as was “Don’t Cry”.

The sound was really good for the most part: the rhythm section came through loud and clear, backup vocals were audible in the mix and the guitars and Axl were front and centre but not overwhelmingly loud. There were times the sound was muddled but those were brief. I was worried that Axl’s voice would be a problem. I have seen live videos where he is hit or miss. This night he was almost perfect. He nailed his highs and didn’t seem out of breath. Perhaps it was to my benefit that we saw the band mid tour and not early on. Axl did have a costume change after almost every song with a different hat. Some of the hats were pretty ridiculous looking but the man is a rock star, so he can do what he wants, I suppose.

The band was a well oiled machine by the end. Richard Fortus does a fine job as second guitarist and the drumming was phenomenal. I am not entirely sure why they have two keyboardists but the addition of added backup vocals did not detract from the original compositions.

The band finished with an encore of “Patience,” “The Seeker” and “Paradise City.” I wish the staple of the encore would go away but c’est la vie. July 16th 2016 in Toronto a dream came true and Guns was everything I had hoped for. Now if only Zeppelin could get their shit together for a tour with a reasonable ticket price, my list of bands I will probably never get a chance to see would be complete.

Guns N Roses at The Rogers Centre Toronto - Concert Review

Last night, July 16, I got the unique and once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing Guns N Roses live at The Rogers Centre. It marked the only Canadian stop on the current Not In This Lifetime tour. I had the opportunity to see GNR open for The Cult at The CNE Stadium back in the day, but didn't end up going. I'm a huge fan of Appetite for Destruction but my fandom tailed off with Use Your Illusion, so I didn't end up seeing them live after that. With three original members in the fold, I took this opportunity, and maybe last chance, to see the band perform. Short story: they were awesome, the sound and playing were great, the show was solid and it was a fantastic time.

After listening to the booming sound of various flavours of gunfire, the Rogers Centre went dark and the sound of the Looney Toons theme emerged from the PA. A fan standing next to me kept repeating "I can't believe this." It was a sentiment of many, many excited and devoted fans who no doubt never thought this show would happen. Hell froze over. It certainly was a "not in this lifetime" show. The next thing you know. the Leafs will win the Cup again.

GNR jumped right into the songs that would most excite the crowd, or at least fans like me who hold Appetite for Destruction as a desert island classic and the pinnacle of GNR's discography, with "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone", quickly followed by "Welcome to the Jungle" after a brief stop in "Chinese Democracy". The stadium was filled with fireworks and fire and smoke and big-ass sound.

I'm a guitar player and was playing intensely when Appetite came out. Slash's guitar work was a huge stylistic and sonic/tone influence on me. Yes, I'd say that he's a guitar hero. Last night, his playing was incredible, the sound perfection and the variety of Gibson and B.C. Rich axes were wonders to behold. I remember learning to play every song on Appetite so seeing and hearing Slash play those songs live, and perform a fantastic guitar solo, was definitely the highlight of the show for me. The wah pedal got a huge workout, and "Rocket Queen" came complete with talk box guitar solo, an effect that we never really see or hear any more. At the end of "Civil War" Slash even snuck in the riff from Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Chile", which is perfect for his love of the wah pedal.

Slash sat in the spotlight for his solo, which of course was followed by the iconic riff that every young guitar player learns, and every guitar shop employee hates, the intro to "Sweet Child O' Mine". What a guitar player. The show continued its guitar-centric ways with a guitar cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" that allowed second guitarist Richard Fortus to step forward and shine. The tune then melded into the latter half of Derek and the Dominos' "Layla" with Axl taking to the piano.

The third original member in attendance, bassist Duff McKagan paid tribute to some recently fallen musical legends with the Prince symbol on his bass and his Lemmy shirt. Speaking of shirts, I think that Axl had more costume changes than Taylor Swift. We got to see a great variety of black t-shirts, hats and shades, and Axl's vocals sounded solid throughout the show.

Other fan highlights included their cover of Wings' Bond theme "Live and Let Die", "You Could Be Mine", "Civil War", "Out Ta Get Me", their cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and, of course, the classic "November Rain". The main set, which clocked in at over two hours, closed out with an awesome rendition of "Nighttrain".

The encore consisted of "Patience" from G N' R Lies, a wicked cover of The Who's "The Seeker" and the closer we were all waiting for, "Paradise City". They returned a few minutes later for a final bow and we were off for the slow shuffle out of the venue. Check out the full setlist here.

The only glitch in the night was the absolute human gridlock that I experienced as I came into the 100 level of the stadium. It was near impossible to move and many fans took to climbing over barriers to get to their seats. I'm not sure if there were entrances that weren't in use or if that's the usual way at Rogers Centre. It's frankly been a long, long time since I've seen a show there and I don't think I've ever been on the floor before. This was all quickly forgotten once the show got underway.

This concert definitely goes into the memory banks as an iconic show that I never thought I'd get to see, on the scale of The Police show I saw when they first reunited back in 2007. This Guns N Roses concert was exactly what this kind of show should be; fantastic songs played well by a band that sounds great for a full house of dedicated fans.

Concert Review – Guns N’ Roses (Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON, 07/16/2016)
Posted on July 18, 2016 by Gustavo Scuderi

Do you know where you are? You’re in Toronto, baby! Wake up! Time to die!

OPENING ACT: Billy Talent

I must confess I’ve never felt so happy in my life for missing an opening act like what happened this Saturday, when I “couldn’t” arrive on time at the Rogers Centre to watch Canadian Rock N’ Roll band BILLY TALENT opening for Guns N’ Roses on their sole Canadian concert from the colossal Guns N’ Roses: Not In This Lifetime… Tour. I had the unpleasantness of watching their lame and tiresome concert once back in 2011, when for a reason beyond my knowledge they played AFTER classic bands such as Exodus, Death Angel, Testament, Mastodon and, believe it or not, the almighty Slayer, and were obviously booed throughout their entire “performance”. Whoever had that brilliant idea of inserting such a hideous group among so many real metal bands might have been involved in the stupid decision of placing them as the opening act for Guns N’ Roses instead of the excellent Alice In Chains, the iconic The Cult or even the not-so-bad Lenny Kravitz, as it’s happening in every city Guns N’ Roses are playing except for Toronto. The only thing I know about their performance is that drummer Aaron Solowoniuk was replaced by Jordan Hastings (Alexisonfire), which doesn’t really mean anything at all for any regular fan of Guns N’ Roses. Their setlist is below, but why bother?

GUNS N’ ROSES

Who would imagine that after 20 years Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan would not only be reunited on stage, but still kicking fuckin’ ass as if they had never split up in the beginning of the 90’s? I’m pretty sure the entire crowd of over 50,000 gunners who were at the Rogers Centre this Saturday will agree with me that GUNS N’ ROSES were almost flawless during the whole concert, blasting their biggest classics from the 80’s and 90’s blended with some “newer” material from the controversial (but good) Chinese Democracy, their latest studio album. To be fair, after they played It’s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone, Chinese Democracy and Welcome to the Jungle, I was already satisfied enough to go home so good those songs were. Let’s say the only thing that didn’t make anyone happy were all those despicable scalpers trying to extort good people who just wanted to see one the best Hard Rock/Hair Metal band of all time playing. I truly hope very few people ended up getting their tickets from those scammers, and this is only going to end when absolutely NO ONE buys tickets from unauthorized people anymore, but you know how diehard fans are, right?

Anyway, getting back to what really matters, the (official) price paid for the tickets was definitely worth every penny. The whole band was in such perfect sync it’s hard to point any issues with their concert, and except for minor changes I would personally make to their setlist (which might have been already perfect for many) everything else went beyond my expectations. The “least famous” members of the band (Frank Ferrer on drums and Melissa Reese on keyboards, or whatever she was doing on stage) did their job, provinding the necessary support for the other guys to shine. Keyboardist Dizzy Reed (don’t ask me why they have three keyboardists, including Axl) and guitarist Richard Fortus proved why they’ve been with Axl for such a long time, probably even more time than Slash and Duff themselves, especially Richard who was spot-on with his riffs and solos to the point he wasn’t overshadowed at all by the one and only Slash. Quite the contrary, they make an amazing guitar duo together. However, no matter how much I praise those musicians, we know everyone was at the Rogers Centre to see the “heart”, the “soul” and the “blood” of Guns N’ Roses.

Starting with the “blood”, known as bassist Duff McKagan, he couldn’t be more physical and dedicated to the music he plays. Wearing a Lemmy T-shirt and having a Prince sticker on his bass guitar (a nice tribute to two unique musicians, with only the black star by David Bowie “missing”), Duff was on fire with his rumbling bass lines and awesome backing vocals. And when he was the lead singer, like in their cover version for Attitude, by the Misfits, he showed all his love for Punk Rock and how charismatic he is.

Axl Rose, who will always be the “heart” of Guns N’ Roses, surprised even the most skeptical fan with an absolutely incredible performance on vocals, singing each and every song as if he was the same Axl from Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion. What he did on my favorite Guns N’ Roses songs of all time, the superb Estranged, You Could Be Mine and Civil War (how can the lyrics for this song still be so meaningful after more than 20 years?), was a thing of beauty. He kept running around the stage, danced a lot, wore some almost-classic outfits from the 80’s and smiled to the fans all the time, and by seeing that I finally realized his troubled years might be dead and gone for good. When they played the beautiful ballad This I Love, the touching Sorry and the fun Better, songs where Axl is truly needed as they had zero contribution from Slash or Duff when composed, we could witness a focused and passionate artist that has found peace and is now on the right path to reconquer the world of music. Even when Axl talked about their small incident at the border, when the police found a gun with them, he didn’t get angry or anything like that, simply mentioning it was a funny moment and that “it wasn’t his gun”.

Lastly, what can I say about the “soul” of the band, the unparalleled Slash? That guy is getting better and better as time goes by, delivering his unique riffs and even more unique solos for the total delight of every fan of the band. His guitar duet with Richard Fortus, his beyond stunnig solo in November Rain and his classic riffs and solos in Sweet Child O’ Mine led many fans to an amazing state of ecstasy, a sensation many had to hold for decades to feel again. Let’s just hope Slash remains with Guns N’ Roses for many years to come, because that’s the place where he truly belongs in music. Well, as everything must come to an end, after the masterpieces Nightrain, Patience and Paradise City, together with a cover version for The Seeker, by The Who (which could have been easily replaced by another classic like “Think About You”, “Used To Love Her”, “Don’t Cry” or “Yesterdays”, or even by “Madagascar”), it was time for Axl, Slash, Duff & Co. to say goodbye to the awesome Toronto crowd after almost three hours of concert and get ready for the next city. No one knows if they’re coming back to Canada soon, but based on the reaction of the fans and the smile on the faces of each band member when the show was over, I doubt it will take another 20 years for us to see those guys in action again.

Guns ‘N’ Roses at the Rogers Centre

Published by Mike Gallagher

Almost 30 years after it first came out, Guns N Roses classic debut, Appetite For Destruction, still holds up remarkably well as a vital and urgent raw rock classic. I was 15 when the Los Angeles band’s debut came out and I can’t overestimate how central it was to my formative years. High school breaks or lunches were spent running to a friend’s place that lived close by to listen to Appetite at obnoxious levels. To this day, it is still one my favourite albums ever.

Appetite dropped in hair-metal’s heyday, but there was something edgy about the quintet – they were real. You knew hours weren’t spent in a make-up chair as they were more apt to paint their insides and bloodstreams. The music also sounded dangerous – heavy rock with a punk-rock slant and attitude to match. Naturally it was massive and the marked the birth of a legendary beast.

Shortly following the tour to support their 1991 sprawling double release, Use Your Illusion I and II, the band imploded although Axl would emerge later with a touring lineup and finally releasing the infamous Chinese Democracy in 2008.

So hell froze over for a second time as Axl finally reunited with guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan and launched the Not In This Lifetime tour that touched down at a sold out Rogers Centre last night, something any rock fan figured would ever happen.

Greatly anticipated? Over 50,000 people snapped up ticked immediately when they went on sale and probably spent the time waiting for the actual night selecting outfits to bring them back in time when their rock and rock stars were not as predictable. It was my first time at the cavernous venue since it underwent a name change from SkyDome. It was also the largest headlining gig I’ve ever been to so I was uncharacteristically excited.

The energy in the room before the band hit the stage was palpable. Two massive screens flanking the stage featured buns reloading and shooting, sending a sonic boom that rattled the stadium every minute or so.

Having seen Guns about ten years ago at the Air Canada Centre, their 9:45 stated set time I took with a grain of salt, but was genuinely shocked when the lights went down only almost 15 minutes later and the band launched into Appetite’s first single, “It’s So Easy”.

The sound was only ok from my vantage point at the beginning with Axl’s voice buried in the mix. This would be rectified over the next song, “Mr. Brownstone”, but for such a massive venue, the sound was full and loud, and stadiums shouldn’t be expected to deliver pristine acoustics, although I’m not used to shows this size so it did bug me not to have clean and perfect sound.

The opening guitar notes and Axl finally addressing the eager crowd asking “You know where you are Toronto?!” we all knew we were in the jungle and 50,000 lost their collective minds for a blistering run through “Welcome To The Jungle”.

The stage was a massive expanse, complete with stairs on either side of a platform that ran behind the drum kit. The lighting was extensive, but not obnoxious, keeping the room lit up. Fireworks also helped with this as did the generous helping of pyro.

Seeing the trio of Axl, Slash and Duff brought the masses and the trio didn’t disappoint, nor did the rest of the band that ran like a well-oiled machine. Duff is remarkably ageless, not looking much different from the early years. He attacked his bass with impressive precision. Slash will always be Slash and his guitar work was furious. Together they sounded tight, defying their large absence like nothing happened. Axl, obviously can’t leap and run all over the stage like he used to but he sure did try. He looked much better this time and did his best to keep the energy lifted. The reunited version was far superior to the assembled version I saw previously with an unstated tension of anything could happen lingering in the air.

For almost 3 hours, the band covered all of their hits and some tracks off of Chinese Democracy, all of them delivered in the epic fashion they deserved and the crowd craved. The crowd themselves rose to the occasion, no doubt fueled by Saturday libations, roaring their approval, playing air-guitar and beer-soaked sing-alongs to the relative delight of Mr. Rose.

Appetite was well represented with 8 tracks delighting the crowd most notably for the aforementioned tracks and “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. Depending on your views of the Use Your Illusion set, you may have found parts of the set to lag where Appetite’s urgency was replaced with Illusion’s epic scope. I’m not fussy on the Illusion material myself, but it was delivered with enough bombast and drama making it visually and aurally delicious.

Finally closing out the night with a mercurial run through “Paradise City”, a delirious crowd and band gave it all for one last return to their youth. It was manic, exhausting and perfect. The band took a final bow for the spent crowd who knew they caught something special that might not happen again.

Watch Axl Rose’s Amusing Onstage Story of Guns N’ Roses Being Detained at Canadian Border

Guns N’ Roses was detained at the Canadian border for having a gun on board, frontman Axl Rose revealed to a sold-out crowd of 50,000 at Toronto’s Rogers Centre Saturday night (July 16).

The singer appropriately waited until the evening’s 18th song, “Out Ta Get Me,” before telling the amusing story. But it turns out that no one was out to get him or anyone else in GNR.

“You did what? What? ‘Oh, yeah, we found a gun.’ So we weren’t exactly arrested, we were detained,” Rose said, smiling, and emphasizing the word “detained.” He nodded to Slash, as he paced the stage, continuing his tale from the road.

“They were very nice. They were very nice,” he repeated of the customs officers. “They were very understanding. You know, it happens — you can forget you had a f—in’ gun,” he said sarcastically, laughing, then shrugging. “Wasn’t my gun.”

A Guns N’ Roses representative confirmed the story to Billboard. “Yes, this indeed happened on Friday, July 15, as they were crossing the border coming from the Philadelphia tour stop on the 14th.” The gun did not belong to any member of the band, according to the rep.

No word on how many times Guns N’ Roses had been detained at the Canadian border, but it seems to have started happening early in the band’s career. In a 1988 interview with Spin, Rose is quoted as saying, “This year, I was only arrested once at the Canadian border, for my stun gun. I didn’t know they’re illegal there.”

Saturday night’s concert started just before 10 p.m. and lasted a marathon two hours and 45 minutes, with a 25-song set list. It was the band’s only Canadian date on its Not In This Lifetime Tour that runs through the end of November.