2016.08.05 - NRG Stadium, Houston, TX, USA

Kristy Love wrote:Five Better Openers For Guns N' Roses Than Skrillex

Guns N’ Roses' ongoing "Not In This Lifetime" reunion tour has been music-headline fodder for months now. This publication has also had a few things to say about it. Personally, I’ve been a fan since 1987 and have long been looking forward to seeing the heavy rock gods perform their hits live, and even the B-sides. That is, until Friday's NRG Stadium opener, Skrillex, was announced. Enter tailspin of despair. Skrillex? That Corey Haim-looking muppet in the fake hipster glasses? Really? With the be-bop synthesizer shit music? You’ve got to be kidding me. No, just NO.

That’s exactly the moment I refused to buy tickets to this show. If that seems extreme to you, then you must be too young to remember the tour when Metallica joined GN’R a dozen others where GN’R destroyed eardrums and rocked asses off. Back then, tours used to look like rock version of Clash of the Titans, where the bands complemented each other’s music. Adding Skrillex, though, reeks of some corporate marketing ploy to either boost millennial ticket buyers or an attempt to make this show friendly to parents and older teens. Wrap your brain around that thought for a minute — Guns N’ Roses as a family event. Either way, it’s wrong. So wrong. Five acts we'd rather see instead:

TEXAS METAL
Dozens of bands across Texas would look better on this bill easily, far better than Hot Topic Hairdo Boy. Not to give too much away (come back tomorrow), just anybody but this kid. No metal fan wants to see music made from a computer behind a DJ booth, unless GWAR comes out and kills them first. Or unless you want a few thousand drunk and rowdy metal fans boo some techno-trash charlatan offstage real quick. Metalheads love their genre for the dexterity and talent that comes from musicians who actually play instruments.

A GN'R COVER BAND
After watching the above reunion video of “Welcome to the Jungle,” and then wiping real, wet tears away upon the realization that even a reunited GN’R is still not GN’R, let’s get someone onstage who can foot the bill. I mean, have you seen the ticket prices? Let’s be honest, those days of when Axl and Slash played in time, in tune and cared about their own performance quality are long over. Certainly a cover band will exceed the disappointing YouTube snippets I’ve seen so far. Besides, cover bands actually care about mimicking the songs correctly, and are genuinely concerned about entertaining their audience. When was the last time Axl cared about any of those things? Houston’s own Appetite for Distraction would be an incredible opener, and perhaps even remind the original members of GN’R what they’re supposed to be doing onstage.

THE CHUCK E. CHEESE ANIMATRONIC BAND
Sure, the frozen expressions and creepy robotic movements of Chuck E Cheese’s band are enough to provoke nightmares and fear, but isn’t that what a metal show is really all about? Metal is supposed to be frightening, inspire doom, call up the dead and evoke music's satanic, rebellious side. Haunted toys that operate independently in the dead of night or even sing a dying-battery version of their cheerful repertoire would be far more entertaining than watching Dubstep Dipshit behind his turntables. And how is Chuck E. Cheese’s music any different from Skrillex’s, come to think of it? It isn’t.

DONALD TRUMP
I would rather watch that day-glo vermillon reptilian asshat, his itchy Twitter trigger fingers and his plagiarizing mail-order bride build a wall, paint it and watch it dry for two hours than hear one note from Skrillex’s ringtone machine.

NICKELBACK or CREED (tie)
I realize these are two separate bands, but they come from the same earworm-infected, disease-ridden, flaccidly impotent genre craptastically known as "modern hard rock" — almost the opposite of cock rock, but more like castrated rock. These meglomaniacal bands not only make cringeworthy, depressing tunes but somehow maintain a national audience and regular radio rotation. If that’s not enough evidence that God is dead and the apocalypse is nigh, the fact that this detritus is still preferable to listening to Skrillex should be even further proof that the Antichrist himself has laid hold on our existence. Somebody please tell that demon with seven heads to lay his cursed hands upon a guitar and save us all, lest synthesizers, computers and iPhones destroy what’s left of metal.

Pete Vonder Haar wrote:Slash Is King as Guns N' Roses Returns to Houston

With few exceptions, any musical group’s claim to the title of “biggest band in the world” is typically short-lived. Either they self-destruct – voluntarily (the Beatles) or not so much (Nirvana) – or they go on to become shadows/parodies of their former selves (U2).

Then you’ve got Guns N’ Roses, who had it both ways.

GN'R's 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, would go on to sell 30 million copies. And for the next few years, they were everywhere: from MTV to movie soundtracks to tabloid headlines to police blotters. They weren’t just the biggest group around; they were the “Most Dangerous Band In the World.”

You know the story from there: firings (drummer Steven Adler), blockbuster success (Use Your Illusion I and II), riots, departures (rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin in 1991, followed a few years later by lead guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan), lineup changes, and the 15-year wait for Chinese Democracy, which endures more as a punchline than an actual coherent musical release.

Guns N’ Roses’ tenure at the top lasted — charitably — about seven years. Not a bad run. Still, in the 20 years between then and the "Not in this Lifetime" tour that hit NRG Stadium last night, it’s reasonable to ask if the reunited triumvirate of Axl, Slash, and Duff (plus keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese, guitarist Richard Fortus, and drummer Frank Ferrer) had a hope in hell (a “One in a Million” shot?) of capturing that old magic.

As convenient as it would be at this point to call the reconstituted Gunners' return to Houston a failure, it would also be dishonest. It was an almost three-hour show, long on crowd favorites, with only a few low points to offset the overall high quality of the show, quality which can largely be attributed to Slash.

Friday night's show afforded the guitarist numerous opportunities to show his stuff, which he did during blistering solos during the likes of "Estranged," "Civil War," and — curiously — the theme from The Godfather. With his signature top hat and Les Paul (only set aside for a handful of songs, one of which, amusingly enough, was "Chinese Democracy"), it was like being transported back to a simpler time, when gas prices were low and a Clinton was running for President.

It was refreshing to see everybody in relatively decent shape, as well. Axl galloped around the stage as usual, only a step or two slower than the old days, while Duff roamed the stage lean and mean, a walking memorial in his Lemmy T-shirt and sporting the Prince symbol on his bass. It was, by most measures, a triumphant return, with an appreciative NRG Stadium crowd cheering them on.

But let's be honest; there's no reason for this show to be pushing three hours. For starters, none of the three(!) included cuts from Chinese Democracy received anything but polite applause, and including one in the encore instead of "Patience" or "My Michelle" or any of a dozen better tracks is nigh inexcusable. Also, "Estranged" more than meets the recommended daily allowance of bloated cuts from the Use Your Illusion albums.

But as obnoxiously pretentious as "November Rain" is, you have to give Axl credit for rolling with the flow when the audio on his piano cut out. 25 years ago, he would have thrown the bench into the crowd and (probably) called us assholes. Last night, he only briefly halted the song before continuing with the muted keyboard. Lets hear it for maturity.

And no offense to Axl and his rotating retinue of former axemen, but without Slash, this is merely an above average gig, and "GN'R" is back playing to a two-thirds full Toyota Center.

Personal Bias: Not to get all inside baseball-y, but the Houston Press almost didn’t review this, thanks to GN'R’s publicist withholding press credentials because of “hurtful comments” yours truly made in my review of the band’s 2011 show. I’d like to point out two things: first, my review of that gig was a favorable one, and any “hurtful” comments were presented specifically to be countered later on. Second, in contrast, I slagged Mumford and Sons in their first Houston appearance, yet somehow they let me come back to review them again. Conclusion: Axl Rose is a bigger crybaby than Marcus Mumford.

The Crowd: How was there a GN'R show without any fights? You people are old.

Overheard In the Crowd: "Axl's great! Who cares if he's racist?"

Random Notebook Dump: "Slash and Mick Mars need to do a tour. Call themselves the 'Defibrillators.'"

Brittany Spanos @ Rolling Stone wrote:Skrillex Talks Getting Guns N' Roses Crowd 'Semi-Turnt' in Opening Gig

Amid a surprisingly drama-free reunion tour, Guns N' Roses made one of their most controversial choices for their Houston show in early August, choosing superstar DJ and electronic musician Skrillex to open for them at NRG Stadium. Purists were up in arms over the choice of an EDM act opening for the hard rock group, even though the band has long had a history of supporting non-rock genres, including Axl Rose's early appreciation for hip-hop acts like N.W.A.

"I've always been a polarizing artist, so I don't really pay attention to what anybody says," Skrillex tells Rolling Stone nearly a week after his gig. "It's so strange because I grew up playing rock music and punk music, and I'm a forever-evolving artist. When I first started making electronic music after I left [Skrillex's former rock band] From First to Last, all my band's fans hated that. 'Where's the old Sonny?' When I started working with Jack Ü, the Skrillex fans were like, 'What's that?'"

The musician was aware of the negative backlash surrounding the GNR gig and realized that it fueled him even more to pursue the set. "It gave me a challenge to see what I could do under those circumstances," the musician says.

Prior to becoming Skrillex, Sonny Moore fronted the metalcore group From First to Last. He had been a guitar player since he was a kid as well as an avid metal fan, having mastered riffs by bands like Metallica as he learned the instrument. "'Welcome to the Jungle' is one of the songs I never got to learn front-to-back," he admits. "As much as I want to say I was the biggest Guns N' Roses fan, I didn't know them as much as I did metal bands until the last couple years. My appreciation has been greater [more recently] just because of how life goes. You go in and out of different phases of what you listen to."

Guns N' Roses personally requested the DJ-producer to open for them, a decision Moore says was a shock, but not new, as he had been asked to open for bands like Nine Inch Nails in the past. "At the time, it just wasn't right for my career to do it," he says.

For the Houston show, Skrillex spent a week making new remixes and edits for this single set that channeled his history as a metal fan, the expectations of the Guns N' Roses crowd and his own oeuvre. "I wanted to warm up the crowd and entertain them so that by the time Guns N' Roses came on they were semi-turnt," he explains. "I put in my big songs and of course remixed them and did mash-ups. I threw in a bunch of old metal songs, as well. That was my preparation: throwing in Iron Maiden, Metallica, Pantera. On 'Purple Lamborghini,' I threw the Lemmy a cappella from 'Ace of Spades' on the instrumental, so it had a little bit of Rick Ross and a little bit of Lemmy."

Still, it took some time to build up the stadium's enthusiasm for his show. "I'm not gonna lie — and this is what I expected too — when I stepped onstage, people were sitting down and were like, 'What the fuck?' After a few songs, I started throwing in some of the metal remixes and pitched them all to be in the same key as the ones I was mixing them with so it felt like a really smooth set," he says. "There was definitely moments when I threw in Queen or threw in the first Metallica sample, and people were like 'Oh shit.' It became a big sing-a-long."

To better fit into the show's vibe, he admits that parts of his regular sets were omitted and replaced with more vocals and songs that would prepare the fans for GNR. "I wanted to entertain people," he says. "It wasn't a selfish thing. I didn't want to make a statement or do the opposite and be like, 'Fuck you.' I wanted to create something for the fans that they could remember."

Mixing rock with hip-hop, EDM and classic tracks is not new for Skrillex, however, who recalls using System of a Down's "Chop Suey!" in many other shows, though for the GNR gig, he overlaid the a cappella over the instrumental from his remix of GTA's "Red Lips."

Given his one-off appearance as an opening act, Skrillex surprisingly didn't get to meet or speak with most of the band that day — though he met Slash a few years back when the guitarist showed up at the music festival Ultra. Only Duff McKagan stopped by to thank him for performing at the show before his set, and Skrillex had to leave the stadium before the band's finale to make another show later that night.

Still, he used the opportunity to soak in the band's performance with a crew of his Los Angeles friends. "It doesn't matter who you are, but when you see them, it's so beautiful," he says. "It's like watching a freestyle rapper when Slash solos. He keeps dropping bar after bar. It's really entertaining."

20 trucks, 250 crew, and 'a lot of pyro' required for Guns N' Roses H-Town reunion

By Eric Sandler

Preparing NRG Stadium for Friday night’s Guns N’ Roses concert takes a lot of work. According to production manager Dale "Opie" Skjerseth, the Not in This Lifetime Tour requires the following:

16 “steel” trucks that contains the lighting towers, stage, and roof that arrive three days before the performance
20 production trucks
125 full-time crew members
125 local crew members
1 million feet of cable

All told, Skjerseth says the production weighs 125,000 pounds, not including the band. “They don’t weigh much anyhow,” he said with a laugh during a behind-the-scenes preview Thursday afternoon.

Of course, the show also includes “a lot” of pyrotechnics.

“We have a lot of pyro,” Skjerseth reiterated. “We have more than normal based on the scope of other tours of theirs. We boosted it up. The guys wanted more, more opening effect, more finishing effect on songs throughout the show.”

But what else should people expect from a show that features three original band members — lead singer Axl Rose and guitarists Slash and Duff McKagan — reunited for the first time since 1992. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler aren’t on board, but Skjerseth, who also worked with the band for the Use Your Illusion tour, says they’re better than ever.

“The energy level is probably higher on this tour than it was then,” he said. “There was a lot of energy back then, but it was in different directions. We were all young. We’ve all done a lot of crazy things. We’ve matured. Now it’s more focused on the show.”

That show runs for approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes and spans the entirety of the bands career: everything from "Paradise City" (spoiler alert: the final encore) to a couple of tracks from Chinese Democracy. They even mix in the occasional cover.

As of Thursday afternoon, a few tickets remain available, but they’re going quickly. Want to join the 40,000-plus who will attend? Here are the relevant times:

4:30 p.m. — Parking lot opens
6:30 p.m. — Doors open
8:00 p.m. — Opening act Skrillex
9:25 - 9:45 p.m. — Guns N’ Roses

H-Town is Paradise City for Guns N' Roses, but the night belongs to Slash

By Eric Sandler

“Do you know where the fuck you are? You’re in the jungle, baby. And you’re gonna die!”

A threatening statement to be sure, but one that was met with cheers from the almost sold-out crowd at the Houston stop of Guns N’ Roses Not In This Lifetime tour Friday night.

Sure, the band played “Welcome to the Jungle” fourth in their 25-song, two-and-a-half hour set, but opening songs “It’s So Easy,” “Mr. Brownstone,” and “Chinese Democracy” didn’t engage the crowd in the same way as the familiar opening riff to “Jungle.”

For those in the crowd — mostly 35 to 50 — songs like “Jungle,” “Sweet Child of Mine,” and set closer “Paradise City” provided part of the soundtrack of their collective adolescence. For those fans, Guns N’ Roses harkens back to a time when CDs came with parental warning stickers and a rock band from Los Angeles could seem legitimately dangerous.

With the band's debut album Appetite for Destruction set to turn 30 next year, those days are gone, but the music still resonates.

As promised by tour production manager Dale "Opie" Skjerseth during a media preview on Thursday, the stage had been designed to "present the band." Two giant video screens on either side of the stage spotlighted different performers throughout the night, and three center screens alternated between showing the band and a series of graphics matched to the song. And, yes, there was “a lot of pyro” boomed throughout the set.

Overall, the band turned in an impressive, high energy performance that utilized the multi-level stage well. Lead singer Axl Rose, bassist Duff McKagan, and guitarist Slash moved from the center stage to two side stages and elevated platforms in the rear of the center stage. Maybe Rose and Slash didn’t stand very close to each other more than a couple of times, but they don’t have to be buddy-buddy to deliver the thunderous spectacle the crowd expected.

Rose’s voice displayed power and range throughout the set as he held notes on tracks ranging from “Estranged” to “The Seeker.” Ever the showman, he even swapped T-shirts throughout the set, mixing in a few jackets (white alligator for “November Rain,” a weird, fringy western thing for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”).

In many ways, the night belonged to Slash. The guitarist, sporting his signature top hat and sunglasses (and the same shirt throughout, natch) dropped a number of impressive solos throughout the set. Highlights included long intro and outro solos for “Rocket Queen,” a solo performance of the Love Theme from The Godfather, and busting out a double-necked guitar for “Civil War.” The cameras provided numerous close-ups of the guitarist's hands as he wrung every note out of his instrument.

McKagan got his own opportunity to shine when he took over lead vocals a cover of the Misfits’ song “Attitude” while wearing a shirt with the image of Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister.

The setlist followed the one played two nights before in Arlington pretty closely, but the band mixed in “Catcher in the Rye” and “Don’t Cry” into the encore. Shortly thereafter, the final notes of “Paradise City” mingled with the last explosions, and it was time to go home. Judging by the cheers echoing off NRG Stadium’s ramps as people headed to the parking lot, just about everybody had a great time.

Axl Rose battles rogue piano at Guns N' Roses Houston show

Watch as Guns N' Roses frontman laughs off malfunctioning equipment

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose could only laugh as his piano went rogue during a performance of November Rain.

Rose’s piano mysteriously starts playing unplanned high notes about four minutes and 20 seconds into the performance of the song at the band’s recent show at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. A video of the incident can be viewed below.

The singer at first looks confused by the notes before realising there is a problem with the equipment, asking his stage tech: “What the fuck is that, can we stop it at least?”

He sees the funny side, saying later in the song: “I don’t mind ghosts or gremlins, but they should probably learn the fucking song.”