2017.08.21 - TD Place Stadium, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Concert review: Guns N' Roses at TD Place

By Lynn Saxberg

Guns N’ Roses
with Our Lady Peace
Lansdowne Park, TD Place
Reviewed Monday

In the bad old days, you’d never see Guns N’ Roses on stage in broad daylight. They were always late to their own party, which would be raging by the time they made it.

On Monday, however, the American rock band was the second thing to block the sun for the 24,000 people facing the westward stage at the Lansdowne Park stadium at TD Place. The first, of course, was the afternoon’s solar eclipse.

The group we used to call the world’s most dangerous band not only showed up before the sun went down but also worked hard to give the crowd their money’s worth during a hit-swollen show. On a Monday night in Ottawa, two days after a Montreal date, it was a respectable turnout, although about 6,000 short of a sellout. Many fans wore their wackiest 80s-inspired rocker costumes for the occasion.

The significance of the day was not lost on singer Axl Rose, who even expressed concern for eclipse viewers. “You guys can see all right? Nobody hurt their eyes today?” he teased, sounding remarkably coherent between songs.

Later on, he pointed out that Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, one of the cover tunes on the set list, was a song that “kinda goes with the day.”

Not to be outdone by a natural phenomenon, the nefarious frontman led the band through a marathon concert that sported blinding blasts of pyro, dazzling lights and earth-shattering volume, along with plenty of fist-pumping rock hits.

Well into the second year of their Not In This Lifetime tour, the band is a formidable crew, with a lineup that features three original members — Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan — plus keyboardist Dizzy Reed, rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer and newest member Melissa Reese on keyboards.

In ripped jeans and an array of raunchy T-shirts, the 55-year-old Rose looked to be in decent shape as he stalked the vast stage, sometimes running from end to end. His voice only faltered a few times, which wasn’t bad considering the extremes of his range, from piercing screech to menacing growl.

On most of the key songs, he and the band got the job done nicely, with early highlights including the opening double shot of It’s So Easy and Mr. Brownstone, the crowd energizer Welcome to the Jungle, and the newly relevant Civil War, with its timely refrain, “I don’t need your civil war, I don’t need one more war.”

Sweet Child O Mine was one tune where Rose missed a couple of the high notes. He rebounded with the next ballad they played, November Rain, picking out the melody on a grand piano at the front of the stage, an arm’s length from his formerly estranged guitarist, Slash, who was consistently amazing throughout the show.

Sure, the concert was padded with cover songs and long solos, but the pace never lagged for long. No one minded covers of great tunes like Dylan’s Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Wings’ Live and Let Die or an inventive guitar duel between Slash and Fortus on Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.

There was also a killer version of AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie, a reminder of Axl’s stint with the band last year. That’s part of the reason he’s able to do such long shows, he revealed, describing it as the “Young family boot camp. If you don’t do it right, you get the boot,” he joked. The show ended with an explosive run through the Paradise City, punctuated by an impressive fireworks display.

Opening the show, and providing Canadian content, was Our Lady Peace, the Toronto band that hit the charts in the 1990s with a distinctive style of post-grunge rock that features the soaring voice of singer-songwriter/philanthropist Raine Maida.

His voice was strong on Monday, although the band’s set would have benefitted from a few more bodies in the audience to soak up some of the mega-decibel impact of the overpowered sound system.

The crowd was still arriving as they cranked out the hits, which included Naveed, Innocent, Superman’s Home, Clumsy and Starseed, to name a few, plus a brand-new song with a heavy groove called Drop Me in the Water. A new album is due later this year.

NO ILLUSIONS NEEDED AS GUNS N’ ROSES TAKE OTTAWA TO PARADISE CITY

By Hendrik Pape

Mother Nature saved her August rain for Tuesday and spared a massive crowd at Ottawa’s TD Place stadium on Monday night from her wrath. Massive crowds arrived early and showed a lot of Patience and didn’t cry over long merch and beer lineups because it was all better by 7:30 when Axl Rose, Slash, Duff and the rest of Guns N’ Roses exploded onto the stage.

Popular Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace kicked things off shortly after 6pm by the time they reached their fourth song, “Is Anybody Home?”, the clear answer was yes. Although many seats remained empty throughout their set the stadium floor, which is where I was located, was teaming with fans of all ages jockeying for position in merch or beverage lines many of whom were singing along with Raine Maida.

Admittedly I’ve never been much of an OLP fan, mostly preferring Maida’s solo work and songwriting, but when they launched into their new track “Drop Me in the Water” my ears perked up. This was a sound I was not used to from OLP. It’s an edgier, harder rock sound than much of their earlier music and I could get used to hearing more of that sound from them. OLP wrapped up their set (9 songs total) with “4am” and “Starseed”.

Moments before Guns N’ Roses took to the stage a souped-up muscle car animation took over the three large screens that took over the TD Place end zone. The car squealed its tires and revved its engines occasionally spinning around to fire off the two guns that make up the Guns and Roses logo. This led into the “Looney Tunes Theme”, almost fitting given the bands history, and then the first notes from the band itself as they launched into “It’s So Easy” to kick off the night. What followed was 3 solid hours of uninhibited rock and roll.

Appetite for Destruction turned 30 about a week after my 43rd Birthday which means that Guns N’ Roses have been a part of my musical diet pretty much my entire life but until last night I had never seen Guns N’ Roses live. But there was something even more special about last nights show for me, it’s been six years since I founded Sound Check Entertainment and my team and I have worked hard for those last six years to prove that we deserve a place in the media circles at the big shows. Well it doesn’t get much bigger than Guns N’ Roses “Not in this Lifetime” and we did it and last night I did what I do best, at a show, tweeted the hell out of it.

By the fourth song of the night Axl Welcomed us to the jungle and the crowd went wild. At most concerts by the time you’re four songs in you’re almost a quarter of the way through the show, not last night. Turns out they were just warming up. Four songs later when they launched into their version of Wings’ “Live and Let Die”, which I must add is my preferred version of the song, the stadium exploded and the show was running with the tachometer pushing into the red. At this rate most normal engines can’t take much more before they blowup, one thing was clear Guns N’ Roses weren’t holding anything back and we were definitely headed for an explosion before the night was through.

It wasn’t all head banging, fist pumping, throat hurting rock n’ roll, Axl let his softer side shine through with ballads like “This I Love”, “Yesterday’s” and, of course two mega highlights “November Rain” (which also showcased Axl’s piano playing skills and, of course, Slash’s awe inspiring guitar) and “Don’t Cry”.

There were also no shortage of guitar solos, first with Slash going for about 10 minutes from guitar solo into Nino Rota’s “Speak Softly Love” (Love Theme from the Godfather) into “Sweet Child of Mine”. A few songs later Slash joined Richard Fortus for a powerful duet of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” which lead into “November Rain”.

There were a few covers mixed in throughout the night none more poignant than Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”, no doubt a tribute to the late Chris Cornell who’s music has played such a big role in keeping the GNR “Night Train” relevant over the years. It was especially powerful for me as GNR, Metallica and Soundgarden were my top three rock bands growing up through my teenage years.

The band finished their regular set with a high octane trip on a “Nightrain” before returning to stage with “Don’t Cry” and AC/DC cover “Whole Lotta Rosie”, before which Axl told the crowd he’d been to the Young Bootcamp, rock n’ roll bootcamp and he’s on time now (referring to his rebel phase where he was notorious for showing up late and starting his show, sometimes, hours after it was due to end). Things mellowed out a bit for “Patience”, probably one of my favourite GNR ballads, before finishing off the night with a cover of The Who’s “The Seeker” and an explosive high octane ride to “Paradise City” which took the needle deep into the red before the stage exploded with fireworks and ticker tape much to the delight of the massive crowd.

So that was it, Not in this Lifetime? No I’m thinking more like once in a lifetime. Over the last six years I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of shows, but this one…Guns N’ Roses…trumps them all. For 3 incredible hours on Monday night a section of Ottawa magically transformed into Paradise City. [...]

I guess in closing the big question remains…will this be the last we see of Guns N’ Roses, or will we hear new material before the decade is out? I guess time will tell but I, for one, am happy that I got at least one chance to witness the spectacle that is Guns N’ Roses.

Concert review: Guns N’ Roses – TD Place, Ottawa – August 21 2017

By Jean-Frederic Vachon

A mere 48 after witnessing Guns N’ Roses in Montreal, I was ready to go another round, this time in Ottawa. Would the show be as good?

The band played almost the same setlist, simply swapping out “New Rose” to replace “Attitude”. Again, they were slightly ahead of the announced 7:30 show time, certainly not something we’re used to with this band! The band launched, or maybe I should say exploded into “It’s So Easy” to kick things off. If I felt they’d needed a few songs to really get cooking in Montreal, that wasn’t the case now: they were on! Being up close to the stage this time, I could see the band members were having a blast. Even Axl was smiling all night long.

There’s a human element in music that makes performances unpredictable. It’s not just about playing the notes. and sometimes that human element takes the music to a higher level. This is the state the band was in on Monday, as they tore through their set of classic tracks, deep cuts and covers, all performed flawlessly with the passion and fire that made this band huge.

Slash was burning up the fretboard, whether jamming with second guitarist Richard Fortus or playing those classic solos. Duff McKagan laid down the bass, looking cool as ever. And Axl Rose was running around the stage all night, hitting those crazy notes and screaming his ass off.

As in Montreal, the only weak point was “Better” from the much maligned “Chinese Democracy”, but the title track and a vocal showcase “This I Love” from the same album fared much better, with Slash and Duff putting their mark on the newer songs. Also, seeing them cover AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie” with all the swagger the band can bring was worth the admission by itself.

It was my third show on the “Not in This Lifetime” tour, and I can honestly say that not only was it the best of the three, but it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot. It’s easy to be cynical about a reunion tour like this, after years of acrimony between the band members, but when the results are this good, who cares. Let’s just hope they have some new music in them.

Opening the evening was “Our Lady Peace”, who seemed more on than they were in Montreal too. Great show from them too.