2019.10.04 - Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX, USA

Seems to have been the exact same setlist as last show. Time to start adding songs from the alternative list

Soulmonster wrote:Seems to have been the exact same setlist as last show. Time to start adding songs from the alternative list

I was wrong, the setlist was slightly shorter with Wichita Lineman and Black Hole Sun not being played, likely due to a curfew.

Review in Austin Chronicle, October 10, 2019:

ACL Live Review: Guns N' Roses
Epic, handstand flashback to the sleeze rock Eighties
By Tim Stegall, 12:00PM, Sat. Oct. 5, 2019

“Do you even fucking hear what I'm saying?” W. Axl Rose shouted early during Guns N’ Roses’ headlining, two-and-a-half-hour fusillade Friday night at Zilker Park.

The definitive sleaze rock band of the Eighties suffered a sound mix that at times sounded like it was all coming from the American Express stage's monitors and not the mains. This did not diminish their granite-hard rock & roll. Maybe it even muted Rose’s screech at times.
But yes, we heard you, Axl. You, Duff McKagan, Slash, and the others delivered two Appetite for Destruction killers at the get-go, “It's So Easy” and “Mr. Brownstone.” Of course you had to throw “Chinese Democracy” in right after.
No biggie. “Welcome to the Jungle” obliterated that immediately thereafter. And there were very few misses, but some definite surprises. Velvet Revolver's “Slither”?!

Slash gave a few extended lessons in fluid execution of the pentatonic scale, quoting Funkadelic's “Maggot Brain” at one point. He also revealed a significant Carlos Santana influence never readily apparent previously. Rose, meanwhile, changed shirts and hats five times, at one point sporting an Alamo Drafthouse tee.
Early Gunners live set staple “Shadow of Your Love” rocked like murder before unreconstructed punk McKagan stepped to the mic for a two-song Johnny Thunders/Misfits medley. The set’s closing proved GNR boasts more money shots than most acts count decent songs: “November Rain,” a “Sweet Child O’ Mine” that prompted every cellphone into the air, and a “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” whose every solo sounded like Slash quoting April Wine’s “Just Between You & Me.”
Encore “Paradise City” still ringing, Rose gleefully tossed his mic into the third row. The entire cast returned for a bow, with the frontman grinning widely. Slash tossed all his guitar picks to the audience for a whole minute, then exited with a handstand.

Source: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2019-10-05/acl-live-review-guns-n-roses/

Before the show



https://www.instagram.com/p/B3NjzJ9nO7B/

Official photos by Kat Benzova

Duff on Instagram:
Thank you @aclfestival night #1. That was truly special! Photo: @susanholmesmckagan



https://www.instagram.com/p/B3OOhGnnQBk/

Melissa on Instagram:
Austin!!! That was some s4!+ !!! You all were so fekkin hyyyyped - the energy was str8 siccccnizzz and we wuz sweating affffffurrrk!!! U made *every* second worth it!!! TYTYTY ????????????.... Feeling soooo *POSITIVE* and grateful to you all!!! If u only knew - srsly.... Wishing every one of u so much love and happiness ????????????????????.... What a noiiiiiight!!!!! ????????????
⠀⠀???? @katbenzova_rockphoto
Captured an action shot of my mike and Ike (aka “fruit salad”) pregame!!! ⠀⠀
#acl #austin #texas #gnr #gunsnroses #notinthislifetimetour #nitl #melissareese #tourlife #showstyle #tour #happiness #bestband #concertphoto #offwhite #livemusic #louisvuitton #musiclife #gratitude #gigphotography #concertphotography #nike #keyboards #vocals #ootd #outfitdiaries #fashionstyle #fashiondiaries #highvibes #manifestyourdreams



https://www.instagram.com/p/B3OYfIjHP9Q/

Review in Billboard, Oct. 5, 2019:

*

ACL Music Festival 2019: Guns N’ Roses, King Princess & Local Fusionists Conquer Day One

By David Brendan Hall

Austin City Limits as a brand — be it the 45 years-running PBS television show or its multi-day festival, which kicked off the first of two weekends at Zilker Park for its eighteenth year on Friday (Oct. 4) — is historically about preserving all musical traditions. For much of the past decade, the festival’s roster has evolved to include heftier helpings of prevalent hip-hop, electronic, pop and virtually every other emerging style to appeal to increasingly younger demographics.

So was it a risk to book a legacy headliner headliner like Guns N’ Roses that might only attract a relatively small diehard contingent? Absolutely. The seminal Los Angeles hard rock band — which saw the reunion of frontman Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan in 2016 — wouldn’t resonate as universally as last year’s Paul McCartney Friday finale, but pitting them against millennial darlings Tame Impala arguably served the fest’s overall population better by breaking it up into more pleasantly even masses.

Besides, since GNR started their 2.5-hour conquest of the American Express stage a whole 45-minutes before the Australian psych rock fusionists, casually curious patrons got to witness Axl Rose lead the septet through familiar hits like “Welcome to the Jungle” and one they might’ve recognized from watching Macca last year, the nearly-two-decades-standard rendition of Wings’ “Live and Let Die,” before high-tailing it to the other end of the field to round out the overall population’s fairly 50/50 split.  

Everyone that stayed for the remainder saw the sharpest version of the band in recent memory. Rose, wearing a black Alamo Drafthouse T-shirt to start, appeared energized and vocally on-point, delivering faithful takes on mainstays like “Civil War,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” the grand-piano-led “November Rain” and encore-ending anthem “Paradise City.” He also asserted his own amped-up spins on the Misfits’ “Attitude” and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Slash, sporting a Rolling Stones tour tee, effortlessly shredded what felt like every millimeter of his fretboard: he demonstrated the textbook definition of making a guitar sing, and accounted for at least half an hour of the fireworks-laden spectacle.

GNR superfans who camped out at the main stage for hours in the day’s nearly 100-degree heat likely also reveled in the full-throttle raucousness of the Raconteurs’ preceding set, which was split between 10-plus-year-old fan favorites and new cuts off recently released third album Help Us Stranger. Co-founder Jack White paid subtle tribute to recently departed Austin legend Daniel Johnston by donning one of his “Hi, How Are You?” shirts, and attempted to help fans beat the heat by repeatedly proclaiming that “the sun does not exist because there’s no proof!”

Hopefully, at least some among the steadfast rocker crowd ventured to the other end of the park to witness the day’s most successful genre crossovers. Local rock duo Black Pistol Fire did it early on by covering Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and inviting South Austin-bred hip-hop duo Blackillac (scheduled for their own full set next weekend) to blend silver-tongued asides with rowdy blues-rock on standout “Well Wasted.”

But the prime example was New York’s King Princess (stage name for 20-year-old Mikaela Straus), who launched her tour behind upcoming debut full-length Cheap Queen (Oct. 25) by flaunting a playful persona as massive as the Honda stage she commanded for about a dozen (prominently new) tunes.

“Hi baby, hi baby… welcome to the first show of the [tour],” she said with a sly grin. “Bitch, we’ve got transitions now. We’ve got a budget now. It’s lit, OK?”

The genderqueer singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist demonstrated both pop prowess (“Cheap Queen,” “Pussy is God” and “Trust Nobody”) and a penchant for rippin’ rock riffs (“Talia” was the most riveting among them, and spurred her headbanging about in a white jumpsuit with “69” emblazoned across the butt cheeks). Some of her messages might’ve come off shocking to more conservative types, but for the most part — whether via swagger-soaked lyrics or quick quips — it felt like she was just voicing what others didn’t have the guts to say.

“I’m so horny for Texas [and] so happy to be back… with the great Guns N’ Roses,” she said. “You will see me there, titties out!”

https://www.billboard.com/culture/events/acl-festival-2019-guns-n-roses-king-princess-day-1-recap-8532240/

Review in Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 4, 2019:

*

ACL Fest: Axl, Slash and Guns N’ Roses gang make Zilker their jungle

By Ramon Ramirez / Special to the American Statesman

There was a 20-minute stretch about 90 minutes into the Guns ‘N Roses concert at Zilker where Slash’s staple, extended solo bled into “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and then “November Rain”—with Axl on a grand piano—during which, buddy let me tell ya, the place was rocking.

“I think it cooled down about a degree or two—every little bit helps, right?” Axl said to Austin City Limits Music Fest patrons of what was slated to be the hottest version of the annual festival since the 2005 Coldplay dust bowl.

Yet from Dripping Springs to Westlake to Lake Travis to Cedar Park, the local ’burbs showed out in black to feel again Friday night.

The American Express stage enjoyed Axl’s signature sway early into Guns N’ Roses’ set-opening “It’s So Easy.” With a tighter-cropped haircut but the same flannel shirt around the waste, the mercurial rock star smiled his way through the high notes — particularly on “Welcome to the Jungle” four songs in. It was the second early one that featured blasts of pyrotechnics.

“How are you doing?” the 57-year-old Axl, donning a black Alamo Drafthouse T-shirt, asked Austin after “Double-Talkin’ Jive.”

“Good? We’re going to try to keep that going for you.”

He’d rotate outfits like a cruise line variety show as the politically incorrect, often sexist-in-lyrics bad boys behind the most snot-hurling 1987 album this side of “Paid In Full” pulled off the screeching highs of a beloved hard rock classic. Even 2008′s long-teased and commercially disappointing “Chinese Democracy” enjoyed polite applause — despite its poorly aged nu-metal production.

This is the last band to emulate the sneering nonchalance of the Rolling Stones in an enduring and meaningful way, and the mostly original core band clocked in a two-and-a-half hour set worthy of its prevalent iconography: The seven-strong outfit of Axl, Slash, Duff McKagan, Dizzy Reed, keyboardist Melissa Reese, drummer Frank Ferrer, and guitarist Richard Fortus lorded over a crammed lawn. It’s the all-star version of GNR we never got.

This wasn’t, however, as stuffed as Paul McCartney last year — one could comfortably traverse the chair zone without stumbling over a neighbor’s blanket. Maybe that’s because GNR is chiefly known for four monoculture megahits known the world over from Tel Aviv to Tokyo.

Long-tenured GNR covers of “Live And Let Die” and the Misfits’ “Attitude” show the band’s perpetual adoration for its sweaty genre. Even recently deceased contemporary Scott Weiland got a downright touching, loud-as-heck cover of “Slither,” one Slash and Duff recorded with Weiland under the short-lived Velvet Revolver banner. Duff likewise honored the late Prince with the Purple One’s logo emblazoned on his bass.

Slash, as you remember him in a black top hat and “Tattoo You” T-shirt, played marathon man. He doubled-timed the closing solo from “Rocket Queen,” a favorite that English fans voted as the best song from “Appetite.” He wielded the double-ax on “Civil War.” And he did work on gloriously bloated, indulgent, and operatic “Use Your Illusion” cuts like “Estranged.”

For all its Queen-era ambition, that 1991 two-part rock saga is often a fuming rejection of America at war, both in lyrics and attitude. In recent years, Axl’s become an outspoken and anti-Trump tweeter -- a long road from the infamously racist and homophobic lyrics to “One In a Million.” Polished and united, this two-years-running rock revue is an F1 weekend-fit titan in peak form—and one of ACL’s best-yet legacy sets way before the closing fireworks of “Paradise City.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20200814195013/https://www.austin360.com/entertainmentlife/20191004/acl-fest-axl-slash-and-guns-n-roses-gang-make-zilker-their-jungle

Review in The Buzz Magazines, Oct. 8, 2019:

*

ACL 2019: Lessons from a 55+ Year Old Rookie Festival-goer

By Joni Hoffman, Editor-in-Chief

Austin City Limits 2019, Weekend One. I arrived at Zilker Park and immediately felt a sense of returning home. I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in ‘83 and spent a lot of time playing hacky sack in the park as a student. But that night, I also felt a sense of being out of place. I had decided to attend ACL for my first time – solo. At age 58.

And right away, I realized I’d made a serious rookie mistake. I was wearing jeans. I had checked the weather app and it had shown that the temperature would drop in the evening, so I thought it made sense to wear jeans. Wrong. Very wrong. It was a record heat day in Austin, officially reported as the hottest ACL since 2005. I was the only one wearing pants. I was probably wearing the most clothing out of any attendee there. And I suddenly understood why many festival attendees essentially wear bathing suits. I started to wonder, is there a festival clothing line for women my age? And, what am I doing here?!

Thankfully, the energy of the festival was contagious (despite the heat) and I rallied. Once I got my bearings and downed two Topo Chicos, I settled in and was ready for Guns N’ Roses. I was especially excited to hear them play as this was an experience 34 years in the making.

In 1985, I lived in Santa Monica with a friend, Amy Wolff Kahan, also a UT alum. We lived in a rent-controlled apartment right behind a Thrifty Drug store. One Saturday afternoon, we had an impromptu “alley” sale. A tall, skinny guy with long hair and tattoos walked up and looked through our box marked $1 for any item. He bought my UT hat. He was really nice and asked us to go to his gig at a club nearby. We planned to go, but we never made it. Turns out, we blew that opportunity. It was Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses was just getting started. Rumor has it a photo exists of Axl in my hat. On my first night of ACL, I finally got to see Guns N’ Roses. Ironically, in Austin, TX . . . where I bought that hat.

Seeing Guns N’ Roses was a great way to kick off my festival experience and I found myself excited for day two (and more weather-appropriate in a comfortable dress). Though I was proud of myself for figuring out the festival experience solo, I found myself wishing I had someone to hang out with during the festival. It seemed everyone was with someone and having a blast in big groups. My day improved when I received a text from my childhood buddy, Alan Nirenberg, asking where I was and what flag I was near.

[...]

Full article:
https://thebuzzmagazines.com/articles/2019/10/acl-2019-lessons-55-year-old-rookie-festival-goer

Review in KTSW 89.9, Oct. 11, 2019

*

Austin City Limits 2019: The Best Music Festival in Texas

By Jessie Bonner
Music Journalist

Austin City Limits is one of the most anticipated festivals in Texas. People come from all over the United States, and even some other countries, to attend the event. The variety of bands and genres is always diverse and caters to basically every person’s music taste. This year, there were around half a million people in Zilker Park for the festival.

I chose to go Weekend One because I wanted to see The Kooks, but unfortunately they pulled out due to one of the member’s injuries. Although I was disappointed that one of my favorite bands dropped out, I still saw some amazing artists and had the time of my life. Here were some of my favorites.

Guns N’ Roses

The fact that two timeless rock bands, Guns N’ Roses and The Cure, were on the lineup this year made the festival even more exciting than it already is. Having grown up listening to all kinds of rock in the car with my dad, I knew I needed to see Guns N’ Roses while I had the chance. I was about twenty people back from the barricade and a little left of center. The lead vocalist, Axl Rose, sounded so similar to their recorded music that you could hardly tell he had aged almost 40 years since the band was signed to a label. The crowd sang along to every song; older and younger viewers alike. Although my ears haven’t stopped ringing, it was such an unforgettable night, and I am so glad to have been able to experience it.

[...]

Full article:
https://ktswblog.net/2019/10/11/austin-city-limits-2019-the-best-music-festival-in-texas/

Review in Clash Magazine, Oct. 11, 2019

*

Live Report: Austin City Limits 2019
The best action from weekend one of the Texas festival

Weekend one of 2019’s Austin City Limits music festival descended upon Austin’s Zilker Park this past weekend. Year after year, ACL fest has something for everyone; from giant pop stalwarts like Billie Eilish and Lizzo, to more rock forward sounds coming from the likes of Guns ‘N’ Roses and The Raconteurs.

As always, there was a lot to see, and we did our best to run the diverse gamut that ACL fest provides. Ahead of part two starting later today, here’s a rundown of what we caught during the first weekend of the festival.

[...]

Slash’s guitar was a little too hot and Axl’s mic sounded like it was turned down a bit, but who cares? It’s Guns ‘N’ Roses. Playing a sweltering two-hour set spanning their entire catalogue, and then some, those dudes still ooze more cool now as they ever have.

[...]

Full article:
https://www.clashmusic.com/live/live-report-austin-city-limits-2019/