2000.12.03 - MTV News - Guns N' Roses To Play Vegas New Year's Show

GUNS N' ROSES TO PLAY VEGAS NEW YEAR'S SHOW

ARCHIVE-BRIAN-HIATT
12/03/2000

Seven years after their last live performance, Guns N' Roses are expected to debut songs from their perpetually in-progress new album at a Las Vegas New Year's Eve concert, according to organizers.

But the show — the first for the band's current lineup — will most likely focus on Guns N' Roses classics.

"I heard them in rehearsals. ... [The old material] sounds substantially more powerful," GN'R manager Doug Goldstein said Wednesday (December 6). "With two lead guitars, it just sounded so powerful."

The concert will be held at the Las Vegas House of Blues, and tickets — priced at $150 and $250 — went on sale online at noon Pacific time Wednesday at ArtistDirect. Any remaining tickets will be sold through Ticketmaster and at the House of Blues box office beginning Friday at noon Pacific time.

The band is scheduled to play shortly after 1 a.m. on January 1, apparently following a previously scheduled set by the Goo Goo Dolls.

"We've been rehearsing and recording — we just wanted to blow some smoke," Goldstein said. "What better place to do that than New Year's Eve in Las Vegas?"

Singer Axl Rose is the only remaining original member of Guns N' Roses. According to Goldstein, the rest of the lineup consists of veteran GN'R keyboardist Dizzy Reed, former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, lead guitarists Robin Finck and Buckethead, rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias, and former Primus drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia.

The band is also scheduled to play Brazil's massive Rock in Rio festival in January and plans to tour the United States in the summer.

Plans for the New Year's show came together as rumors swirled of the group's Rock in Rio appearance, according to Dennis Argenzia, director of marketing for HOB-Hewitt-Silva, the concert's promoter.

"We thought it would be good because it would be a small, exclusive thing. ... It came together really fast," Argenzia said.

The band's management company said in October that producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper) will help the band with its long-awaited new album, Chinese Democracy.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1375005/guns-n-roses-to-play-vegas-new-years-show/

Shorter version of the same article, Sonic Net, December 6, 2000:

Guns N' Roses Plan New Year's Show In Las Vegas

Tickets scheduled to go on sale online Wednesday for what would be first show in seven years.

Brian Hiatt reports:

Guns N' Roses will play their first concert in seven years - and their first ever in their current incarnation - on New Year's Eve in the Las Vegas House of Blues, according to online ticketing announcements.

Tickets for the show will go on sale online at noon Pacific time Wednesday (December 6) at www.artistdirect.com, according to information posted there and on Ticketmaster's site (www.ticketmaster.com).

The band is scheduled to play shortly after 1 a.m. on January 1, apparently following a previously scheduled set by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Singer Axl Rose is the only remaining original member of Guns N' Roses. The rest of the line-up was last said to include guitarists Robin Finck and Buckethead, as well as former Primus drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia.

The band, which is also scheduled to play the massive Rock in Rio festival in January, in Brazil, will tour the U.S. next summer, the band's management company, Big F D Entertainment, said in October.

The company also said at the time that producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper) will help the band with its perpetually in-progress new album, Chinese Democracy.

Also in Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2000:

GNR’s Reintroduction: Axl Rose will unveil his new version of Guns N’ Roses with a New Year’s Eve show at the Las Vegas House of Blues. Limited tickets go on sale today at noon via the band’s Web site, www.gnrdirect.com, with Ticketmaster sales starting Friday at 3 p.m. The concert—the first GNR show since 1993—is scheduled to begin an hour after midnight, making the start time 01/01/01 01:00. Rose, working with an almost entirely new lineup, has been recording what will eventually be the first album of new GNR material since 1991 's two-volume “Use Your Illusion’’ set. The group is also booked to appear Jan. 14 at Brazil’s Rock in Rio festival.