2002.12.10 - The Sacramento Bee - Guns N' Roses Tour Derails; Were Riots Or Empty Seats To Blame?

Transcript:
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Coming Distractions • David Barton

Guns N’ Roses tour derails; were riots or empty seats to blame?

The comeback tour for Guns N’ Roses has been a train wreck waiting to happen, and the rails buckled Friday night in Philadelphia.

By Monday morning, the cars were piling up.

One of those cars was the Dec. 30 show at Sacramento’s Arco Arena, which was canceled Monday along with four other shows (including San Jose) on the Guns N’ Roses tour. Refunds are available at place of purchase.

There has been no official word as to why the shows were canceled, or on the future of other, still-uncanceled dates. But in all likelihood, the entire tour will be scrapped just a month after it began.

The numbers tell the tale: In nearly every market played by the band, the houses were half-full arenas. And in the current corporate rock market, selling half of your tickets on a major tour is a financial disaster for everyone involved.

The tour was ill-fated even before its disastrous opening on Nov. 7 in Vancouver. There was no new album, the band featured only singer W. Axl Rose from the original group, and, as Gary Bongiovanni, editor of concert industry publication Pollstar, notes, "Any time any artist stays away for as long as GNR has (nine years), there’s a question about how much of their core audience is still around. Their tastes may have evolved, or they’ve moved on to new artists.”

Hey, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy: Rose has, from the first night of the tour, showed absolutely zero respect to fans, his record label, concert promoters and all the people who expected him to show up and do his job.

He showed up so late for his tour-opening show in Vancouver that the promoters had to cancel the show, which prompted a riot. The same thing happened on Friday in Philadelphia, with 15 people being treated for injuries in the ensuing melee.

Some people may have found him charming when he was the poster brat for hard rock in the late ’80s, but that’s when he was young and making lots of money for lots of people. Now, he comes off as out of touch as Michael Jackson.

“I don’t think he knows how much he’s (angering) people,” Bongiovanni says.

Wouldn’t a few broken windows have clued him in?

“Some people take a little longer to get a hint.”