Guns 'n' Roses
Guns 'n' Roses' Australian tour
Guns 'n' Roses Retrospective
Angry Anderson talks about the GNR tour - listen now
The Rose Tattoo frontman chats to Wil & Lehmo about those late starting times, the backstage fun and games and why getting your prostrate checked regularly by groupies isn't enough (allow a few seconds to load - the audio, we mean, not the prostrate).
Concert review: Guns 'n' Roses
Acer Arena, Sydney - Saturday June 23
Being a big Gunners fan who survived the dust storm at Melbourne's Calder Raceway in '93, I was curious to see what had become of Axl the recluse and was looking forward to hearing a few of the old hits, and I was excited that the supports were the same as the '93 tour - Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row) and Rose Tattoo.
I didn't get the memo that Axl started the shows whenever he felt like it so when they finally took the stage at around midnight I was already a little peeved. Some call it eccentric - I call it just plain rude!
But the show started with a bang (literally) with 'Welcome to the Jungle' so all was forgiven. When I first laid eyes on Axl, there were a few minutes of shock at his appearance. Was it Mickey Rourke or Wilbur Wilde? Where was the skinny little boy with the long blonde whispy locks?
It took at least the first song to get past the new chunky corn-row look, but the voice was unmistakable and I wasn't disappointed as the hits rained down one after the other - 'It's So Easy', 'Live and Let Die', 'You could Be Mine', 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', 'Mr Brownstone', 'Patience', 'November Rain', 'Paradise City' and old favourite 'Sweet Child O Mine'.
Guitarist 'Bumblefoot' even reeled off a solo of the Australian national anthem, followed by the unmistakable sound of AC/DC's 'Back in Black' and an instrumental version of Gunners' own 'Don't Cry'.
Axl may be older (but aren't we all?) but he can still belt out a tune and he's still got the moves. He was joined by Rose Tattoo's Angry Anderson for a rousing cover of Tattoo's 'Nice Boys' (a song which Gunners first covered back in 1986!) for the first song of the encore. They played new track - the trip-hoppy 'Madagascar' - next with the grand finale of 'Paradise City' closing the show amid lots of fireworks and a rain of ticker tape from the ceiling.
I wasn't overly impressed with the new songs from the highly anticipated Chinese Democracy album (apparently AUD$17 million and 13 years in the making that may or may not ever be released), but that didn't hold back a great rock show!
Photo by John Stanton