Apostrophes N' Asterisks...
In 1988 my favorite band was Def Leppard. I have this thing where if I don’t like a vocalist’s voice, I just can’t get into the band regardless of the music. Guns N’ Roses came out in high school, and that was my initial response to Axl Rose and GN’R when Appetite for Destruction hit it big. A fateful high school study event changed all that. A friend and I weren’t doing that well in math class, so we decided to pull an all-nighter at his family’s house to complete homework and cram for a test. He was really into the new GN’R Lies at the time, and he literally played it all night, just flipping the tape over after every side ended to keep it going. By morning, I somehow had no further issues with the sound of Axl’s voice, and I was transformed into a GN’R fan. A while after everyone else, I went back and got into Appetite for Destruction, which I appreciated way more than Lies. With Appetite alone, I could say I loved GN’R. A lot of my friends rode the wave of Appetite with me, late bloomer rockers the lot of us.
The Use Your Illusion albums were released in college. I absolutely loved the pre-release single, "You Could Be Mine." I was pledging my fraternity when the albums came out, but before the release date a pledge brother had gotten ahold of an advance bootleg of one of them and we listened to some of it when we were supposed to be studying. We weren’t allowed to leave campus during pledging, but on the release day my big brother smuggled me off campus and drove me to a record store in a nearby city where I bought the cassettes. The first opportunity I got in my pledge schedule, I rocked out to both albums and was blown away by how great they were. No filler; these were both full-tilt epic rock albums like Appetite. GN’R quickly became my favorite band. I was sad when Izzy left but absolutely loved his first solo album he released the following year, Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds.
I have always felt the band isn’t truly Guns N’ Roses without Izzy Stradlin, the heart and soul of the band. But I did enjoy the cover material of “The Spaghetti Incident?” album (and “Sympathy with the Devil”), but the post-UYI-era of the band with Slash and Duff was always “Guns N’ Roses*” (yes asterisk) at most. I also enjoyed the early solo/side project material of Slash, Duff, and Gilby Clarke (Izzy’s first replacement), but none of them nearly as much as Izzy Stradlin who became my favorite solo artist. After Slash (and Duff) left GN’R, the band was “Axls N' Roses” in my mind. I listened to Chinese Democracy twice, and I mean really listened to it. I just could not get into it. Not a single song. I listened to the first Velvet Revolver album and had a similar reaction. To my mind, Izzy Stradlin’s ample and underrated solo discography is the true creative legacy of GN’R.
I’ve been to over 100 concerts over the decades, but I had never seen any incarnation of GN’R live. Stradlin doesn’t tour. I did see Slash’s Snakepit (with Gilby Clarke) in 1995, which was cool (except for the permanent loss of hearing); Slash jumped out on an amp right beside me for a solo. I never had any interest in seeing Axl with Buckethead or whomever was playing in his band at the time, so never tried. When Slash and Duff rejoined Axl’s band to tour it raised an eyebrow, but Izzy declined participation and there was still the nagging concern of Axl’s volatile nature of cancelling shows and causing riots. (But in 175 shows of the first tour lasting three and a half years, there wasn’t a single riot.) Then the pandemic happened and my already slowing pace of live music shows in recent years came to a complete standstill.
When tickets for the Columbus Guns N’ Roses* show went on sale, I bought tickets on an impulse. I’d heard that as a vocalist, Axl was a shadow of his former self, but I love most of the music they would play so I was expecting a good cover band version of GN’R. Tickets were outrageously priced, so I got third level tickets. Going to a concert in a pandemic doesn’t make much sense, but I am fully vaccinated (and my son who stayed home would be fully vaccinated before the show). And not that it was strictly enforced, but there was a mask mandate in place for this show. I had an aisle seat with an empty seat beside me. I took a little bottle of hand sanitizer and kept my mask on.
I found myself excited to be there. I only saw a bit of the live debut of Mammoth, the opening band lead by Eddie Van Halen’s son. But I could hear their set as I spent most of it standing in line to buy an overpriced t-shirt, only to finally find out they were sold out of my size of all GN’R t-shirts. But I wanted to commemorate the show somehow and didn’t want another poster, so I bought the only t-shirt they had of the next size up (hopefully I can shrink it).
Here is the setlist, and below that are my reactions to the September 23, 2021 Guns N’ Roses show at Value City Arena.
1. It's So Easy
2. Mr. Brownstone
3. <Chinese Democracy BS>
4. <Velvet Revolver song>
5. Double Talkin' Jive (w/ long jam)
6. Welcome to the Jungle (w/ Link Wray's "Rumble" intro)
7. <Chinese Democracy BS>
8. Estranged
9. Live and Let Die (Wings cover)
10. You’re Crazy
11. Rocket Queen (epic long jam version)
12. Shadow of Your Love (tour debut)
13. You Could Be Mine
14. I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover, Duff on lead vocals)
15. Absurd (new single, old song idea rewritten by Axl, Slash, Duff & Dizzy – I kinda like it)
16. Civil War (Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" outro, with band introductions)
17. Slash Blues Guitar Solo ("You Shook Me", "Mannish Boy", "You Gotta Move")
18. Sweet Child o' Mine
19. November Rain (w/ Axl on a piano they rolled out onto stage just for this song, of course)
20. Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover, instrumental)
21. Patience
22. Coma (tour debut)
23. Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan cover w/ Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed" intro)
24. Nightrain (Axl sings the Addams Family theme as he leaves the stage)
Encore:
25. <Chinese Democracy BS>
26. Don't Cry
27. The Seeker (The Who cover)
28. Paradise City
I don’t know why they played three Chinese Democracy songs, and I felt a little bad for Slash and Duff for having to do three of them. I didn’t care for those or the Velvet Revolver song they played, but the rest of the show was great! My expectations were blown away!
They played for about three hours with only a very short break between the end of the main set and the encore. They played all the singles except “Yesterdays” and the two from Spaghetti. (They didn’t play “Sympathy for the Devil” or any songs from Spaghetti at this show.) I did not expect to hear “Rocket Queen,” especially such an epic version of it. “Coma” was also unexpected and really rocked. They played my favorite B-side, “Shadow of Your Love.” After that, Axl spoke this lead-in about the next song showing their soft, tender, and loving side, and then the band tore into my favorite GN’R song since 1991, “You Could Be Mine.” It really rocked and I was overwhelmed with emotion.
Axl can’t quite live up to his former glory, but I was amazed that he could still pull off some vocal heroics, showing off that he still has it, to some extent. Fat Axl of the memes was gone. He looked healthy, in great shape for 59. He didn’t have the explosive energy of his youth, but he still did his swaying and little footwork during songs. There was no indication of the egomaniacal Axl of the past. Whenever he wasn’t singing, he ducked back into the shadows, letting everyone else have their moments in the spotlights. He seemed to be in a good place mentally. He sometimes made little jokes to the crowd in between songs.
The sound quality of the show was excellent. Unsurprisingly, Axl and the guitars were at the top of the mix. I thought the drums were a tad bit too high in the mix and the bass was a tad bit too low, but I could still hear Duff and he sounded great. (Side note: Duff has the Prince symbol on his base.) Frank Ferrer, dummer since 2006, is every bit as good of a drummer as Matt Sorum. In addition to the second longest band member Dizzy Reed on keyboards (and bongos), there was bonus female keyboardist Melissa Reese who joined the band when Slash and Duff rejoined in 2016. Thankfully, the keyboards were down in the mix and unobtrusive.
Guitarist Richard Fortus has been with the band since 2002. With prejudice I only used to refer to him as “Fake Izzy,” but he was actually great. He is an amazing guitarist, maybe even just as good as Izzy. The highlight performer of the show was Slash. He is a guitar god, and it was so awesome to see him play a lot of GN’R songs I love, and blistering solos. I doubt he gets it, but Slash really deserves the same cut of the take as Axl. All rock fans need to see Slash play, but I’m biased because I love the music at GN’R shows.
Izzy left GN’R 30 years ago. I realized at this show that Izzy was the heart and soul of GN’R for his songwriting and creative contribution to the sound of the band more than anything else. Izzy wasn’t at this show physically, but he was present in spirit, in the music he wrote and cowrote. This revelation allowed me to fully appreciate the band as it is now. I had an awesome time at this show. I’m so happy I got to see Guns N’ Roses*.
*Guns N’ Roses without Izzy Stradlin, but still great.
