Guns N’ Roses at Webster Hall February 15th 2012
In 1988 Guns N’ Roses played an epic show for MTV at what at the time was one of the world’s most premiere clubs, The Ritz in New York City. Since then a lot has happened. Guns N’ Roses released 2 of the greatest albums of all time (adding to the one they’d already released), went on one of the biggest and longest world tours ever, fell apart, re-emerged with only Axl Rose, took 14 years to make an album most called crap (I love it though), and since has toured sporadically with mixed results. I’ve seen Guns N’ Roses several times. Once in 2002 when they first returned and promptly cancelled the rest of their tour the next day. The next time after that was in 2006 at The Hammerstein Ballroom, which coincidentally was their very next show. Hammerstein is a very small room and they quickly sold out a 4 night stand there before coming back later in the year to play across the street at Madison Square Garden. Anyway following a world tour and a North American tour that mostly went well and was positively reviewed, the band made the surprise announcement that they were coming back to The Ritz. The Ritz is now Webster Hall, but that little detail isn’t going to stop a band like Guns N’ Roses. It’s been 24 years and tonight they returned to where they played arguably the show that launched them to superstardom a few days after Axl’s 50th birthday. My night started off late. I’ve been sick lately and despite a warm, clear evening I really didn’t feel like standing in line all night. So I arrived at 8 for a 9PM door time. No one was even pretending this would be an early show. Surprisingly Webster Hall (with Ritz signs over the Webster Hall marquee) stuck the whole line in a side bar. It was hot and horrible. But the wait went fast and a little after 9 we were let in. I managed to get a spot about 4 people back from the stage. The Toilet Boys At 10:15 the Toilet Boys came on. I’ve always wanted to see The Toilet Boys. They were a New York institution for a while, playing everywhere you looked along with sister band The Lunachicks. They never really achieved any success outside NYC, but they’re kind of well known here. For their sound and style think a mix between 80′s hair bands and The Ramones. They did a great set, complete with choreographed moves. I enjoyed it and thought they were a really good choice of an opener. Due to their lead singer dressing in drag they didn’t go over so much on the more jock-asshole GNR fans. They did a half hour. I could have swore I got better/more pictures of them but apparently they went into the ether. Then the wait began. The switchover was quick because Guns’ equipment was already all set up on stage. It was hot and every second the crowd got closer together. A lot of people predicted GNR would go on at 11:30 but that came and went. Finally at 11:55 they started a slow gather onto the stage. At midnight the first chords of Chinese Democracy played, Axl came out, and the place went nuts. Now like I said, I’d been to a similar club show Guns performed in 2006, but this crowd was crazy. I was so crushed and beaten I had to get out, get a water, and find a safer place for the remainder of the show. This is super rare for me. It was totally unexpected with Guns N’ Roses drawing an older crowd. The older crowd was just waiting for this show I guess. As usual they kept up fast Appetite era songs for the first bit of the show. The band was on fire. It was amazing. Ultimately I am typing this now dehydrated, starving, sweaty, and with an aching body after one of the greatest feats of Rock N Roll I’ve ever witnessed. Guns N’ Roses did a 3 hour set (ending at 3:05am, with no real pauses with the exception of maybe 5 minutes for an encore break) that spanned their entire career and played pretty much every song you’d want them to. Early on they went into Estranged and I lost my mind. I love that song but they hadn’t done it when they started playing again as it was kinda thought to be a “Slash song”. They killed it. Another highlight later on was Civil War, which was totally unexpected. Another big highlight was the slowed down Lies version of You’re Crazy. Now the thing you’re thinking this whole time is that “This isn’t Guns N’ Roses, it’s a bunch of hired musicians with Axl Rose”. You couldn’t be more wrong. The whole band was happy, playing with feeling, and interacting with each other. Including Axl. This band was playing at 200%. And for you Axl doubters, the man still has his voice. He’d pull out those high notes at special moments and just nail them. One memorable instance was during Knockin’ On Heavens Door, he kept doing the high parts relatively low. But then during the audience sing a long portion he pulled out the big guns, with the last one looking like he was pulling it from the depths of hell and channeling it through him. There wasn’t a bad portion of the whole night and the show could not have been more incredible. This epic band that’s responsible for some of the greatest songs of all time pulling no stops and going crazy but in a very small room where everyone can see every small detail. It was spectacular. If I had to find a complaint it’d be that Axl didn’t banter all night. He kept pretty quiet except for singing. Though you could see that he was clearly having a ball. I think he was just trying to conserve his voice and time as well by not filling it with chatter. Guns N’ Roses are going to play a few more small shows like this then who knows. I suggest you see them if they’re anywhere near you. Setlist Encore
As they’ve always done the various band members would take over the stage throughout the night and do solos and covers. These were all amazing. But one of the better moments was doing a solo version of Don’t Cry that the audience was singing along to when suddenly you hear a small voice and Axl comes out and does the song, although they did a laid back version without drums. Speaking of drums, I’ve had a problem with the drums on November Rain every time I’ve seen it live. Those fills are so specific and classic. Tonight Frank Ferrier didn’t do the album versions of them, but he did at least nail that first one and his own fills after that were exquisite. An he played it with power and emotion. It was wonderful.
Nice review. You were so lucky to get to see this.
Thanks. I’m literally having trouble walking today, but it was totally worth it.
I also was about 4 rows from the front of the stage, but didn’t show up till 11:30. the idea of standing around for 3 hours didn’t appeal to me.
Good crowd with small pit and crow-surfing. Made it easy to move up front.