The return of the reunited legends Guns N Roses and their “Not In This Lifetime Tour” was the defining rock event of 2016. Now the band is setting their sights on 2017 with this teaser video which you can see below:Continue reading
Guns N Roses launched their “Not In This Lifetime” tour Thursday night (June 23) at Detroit, Michigan’s Ford Field. 41,000 capacity audience packed the stadium to watch the band play a two-hour-and-35-minutes. The show started just before 9:45 p.m. For the Detroit show, Axl Rose was no longer constricted to the chair he had been seated in since he broke his foot during a surprise GNR club show in April 1 in Los Angeles.
The tour features three members of the classic GN’R lineup — Axl Rose, bassist Duff McKagan and Slash— backed by drummer Frank Ferrer, guitarist Richard Fortus, keyboardist Dizzy Reed and new second keyboardist Melissa Reese.
See setlist for Detroit show below:
01. It’s So Easy
02. Mr. Brownstone
03. Chinese Democracy
04. Welcome To The Jungle
05. Double Talkin’ Jive
06. Estranged
07. Live And Let Die
08. Rocket Queen
09. You Could Be Mine
10. Raw Power (Iggy and THE Stooges cover)
11. This I Love
12. Civil War
13. Coma
14. Speak Softly Love (love theme from “The Godfather”)
15. Sweet Child O’ Mine
16. Better
17. Out Ta Get Me
18. Wish You Were Here
19. November Rain
20. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)
21. Nightrain
Encore:
22. Don’t Cry
23. The Seeker (The Who Cover)
24. Paradise City
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Duff McKagan (ex-Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded, Walking Papers) speaks with Chris Jericho of Talk Is Jericho about his new book How To Be A Man, working with Axl Rose, staying fit at 50, a possible GN’R reunion and more.
With the possible exception of a certain W. Axl Rose, there cannot be many figures who have cut such a Marmite-like presence in the music business as Scott Weiland. Even at the height of his fame and notoriety, Weiland cut an often odd figure – feted and lauded by some as a frontman non-pareil, loathed in equal measure by others. Whatever your view of Weiland and his artistic output, either in Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver or his solo work (anyone got that Christmas album?), you always got the idea that Weiland lapped it all up. And then some.
Personally, I bow to no-one in my admiration for STP’s ‘Sex Type Thing’; a rock song of genuine, unbridled swagger, and I have always been in the supporter’s camp for the super-group silliness of the Velvets. Whilst I’m therefore more likely than many to give a positive response to Weiland’s return to the musical fray, even his most vehement naysayers will have to admit that there’s still plenty of life in the man and he’s still got something to offer us. Blaster (Softdrive) is a slightly under the radar release for Weiland with his latest backing band, the clunkily named Wildabouts. Be under no illusion, this is a Weiland solo record and, as efficient and effective as rock musicians these guys are, this is the Scott show.
There’s a Marilyn Manson echo running through the glam stomp of ‘White Lightning’ and the cover of T-Rex’s ‘20th Century Boy’ is lively enough but feels like a record company compromise to me; I would have much preferred to hear him take on something from 70s Alice Cooper or Slade than this: sadly, this version never rises above the perfunctory when it should have shone.
However, that slightly regressive move aside, there’s a playful Californian surf pop vibe underpinning ‘Hotel Rio’, the alt-rock by numbers that ‘Amethyst’ offers reminds me of the 1990s but -self evidently- without the drugged out weirdness that his former band tended to offer. I’m fairly well taken by the sun-bronzed Nirvana schtick of ‘Bleed Out’ and there’s a glammy beat that pushes ‘Beach Pop’ along with a verve and effervescence.
Blaster has arrived with little fanfare and is all the better for it. Whether this is due to Weiland checking whether he has still “got it” (yes, he has) or because he’s also trying out new ideas that don’t quite fit with his “rock god” persona, I know not. Blaster is certainly a much more glammy album; it’s also a happy record suggesting that Weiland has found some artistic peace with himself. Whilst it’s not an out and out classic, given what this artist has been through, the mere fact that he has the show back on the road means we should be discussing Blaster as something approaching a triumph.
7.0/10
MAT DAVIES
From the outside looking in, it can be easy to judge people we don’t know. Take Danny Worsnop as a prime example… the last Asking Alexandria album From Death To Destiny (Sumerian) was widely seen as a step back at best, and tepid filler at worst (though hardly a commercial failure, nonetheless), so jumping ship to a more commercially viable band, the cynic would say, prolongs his stay in the limelight and at the top, and gives him a better chance of maintaining the Sunset Strip lifestyle. The cynic will be shot down in flames by joie de vivre of We Are Harlot (Roadrunner). ‘Blame It On The Love Of Rock n’ Roll’ as someone fairly successful once sang…
While first track ‘Dancing on Nails’ is decent and rocky enough, second track ‘DLT’ (Dirty Little Thing, not a defence of disgraced UK DJ Dave Lee Travis) is one helluva fuel injection turbo boost that prompts an face-splitting grin, as the guitars rock out and Worsnop belts out the chorus, and it all makes sense; whatever you perceive his motives to be, you can’t fake energy, you can’t fake fun and you can’t fake rock n’ fucking roll, and We Are Harlot has all three in spades.
I don’t know Worsnop, but any doubts I had are banished by the genuine, honest, uptempo and spirited rock n’ roll on display throughout.
From that moment on, the album flies by in a conveyor belt of Joe Perry-on-speed chord-bashing guitar liveliness and vocal exuberance. Worsnop brought the rock to AA at times, but here he’s set free and has never sounded better, and it must be said, it’s great to live in a world without breakdowns. He may not have the distinctiveness of an Axl or a Jon Bon Jovi but there is a touch of blues, a touch of pop and a bucketful of rock, and a nice gravelly tone to Worsnop’s voice, particularly on the bourbon-ballad ’I Tried’. ‘The One’ swaggers, ‘Flying Close To The Sun’ and ‘Never Turn Back’ have radio hit written all over them while ‘One More Night’ is head-on smash (hit) of Appetite For Destruction (Geffen) and The Wildhearts.
However, don’t think for a second this is a retro-by-numbers homage to The Legends Of Rock. Yes, you can hear Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses have had their influence in the sound, but this is a flying by the seat of its pants, gregarious, germane, gratifying, gratuitous and genuinely great album.
8.0/10
STEVE TOVEY
Last month saw the release of Cemetery Gates – Saints & Survivors Of The Heavy-Metal Scene by Mick O’Shea. The book is a collection of portraits on the more notorious figures within the rock and metal scene who’s party antics became their undoing or at least affected their lives in a significant way. Ghost Cult caught up with co-author Laura Coulman to discuss the backgrounds of this rather disturbing collection of rock and roll tales.. Continue reading