Monday
Dec282015
...And Now This Is Playing In Movie Theaters
Monday, December 28, 2015 at 12:01AM The clip below is apparently playing in movie theaters as part of that annoying "First Look" segment before the coming attractions. The Guns n' Roses reunion is happening ya'll. It's going to be big. I hope you set aside a little money, because this is probably going to be a massive cash grab. This site will probably become all GnR all the time in the days leading up to and immediately after the announcement. After all, it's what most of us have been waiting for... for basically forever. Please plan accordingly.
Reader Comments (15)
First, I am going to eat modified crow on this one: it looks as if the barely hypothetical reunion is now a strongly actual one. I can admit my mistake. So I do and just did.
But, second, what of it? If, as rumors suggest, it only involves Rose, Hudson, and McKagan, then it only traffics in the visible metrics while forgoing the essential (Stradlin) and the important (Adler and Sorum).
That is enough though. I wrote glowingly about Guns N’ Roses recent residency in Vegas on this very site. I defended that position and the fact that, in spite of being a band of very few originals (McKagan played that night), the band sounded fine and the show was a success so far as I was concerned. That others disagreed is, well, the point of having opinions.
But what is enough going to get us? A higher price-point first of all. If other bands, with less original members, can continue to charge outrageous fees for tours then I expect no less with this tour. I was happy to pay 60+ for a spectacular show at an indoor venue in Vegas. Is there anything to suggest that this tour won’t charge 70+ (what I paid to see the Foo Fighters) for middling GA seats in outdoor venues with poor (relatively speaking) sound?
And what will enough prove? That Guns N’ Roses are a nostalgia act? Nah. That is too easy. They were when I saw them in Vegas . . . and they were a good one too. That they are after the money? Yes. But that is the sad fact of most of these bands. They are as corporate as the next big thing or the last big thing that catches a break with some notoriety—in any other genre. Charge what the market will bear and accept the fact that you fill the front rows with your minders and the back rows with your fans. Because fans will do almost anything to hear the original members, plus or minus one or two, play the hits of our youth (or the approximation that you want to hear if it wasn’t your youth).
So enough proves enough? No. Recall my Vegas review. The Vegas show will likely equal what these shows will in terms of sound and quality (even if we differ on how good that quality actually is). But we are going to get snookered into the belief that Slash and McKagan make it sound better because they were there when it did, in fact, sound better. Nasty, raw, young, and loud. Also recall that I saw two of those three that night and was fine with the show. So add one? And? That is my point. And?
So let me sell out after eating crow: if it comes near my town I will likely go. But don’t ask me to act like I like it. Because I won’t, even while I will. How is that even possible? Let me tell you. We are now dealing in shadows, and tricks, the likes of which are more and more necessary the older we get. I need to catch a glimmer of what made me young and I want to hear a snippet of what played in the background. The fact that a Vegas approximation will likely live up to a non-full-fledged reunion only drives home my point.
Which is what? We bought into the worst conceit of Guns N’ Roses. We use our illusions to legitimate a (potential) reunion that no true fan actually wants. As a tour, it will be rote . . . but it will be fantastic. As a potential launching pad for new music it will be tantalizing . . . but it will also be as tangled as Halen’s A Different Kind of Truth or Sabbath’s 13.
There is no jungle. No queen. Bill Bailey isn’t getting off a bus. But we are ready to fund a city of dreams that only replicates the paradise we once experienced. I will do so knowingly. I trust you do the same.
I predicted it was going to happen!
And I'm still holding out hope it'll be the original line-up in it's entirety, or as Sorum suggested, two drummers. If anything, there's no reason in hell not to make this the Use Your Illusion Mark 3 version of the band... With Gilby and Sorum, if they can't wrangle Stradlin or put up with Adler...
Or Axl and Slash could wind up taking a page (no pun intended) out of the Page Plant playbook. I saw that reunion sans John Paul Jones sixth row at Madison Square Garden and it was incredible. At one point the whole sold-out crowd was pogoing up and down to the song "Rock & Roll".
So, I still believe it's going down, though I wouldn't be surprised if I wind up eating crow soup, since Ace pointed out it could just be a film since after all, since this is a trailer. But it could also be a trailer for a movie or simulcast of a live reunion concert. Or they could put out the movie to stir up the hype before the reunion tour.
In the end, enough with the speculation and rumors, though, admittedly, they are playing us perfectly. Bring on Guns n' F*ckin' Roses!
p.s. Here's why it will be better to see this reunion than the residency you saw in Vegas, HIM... It's the intangible "it factor" of Slash playing alongside Axl that will be hugely different and superior than Axl with his former band of Metal Merrymen hired hands, as good as they are... Because, as we can see (and hear) now, Slash hasn't slowed down one note when he performs the material HE wrote. So buckle your seat belts for the Glam (that's right, I said "Glam"!) Ride of Your Life! Those guys side by side, sharing the mic, Axl wailing like your long lost grandmother and Slash screaming on his guitar like the coked-up bastard child of Jimmy Page and Joe Perry he is (well, formerly coked-up), will be an unbeatable combination!
I'll watch from afar. Thank you.
Axl, Slash, Duff - necessary. Absolutely a must.
Izzy is like the cherry on top, not necessary for this to be successful, BUT puts the ticket price range for true fans at probably the top $$$ they will be looking for.
The drummer and Gilby - won't effect my going to see this show at all.
Its funny how we hold bands up to "original" members to be great. Very few ever do, and as father time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into future. I'll take whatever they'll give me that reminds me of listening to that above clip and has those little hairs on the back of my neck stick up.
AC/DC just sold out the venue nearest me in like 10 minutes. Original members to be great ? No... its AC f*ckin' DC.
They won't have to grab my cash.....I will willingly hand it over.
1.2.3.4.5 still honest. Not going.
It's ok. Trust me
And I agree GNR, the need for the originals is a hopeless one. Essence more often than not beats out initial (or essential) members.
And I want to believe, Metalboy! You know I do. But I am willing to accept the fact that what I think will happen is what will happen in this case. Sure, the top hat will make it more interesting. But will it make it more memorable and/or worth it (price wise and otherwise)? Not really thinking it will.
Perhaps Ace saves the day (yet again) in arguing this tease is just a teaser for a film. Who knows? But a film of them firing on all cylinders is likely to be more fulfilling that a full (meaning: partial) fledged reunion.
This coming from a guy who liked their Nazareth cover. So why listen to me?
Believe me, Slash coming back is the main sizzle to this thing. He will literally burn the house down when he's blazing those solos like NO ONE else can!
Nazareth exist is a special place for me. But that cover so perfectly fits Axl's voice and the band's talents. Even if _The Spag. Incident?_ was warmed up leftovers from UYI I & II and some new tracks, that track does justice to McCafferty while also so perfectly fitting a band that was being pulled apart at the seams. It feels so much more suited to them than, say, "Mama Kin" from years previous.