© Erik Kabik PhotographyEditor's note: Today's review comes from Josh Bell, film editor for Las Vegas Weekly. Follow Josh on Twitter @signalbleed.
When Axl Rose took the stage for the third-to-last show of Guns N’ Roses’ Las Vegas residency at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel on November 21, I was a little worried that I was going to be in for a long, painful night. But somewhere in the middle of “Estranged,” the fifth song in the set, it was like Rose had suddenly fully powered up. His previously strained voice smoothed out, and he no longer sounded like he was truncating lines because he was out of breath. For the rest of the night, Rose was in top form, belting out every note almost perfectly, and wowing the crowd with sustained wails on songs like “Live and Let Die” and “Civil War.”
I last saw Rose’s revamped version of GNR this past New Year’s Eve, also at the Joint, and the set list wasn’t much different, despite the supposed uniqueness of the band’s Vegas residency. Still, there were added video screens and a couple of makeshift ramps that allowed Rose and other band members to venture out above the audience, plus a number of scantily clad female back-up dancers who took the stage periodically. Overall, though, this was just another GNR show, although one that again demonstrated that despite the complaints about Rose having ditched the other classic members of the band, the musicians he’s subsequently recruited are all more than capable.
The residency has been dubbed “Appetite for Democracy,” and the show reliably drew heavily from both GNR’s 1987 debut album Appetite for Destruction and Rose’s 2008 boondoggle Chinese Democracy. Appetite favorites “Welcome to the Jungle,” “It’s So Easy,” and “Mr. Brownstone” all suffered from Rose’s shaky vocal start, but “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “Nightrain” and show closer “Paradise City” sounded fantastic later on during the show. The band opened with the title track from Chinese Democracy, which featured Rose’s roughest vocals, and the mediocre Chinese Democracy songs “This I Love” and “Catcher in the Rye” were low points of the evening. But much of that album is also underrated, and both “Better” and “Street of Dreams” sounded great, the latter fitting in well with epic ballads “Don’t Cry” and “November Rain.”
Part of the reason Rose still sounds so strong most of the time seems to be the numerous breaks he takes during every show, heading offstage dozens of times a night for mysterious reasons. It’s not a big deal when Rose disappears for 30 seconds or so during an instrumental break, but the set list was paced to give him a long break in the middle, meaning that the bathroom-break-ready solo segments for band members Tommy Stinson (“Motivation,” from his 2004 solo album Village Gorilla Head) and Dizzy Reed (an instrumental cover of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter,” which served mostly to highlight how much more exciting it would have been if Rose had been there to sing it) were placed back to back. Sandwiched in between two Chinese Democracy numbers, they sapped some of the energy from the marathon three-hour set, although it rebounded later, as the band held back several hits until the very end.
The show was being filmed in 3D for an undetermined future project, and it seemed to be emblematic of the residency as a whole, with its mix of electrifying performances and desultory solo spotlights. The crowd on the floor thinned as the show wore on, and a good number of audience members, perhaps comped tickets by the casino, were less than engaged. But no one can accuse Rose of not giving his all, and he remained energetic and in fine voice (following the rough start) through to the show’s climax. Original GNR guitarist Izzy Stradlin was set to make guest appearances in the final two shows of the residency, and as much as I would have loved to see that, I have to admit that seeing the current incarnation of GNR is pretty impressive as well.
Friday, November 30, 2012 at 12:01AM 