{"id":9127,"date":"2012-03-14T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=9127"},"modified":"2020-03-01T14:18:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T19:18:08","slug":"concert-review-guns-n-roses-march-1-2012-atlanta-ga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=9127","title":{"rendered":"Concert Review: Guns N’ Roses – March 1, 2012 – Atlanta, GA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guns N’ Roses<\/strong>
\n March 1, 2012<\/strong>
\n Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 1987, Guns N\u2019 Roses pretty much changed the face of glam rock\/metal with their debut album Appetite For Destruction. \u00a0While bands like Poison and Warrant were singing their bubblegum hard rock about partying and getting laid, Guns N\u2019 Roses took us to the seedy underbelly of Hollywood where the drugs were heavy, the fights were brutal, and the girls did things that would make Larry Flynt blush. \u00a0As the years passed, Guns N\u2019 Roses went on to be one of the biggest bands in the world putting on some amazing live performances. \u00a0There were untouchable but with that success came inner turmoil. \u00a0Axl Rose\u2019s late arrivals and last-minute cancellations drove away members of the band eventually leaving Axl as the sole remaining member of the band.<\/p>\n

Axl decided to pick up the pieces and carry on as Guns N\u2019 Roses with himself being the only original standing member. After numerous line-up changes over the past 10 years, Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 sole original member and founder Axl Rose was joined by guitarists Ron \u201cBumblefoot Thal, Richard Fortus, and DJ Ashba, drummer Frank Ferrer, bassist (and former Replacement) Tommy Stinson and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman to round out this latest incarnation. \u00a0I was given the opportunity to attend the show and in all honesty, I was curious and excited to see it for myself. \u00a0Was this new incarnation of Guns N\u2019 Roses going to blow me away? \u00a0I could only hope so.<\/p>\n

Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 performance here in Atlanta was the site of a riot of angry fans awaiting the forever late Axl Rose. \u00a0Bottles were thrown, seats were ripped up and the stage was completely demolished and looted of all the equipment. \u00a0Well maybe this would have happened if it was 1990 but instead, the \u00be full Tabernacle audience played with phones, read books and some even fell asleep as they waited for Guns N\u2019 Roses to take the stage on this Thursday night. \u00a0As I made my way up to the balcony, I had no problem finding a seat. \u00a0The upper tier was nearly empty allowing me to pick a good seat that would give me a great birds-eye view of the stage and the audience. \u00a0The crowd was a mix of drunk aging rockers, pretentious looking douchebags in their button-down shirts, and over the hill frat boys. \u00a0Some of the women were amazing to see as they sported clothes that obviously quit fitting them 20 years ago including spandex that was working with all of it\u2019s might to contain the mass of flesh beneath. \u00a0All of them congregated together over $7.00 beers, $40.00 t-shirts, and tales of seeing Guns N\u2019 Roses in 1987.<\/p>\n

This current tour is called \u201cUp Close and Personal\u201d and has them doing a \u201cscaled back tour of intimate venues.\u201d \u00a0“Scaled-down club tour” must mean “we\u2019re doing small venues because we can’t fill arenas.\u201d \u00a0The Tabernacle holds roughly 3400 and the venue was 3\/4 full if that! With tickets ranging from $75-$145 and notorious late start times, I can see just why this show was undersold. \u00a0As the 11 pm start time approached, I was ready to have my face melted and my skull rocked. \u00a0An hour and a half (and countless rounds of Words With Friends and Facebook updates) later Chinese Democracy began at 12:30 am. \u00a0The house lights went down and the crowd erupted with a roar as guitarist DJ Ashba took the stage with the opening chords of \u201cChinese Democracy.\u201d \u00a0The thing that struck me right away was the lack of oomph or drive that they took the stage with. \u00a0They were all barely moving except for guitarist DJ Ashba. \u00a0I have to give the kid credit for trying but someone really needs to tell him that it\u2019s not 1987 and he is not Slash. \u00a0Axl Rose\u2019s entrance practically went unnoticed by me as it was so underwhelming. \u00a0He strolled out on stage and with his hands in the air like he was Elvis or something and inaudible vocals. \u00a0By the 2nd song they had turned the vocals up and unfortunately what I heard was a singer unable to get every word out.<\/p>\n

As a band Guns N\u2019 Roses doesn\u2019t suck. \u00a0Axl has managed to pick a talented group of players with the exception of the \u201cother\u201d keyboard player (Chris Pitman) who just seemed to press a key here and there and rock back and forth with his keyboard. \u00a0While they have the technical skills, there was absolutely no heart or soul to anything that they were playing. \u00a0The guys just looked underwhelmed and underutilized. \u00a0Drummer Frank Ferrer almost looked insulted at times to be playing these songs and bassist Tommy Stinson seemed to be happy just to have a steady gig. \u00a0The only one that really seemed to be having a good time was DJ Ashba. \u00a0At several points during the show guitarist Ron \u201cBumblefoot\u201d Thal even appeared to be falling asleep standing up. \u00a0I can\u2019t really blame him because the actual selection of songs was enough to put Ambien to sleep. \u00a0In all honesty, it looked like a bunch of guys up there getting paychecks to play their parts.<\/p>\n

While the setlist opened with more of a slight pop as opposed to a bang, Guns N\u2019 Roses followed the underwhelming opening song with three songs from Appetite For Destruction (Welcome To The Jungle, It\u2019s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone). \u00a0You would think that hearing these classic songs would be a pretty awesome experience but it really wasn\u2019t. \u00a0There just seemed to be something missing. \u00a0Maybe it was the fact that I\u2019m used to seeing that classic line up playing these songs but for some reason, they just didn\u2019t capture that magic. \u00a0The set seemed to just steadily decline from that point on as it was littered with uninspired extended jams and over-indulgent solo spots from various band members. \u00a0\u00a0While the Chinese Democracy material seemed to fall completely flat, there were a couple of good points. \u00a0Guns N\u2019 Roses did a cool rendition of \u201cYou\u2019re Crazy\u201d and the classic \u201cRocket Queen\u201d from Appetite For Destruction sounded pretty good but it was during the later that I finally discovered what the \u201cW\u201d in W. Axl Rose stands for. \u00a0It stands for winded. \u00a0He looked better than he has in years but the more he moved, the more winded he sounded which made that already screechy voice of his even more so.<\/p>\n

As the night progressed, I found myself starting to drift off and began searching for a reason to leave early. \u00a0Like a sign from a higher power, some jackass above me spills his beer down my back. \u00a0I asked for a sign and was given one. \u00a0Since the band plays an identical setlist every night, I looked to see what I\u2019d be missing and nothing seemed to say, \u201cDon, you\u2019re gonna miss something amazing if you leave!\u201d \u00a0I made my exodus out of The Tabernacle at 1:45 am as DJ Ashba delivered the 4th indulgent solo of the evening.<\/p>\n

Axl Rose was and still is a delusional egomaniac who really thinks that his shit doesn\u2019t stink. \u00a0The amount of disrespect he has for his fans is staggering. \u00a0To leave people sitting in their seats for almost two hours until he was \u201cready\u201d to take the stage is uncalled for and to make them think that they deserve it is even more unforgivable. \u00a0It\u2019s obvious that the fans are speaking in volumes of their distaste for Axl Rose and his crap. \u00a0What was once one of the biggest selling arena and stadium bands has now been reduced to playing small scale venues and not even coming close to selling them out. \u00a0Instead of seeing that this is what is really happening they managed to move forward calling it a \u201cscaled back and intimate\u201d tour. \u00a0Denial is a powerful drug and Axl Rose seems to be mainlining it on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Guns N\u2019 Roses is not going to give you the show you want to see and it sure as hell isn\u2019t worth the over-inflated ticket prices. \u00a0Save your money. \u00a0If you really want to be nostalgic and live out the days of old, go see some other Guns N\u2019 Roses tribute band. \u00a0You\u2019ll pay 1\/4 of the ticket price and at least you\u2019ll get a good, energetic performance. \u00a0At this point, even free is too high a price to see Guns N\u2019 Roses these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guns N’ Roses March 1, 2012 Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle Back in 1987, Guns N\u2019 Roses pretty much changed the face of glam rock\/metal with their debut album Appetite For Destruction. \u00a0While bands like Poison and Warrant were singing their bubblegum hard rock about partying and getting laid, Guns N\u2019 Roses took us to the seedy underbelly of Hollywood where the drugs were heavy, the fights were brutal, and the girls did things that would make Larry Flynt blush. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[749,750],"class_list":["post-9127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concert-reviews","tag-guns-n-roses","tag-guns-n-roses-atlanta-concert-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/793163.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}