Here Today... Gone To Hell!

New York Post, Monday, May 15, 2006

KICK IN THE AXL
Guns N' Roses are still hard-rocking
By DAN AQUILANTE

May 15, 2006 -- GUNS N' ROSES

THE question of whether Axl Rose has finally satisfied his legendary appetite for self-destruction was on the minds of Tim, Jamie and Jim Bob - three longtime Guns N' Roses fans - waiting on the block-long line to get into the band's Hammerstein Ballroom gig Friday.

"I just hope he shows up," Tim said after recalling how he got burned at Axl's no-show Philadelphia gig back in 2002.

Axl made it, and the guys weren't disappointed at the first of GN'R's four-night series that ends this week with concerts tonight and Wednesday.

He wore a pleather shirt, ripped blue jeans, and his hair was woven into mini-rasta braids. Rose has traded his flat-expressionless Botox-face for a mug that's 40-something handsome yet rugged.

And during the more than 20-song program, Rose was physically energetic and sang with newfound enthusiasm for the mostly old songs gleaned from the Guns' back catalog. Axl crooned the ballads smoothly and snarled his way through the metallic thrashers.

Still, his name and the word "perfection" don't often appear together.

True to form, Rose let the tension in the theater build to audience anger by opening the doors at 7:30 and taking the stage at 11 p.m. He made up for his intentional tardiness and smoothed the ruffled, sweaty feathers of the audience by wall- oping the house with a generous two- hour and 15-minute set.

There were a few sonic stumbles, but the worst came during the passionate GN'R classic "November Rain," where the seven piece back-up band totally overpowered the man because his mike was set too low and their instruments were amped too high.

And while it was good news that weird- ass Buckethead was booted as the Gunner guitar ace and replaced by fretman Ron Thal, a k a Bumblefoot, there wasn't a fan at the Hammer who didn't miss Slash's guitar flash.

Rumors that former Guns rhythm gui tarist Izzy Stradlin would do a guest turn at this show were unfounded. Rose did get a little help from Se bastian Bach, the former Skid Row frontman, who stepped out of the wings for a vocal duet on "My Michelle." Un fortunately, the two singers had zero chemistry.

The show came on strong with a terrific combination of "Welcome to the Jungle," "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brown stone." They did even better on the cover tunes, which in cluded Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" and Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door." But the night's biggest bang came during the encore when Rose ripped his way through "Paradise City" - you know, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. During the ex tended version of that song, Rose prowled the stage and belted the hook-laden rocker as if it were 1990 again.

The sold-out house was much less enthusiastic for newer ma terial from the Guns' "Chinese Democracy," which has been about to be released for the last decade. Of those songs, the record's title cut and "The Blues" were tops.

You might ask: Is Axl still significant in today's music?

Rock relevance is relative to who's doing the listening. While Axl's best songs were composed in his youth, the public is still interested in him as a performer. These four shows, with a total of 16,000 tickets, sold out in just three minutes. Axl may need a little grease, but he isn't broken yet.