Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Axl Rose's catharsis was evident - and energizing
By Candy Palmater
The Daily News

On a Sunday night in February 1987, I was sitting at a corner table of the Social Club on the campus of the
University of New Brunswick. I was talking with a guy named Greg whom I had just met, who incidentally
died in a car crash the next weekend. During the two hours that I knew Greg, we talked about music. The
club we were in was playing Soft Cell and The Cure. It was the year that U2's Joshua Tree exploded the
band into the mainstream.

After our second pitcher of draft, and his realization that we had the same taste in music, Greg pulled a
cassette out of his pocket and told me I absolutely had to buy it. That cassette was called Appetite For
Destruction by a band I had never heard of called Guns 'N Roses.

The next day I headed out to A&A Records and bought the cassette. For the next two days I skipped classes
and listened to that album over and over again. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. Ten months
later, Appetite for Destruction changed the face of popular music. The rest is history.

On Monday night, Guns 'N Roses performed at the Halifax Metro Centre. Many of my contemporaries scoffed
at the idea of going to the show, since Axl is all that is left of the band. However Axl Rose was the voice
behind the greatest rock 'n' roll album of my generation. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see him.

When the first notes of Welcome to the Jungle started to play, you could feel the adrenalin rush through the
venue. We rose to our feet in a surreal haze, as though 9,000 people had forgotten for a moment that it
wasn't Slash playing those notes. As though collectively, just before the lights washed the stage, we all
wanted to believe it was Slash.

The whole night was a roller coaster of emotion. Rose's braided weave and thicker mid-section had me
feeling sorry for him, as though the best years of his life had passed him by.

As the evening went on, my perspective started to change. We were seeing a far happier and more relaxed
Axl Rose than the troubled young man who struggled with addiction and anger control problems during the
late '80s.

At 25, I was spending my rent money at The Misty Moon five nights a week and wasting my time with bad
men. Lucky for me, none of those mistakes were aired to the world. It must have been difficult to work
through the mistakes of youth while hitting the peak of commercial success, as Rose did.

Most fans dream of the day when we will see Axl and Slash side by side on stage again; I am no exception.
However, by the end of the show this week, I was feeling euphoric. Rose looked healthy and happy. He
brought us the songs of our youth with his trademark whine. His hips are a bit wider, but they still have that
serpentine slither that became his trademark in the late '80s.

Judging by the reaction of my fellow concertgoers, many like me, forgot about who was not on the stage and
lost themselves in the grandeur of this powerhouse of rock 'n' roll, whom many of us thought was lost
forever.

Rose showed us many things that night. He showed us that a person can rise again, no matter how far they
may have fallen. He showed us that, as we age, the energy of who we are can flow beyond the limitations of
our physical image.He showed us peace of mind sometimes comes, not in the time of our greatest public
success, but in the time of our greatest personal success.

As the show ended I felt more introspective than I ever have at a rock concert. I wonder if this is the feeling
the Baby Boomers feel when they see the Rolling Stones.

Axl Rose's performance touched me deeply. What he demonstrated for me is the inevitability of change. We
will all age, and that's not so bad. We will all experience hard times, but they too shall pass. In the end it can
all be summed up with Rose's "Nothing lasts forever ... even cold November rain."

why do people continue to say he has a "bigger mid section"

personally i have never seen the guy look better...

He hasn't looked the same since Rock In Rio 2001.

what about las vegas? new years eve 2001, he had abs. He most likely still had them through 2002, but covered b the big jerseys

they could say worse. lets just be happy the rewiews are for the most part very positive

Axl used to be a scruny little fuck. He seems to have a lot more muscle and meat on him these days.

wanted to believe it was Slash.

if I ever will see the band I dont think I will feel like that

Las Vegas 2001... definitely.
something bad happened in the jan2002-oct.2002 period :(
d

Big Macs.

Good read.. thanks.

That's a nice review.  And I love the expectation that rock stars somehow shouldn't age.  Compare Axl to many of his peers of that time (Jani Lane, anyone?) and you'll realize he's doing great. 

More of an editorial than a review, I think, but nice to read nonetheless.  I can relate to much of what was written...

Thanks for posting that article, I believe it to be one of the better written I have read, very well worded, and a great share. 8) ?I tend to think that what people may be thinking in regards to Axl's body image may be that back in the Appetite Era he was not as filled out probably due to the fact of the style of living at that time, it wasn't exactly as if they were eating 3 balanced homecooked meals a day, I believe we have all read where they were living off of $3.50 a day, and that it was enough for bisquits and gravy at Denneys and then a bottle of cheap wine, (Nightrain), and a pack of smokes. ?The time scale was more about music and partying, not so much about food and health, and with that Axl did not have such a filled out body image that we were seeing in the Illusions time, which by then allowed their lifestyle to eat and eat well, and I believe at that time Axl was indulging in the drug scene less often, and also to include the fact that when you tour for 28 months, and you are moving as much as he was, his body certainly displayed a very tone image, in which we all became accustomed to seeing, and for the female gender we grew to love about him. ?Over the next cycle (the years of seclusion) what I forsaw was a man growing older in years and no longer living that style which provided the look we all expected to see. ?My visions of Axl today are slightly different ?than in the 80'and 90's, but certainly not in a negative way, I still think he is the sexiest rockstar of my generation, and that his time away from the world has given him a definate sence of peace with himself.

ok, i understand that the rest of the world isn't really following the newer members of the band the way we are, but sometimes i wonder if things will get better for the rest of these guys once CD comes out.  yes, the focal point of the article was axl and coming into his own while getting older, not the band so much as a whole.  but the only acknowledgement this writer made to the band was the "we all wish slash were up there with him" comment.  i can't help but feel that this is a sign of the reactions to follow once CD hits shelves.

? Wow! What an awesome,AWESOME read!!! True,it wasn't a full-on review but,it was very enthralling and quite deep in some parts.
 It's amazing how the people you meet,even only for a little bit - like that guy,Greg (which is a shame what happened to him)-can have an everlasting effect on you.
 Below are my 2 favorite parts:

[ "Rose showed us many things that night. He showed us that a person can rise again, no matter how far they
may have fallen. He showed us that, as we age, the energy of who we are can flow beyond the limitations of
our physical image.He showed us peace of mind sometimes comes, not in the time of our greatest public
success, but in the time of our greatest personal success." ]

[ "Axl Rose's performance touched me deeply. What he demonstrated for me is the inevitability of change. We
will all age, and that's not so bad. We will all experience hard times, but they too shall pass. In the end it can
all be summed up with Rose's "Nothing lasts forever ... even cold November rain."]


? This should be picked up by the mainstream media and spread across the world. She acknowledges that Axl isn't exactly the same and that that is okay too.? Good job to Candy! Thank you!? : ok:
? ? ? ? ? ?MATT

Yes,it?s an awesome article.It?s great to see postive articles. :)

This was a really nice and balanced read.  It really brings home memories for some of us older fans like myself.  Axl really does seem happier now, more at peace with himself and the situation at hand yet he still does things sometimes that some people may view as a little outrageous.  The fact that he continues to play every night even though some of the crowds may be smaller is bittersweet for me in a way because of course I want to see them playing to packed houses every night like the past but I also appreciate that they are giving their all to the people that do show up now.

Change is OK and inevitable, that is a really important point. :peace:

This woman wrote with love and a bit of nostalgia but the article is awesome :love:

wow,i really liked that..
the parts that Matt posted were my favorite parts too :)

Could it be because Axl used to be really skinny..

At first I thought it was written by a gay male fan.

there are alot of people who said they went to the show expecting the worst and came out fuckin floored by axl. ive heard that so many times its not even funny. i went to a friends friday and they asked me how it was and they both said they have only heard good things.

There arent many people who say bad things going in and bad things going out. all the people who make fun of GNR should go to a show.