Here Today... Gone To Hell!

http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid25521.aspx?

In ?87, G N? R were just another hair-metal band opening ? yes opening ? for the Cult. So when they hit the Paradise in October of ?87 it was, as Mark Kates, an ex-Geffen A&R scout, remembers, odd to see all the Boston rock hipsters in the audience. ?I started at Geffen like a week after Appetite for Destruction came out, and it really was a whole year before that album became really big. Now, I don?t know what other people will tell you, but heavy metal really wasn?t big here at that point. So it was strange to see all these rock-scene dudes at a Guns N? Roses show. And it was sold out. Everyone I knew from the Boston rock scene had to be there. I just remember thinking that if Guns could do that well in Boston, then they were going to be huge. They were just really good, and really rocking, and so unrelenting, and you could feel that something special was happening.?

I remember Metal being pretty big in 87 here.... This is also an alternative biased magazine so somwe of teh shows were probably ranked higher than they should have been.. Pretty cool read either way.

26th? There's no way GN'R was that bad...

Nirvana is listed ahead of them multiple times, Green Day is in the top ten, and Springsteen is near the top of the list. 


Very fair, indeed.

I didn't even read it, lol. I should've known. Even Nirvana doesn't deserve to be associated with Green Day.

Green Day: The Rock Band That Sells Out Wherever The Radio Blows

You have to have lived in Boston to really appreciate this list, and Boston's music scene in general. Especially back in the day. I was unfortunately too young to really catch a lot of the classic shows but places like the Rat and the Channel had some of the most legendary shows, many bands before they really broke big. My friend Justin, who is a bit older than me told me once about going to the Channel to see Jane's Addiction. Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam...all the way back to Black Flag, the Clash...they all put on some legendary shows here in Boston and if you were to ask them they would all tell you how awesome Boston is to play. GnR at the Paradise might be a bit low on the list but they are there...over Jane's at the Channel I might add. You see, Boston was and is definitely a more hipster town and the fact that an 80's Sunset Strip metal band rates so high in the company of bands like the Smith's, Black Flag, Nirvana, etc. tells you something. They rocked that place so hard even the hip Boston crowd took notice.

And like Nirvana or not, but Nirvana playing Axis the day before Nevermind was released deserved to chart high on historic value alone. A lot of you Axl ass kissers like to hate on Nirvana but Nevermind was huge, and changed the direction of music at that time in a way few bands do. Of course they put bands like GnR out of business for awhile which I guess automatically makes them suck right?

Also, a lot of really great bands came out of Boston. It was nothing to go to the Rat and see The Mighty Mighty Bosstones for like $5, they were kids back then. SSDectontrol came from Boston....there was once a time where you could see the Dropkick Murphy's for nothing around Boston. And don't forget that the great Aerosmith (yes kiddies, they once rocked....hard), J Geils, the Cars, the Pixies....all Boston bands.

Sorry...I got a little teary for my hometown. Boston fucking rules.

I am from Boston.  Who cares.  And Nirvana blows.  They didn't change the rock scene.  They killed it.  Thanks Kurt.  No more rock stars.  Just Nickel back. 

Please. Nevermind was a great album. Nickelback would have happened in one form or another.

Not that GnR ever inspired a boatload of shitty never-had-been's right?

I wish they had inspired more mainstream rock acts

Appetite For Destruction was bigger. So you can keep your Nevermind stats.

Nevermind changed the landscape of music in 1991-92. AFD did this also in 1987-88.

GN'R were still just as popular as Nirvana. This whole 'put them out of business', is an illusion cooked up by the media after the fact. Same thing as the word 'hair metal'. At the time, it was called 'rock/metal'. Even in 1993, Nirvana, GN'R & Metallica were still the biggest acts in the game.

It's not about anyone kissing anyone's ass. Nirvana was good, I liked them. But they weren't great. They were overrated then, and they are overrated now. Now Alice In Chains... that was a fuckin' act!


Exactly. What was a reprieve for music for the most part at the time, ended up becoming a curse later on. The rocket took off so fast, that record companies within only two years were manufacturing Nirvana cover bands in a sense, who were playing godawful music, that was all wrong, for years to come. Grunge became a mainsteam rock sound, which it should've never been. It should've stayed in it's little niche music category. All Grunge did was repeat the cycle 'hair' metal did 10 years earlier. But those fuckin', "look at me, my life sucks so much, my parents say they love me, but won't buy me a car, i'm gonna eat a shotgun sandwich like Kurt did, and that'll show them" were so stupid, they couldn't even see it.

I'd much rather hear Poison singing about having nothin' but a good time, getting drunk & laid, anyday of the week.


Nickelback would've happened in one form or the other, I guess you're right. Either way they still suck.

As for GN'R, i'm sure they inspired some bands, but their inspired bands didn't destroy rock.


Me too. If more bands would've followed the mold, especially left by the Illusion albums, about being experimental, but staying traditional at the same time, rock might of survived the rap wave.

I wouldn't say 26th of all time is "bad"...... 

was boston on the list?

Yeah, but i'm thinking "all-time" for only one major city? There were 25 other acts better than GN'R?

Gn'r should be in top10, dare i say top5.
There are bands that i don't even know placed better than guns!  :confused:

just beacuse you haven't heard of a band doesn't mean that they can't put on a great rock show and this was best concerts,,

i bet you that you know nothing about the 25 concerts who beat gn'r so you can't judge them

omg, dude, i thought i decided those 40 greatest rockconcert. i'm not judging them, but gn'r is a great showband? :confused:
the clash, u2,? green day, all good bands, but i would still think that guns would beat them. sorry again, but thats just MY opinion.

Anything that ranks Green Day higher than Guns, has no fuckin' idea what they're talking about.

I agree on the Alice in Chains comment.  They were the best from that mold.  Hands down.  I think the Nirvana mystification has worn off anyway.  Thank God.  I feel GNR gets more props now that people realize that Axl is not a fruad.  He is really fucked up. 

that i can agree with, but it's very naive to think that just because YOU like a band doesn't mean that everybody thought that was the best show ever, and just because you have never heard of another band doesn't mean that it can't be a great show, like top5 of all concerts ever in a big city just because you like the band,

99% of anyone who's seen a Guns show, who's a regular concert attender, no matter what era they saw, some both, say hands down it was the best musical performance they've been too.

I see what you're saying Ralph. I can see people with things like Springsteen, but Green Day? Come the fuck on....

I remember hearing about that show and wanting to go. I think it was on October 27, 1987, and I had just bought 'Appetite' on October 10th. I think I checked into buying tickets, but it was sold out. I had to wait until August 24, 1988, to see GN'R for the first time, as they opened for Aerosmith on a drizzly night at Great Woods (now the Tweeter Center) in Mansfield, MA. At the time I saw them, 'Appetite' was number one on the album chart, and "Sweet Child O' Mine " was # 9 on the singles chart (it hit number one three weeks later).

Yes believe it or not, not everyone on the planet has their heads firmly up GnR's ass. It's ok to like other bands more than you like GnR.

And thank you to everyone who completely missed the point I was making in the first fucking place, which was that for the most part Boston is predominantly a hipster/alternative type crowd. Yes, there is a strong metal and hardcore crowd too but the overall Boston scene is and was definitely more alternative oriented, and keeping that in mind it shows you how impressive GnR's placing in that article is, especially considering all of the other types of bands on it.

Seriously you people need help, it's just a band.

You have your head firmly planted in the ground if you think Green Day puts on a better show than GN'R.

Good god man. If GN'R is that mediocre, why are you posting here?

When GN'R first came out in 1987, they were 'alternative'.

I totally DISAGREE.

If GN'R was 'alternative', it was only that their sound was different than that of all the soft hair metal bands of the era. It was Rolling Stones/ Sex Pistols/ Aerosmith with a harder edge. R.E.M. was alternative, INXS was alternative, but Guns N' Roses was clearly not alternative.

Furthermore, I think Green Day is a good band, even if their music is two-dimensional. A Green Day/ Guns N' Roses double bill would be quite a hot ticket, not that it would ever happen, though.

Well a Green Day/Guns N' Roses double bill is certaintly one show I wouldn't pay a ticket to see. I would want to just forget altogether it ever happened.

By the way, there was nothing out there like 'Welcome To The Jungle', and no one would play it. That's equals alternative.

INXS was pop. R.E.M. was alternative, but a different kind.

Alternative used to be music that had a cult audience, that didn't necessarily appeal to a mainstream crowd. It didn't become it's own sound, until the market made the 'grunge' sound, 'alternative'.