Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Spinner.com has them listed as #6 as best Benefit Performance.

Who: Guns N' Roses
What: 'Civil War'
Where: Farm Aid IV (Indianapolis)
When: April 7, 1990

A full year before dropping their 'Use Your Illusion' double-disc opus, Axl and crew used the Farm Aid stage to debut this surprisingly poignant protest song. The gig also marked the last time the original G N' R lineup would ever share the same stage.

http://www.spinner.com/2007/07/04/best-benefit-performances-no-6/

this was the best gnr benefit performance. they were underground for a few years then all of a sudden show up at farm aid! freakin' genius! they debuted "civil war," which was great and then belted out "down on the farm" in front of all those farmers!!! talk about ballz! also, axl didnt tell the guys they were gonna play DOTF until they finished "civil war." steven didnt know how to play it and asked duff what to do and duff just motioned to him to bang on the drums! true story.....

I'd heard about Steven not knowing the song and I've always wondered why the band (or at least, Steven) didn't know they were going to play it. I would have thought that making sure the rest of the band knew how to play it would be important....

That was an awesome performance of both songs.  So raw.  If steven never knew that song, he did a hell of a job winging it!

At the end of the preformance axl swears... You can hear a guy in the backround moand like he was sayin, i cant believe he just did that  ;D

I personally thought GNR's peformance at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert was the best of all time.  That version of Knocking On Heaven's Door was totally kick ass! 

Bruce Springsteen for 9/11 benefit at number 1. Bias? naaaah
fucking yankee patriots ::)

I'd actually never seen that performance before.  Good stuff!  And Steven did quite a fine job on DOTF, if he indeed had never played the song before.

civil war is great song on album and on use your illusion tour it sound fantastic,bur on farmaid it sucked

it was raw as hell at farm aid and it was special....

i agree, best benefit concert for sure

I remember that show the night it happened.  After they finished DOTF, Axl said:  "Thank you, have a great FUCKIN' night!" and slammed the mic down.

You could hear the commentators go "Ohhhhhhhhhhh" right before they cut to the TNN logo and went off the air for a minute.  Totally unexpected and funny as hell.

That was a pretty good performance, thanks for posting!!

It's amazing Adler could play anything at that performance, he was apparently still "Dancing with Mr Brownstone" in a big way and you see him almost break his f*cken neck when he tripped on the drum riser as he came on stage clowning around. (the video clip in the link starts after has has already tripped over, but there is footage that starts a bit earlier than this when Adler first walks onstage)

I may be wrong, but I was of the understanding that Farm Aid was the last live gig that Adler ever performend with GN'R?

yes indeed, that was Adler's last show.

Even though it was the first performance of the song, I really don't like the actual performance all that much. You can tell Adler is BOMBED and he pretty much throws the whole thing off.

i hear you. but, it was so great to see them after the long layoff and hear a new song live. steven was wasted. go look at the video of the performance. as he walks on-stage, he trips and falls as he gets up to the drum riser!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoVDyUmLItw