Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Can you believe it's been 10 years (Dec 31/Jan 1) since Axl's "comeback" show at the House o' Blues in Las Vegas!!
I think I'll be playing that show on my IPOD on New Years Day..
Highlights were o' course the new  N' well recieved songs that were played.. But the "Welcome Back" chant N' Axl's genuine shock N' appreciation towards the crowd was also a great moment....

Time flies by!
More time for future rocking!!!


Joe

That was one of the best GNR shows ever. I can't even describe how excited I was when I first listened the new songs in that bootleg by the Jan 1st already.

Same here, when I finally got Rio on VHS I was sitting in the chair crying as I watched it. I couldn't believe I was finally seeing Axl on stage again. I made it out too The Joint shows the fallowing year. And was blown away. I can't believe that every show sense has just gotten better and better.

VERY hard to believe that it's been 10 years...

That said time is relative in the world of GN'R- so I suppose it's not surprising to me that it seems more like 5 years ago or so...: ok:

Anyway- great great shows. Raw but with some absolutely fantastic energy. Always felt it was very unfortunate for the band that Buckethead got sick and they had to cancel the European tour they had scheduled for that Summer...

This is awesome!  : ok: Here's to the next 10 years of the Chinese Democracy tour  :beer:

I passed on the chance to see them in '01 or '02? but was all over tickets for the '06-'07 run. Caught two amazing shows, and judging from footage online, they appear to be sounding even better live of late. Hoping for a chance to catch another show soon.

Time sure does fly by fast, seems like yesterday Axl was screaming the intro on Jungle, throwing that guy out on Easy (always a fun memory  :hihi: ), the memorable version of KOHD, the first video footage of a song called "Chinese Democracy", the "ok, nevermind" part in Street of Dreams (known as "The Blues" at that time), and of course the speech at the end (the first time I saw it I almost cried). I could go on and on for hours about the show, it was that great and historic for GN'R. And who can forget those 200,000+ people who were there? Probably the best crowd on a GN'R show ever. Who knows will it ever happen again, but one thing's for sure - it would be great if they visited Rio in 2011 to do a 10 year anniversary show.  :)

Wow, can't believe it's been that long.  :o

Must have been an amazing time to be a fan, and I am jealous like hell over the people who witnessed that first ever show at the house of blues. I can't get enough of the RIR 3 performance, something special indeed, that can never be replicated. The band, the crowd, the venue everything was perfect that night.

So here's to Axl and Guns N' Roses for the 10 year anniversary of the Chinese Democracy era, and since the first live show in the millenium for GN'R.

 :beer:

very hard to believe
(http://www.mypictureshare.com/img/g/P.gif)

A special release (HOB dvd) would be pretty sweet for 10 years of the great return!

Dont you love to stir shit up?

I wish this was released.  I was there, front row.  One, if not the best moments of my G N' R life.  To be able to experience that show again would be real special.  It's too bad for whatever reasons it is not available.  Even if we got one song from that show released through the band's Facebook, or put up on youtube would be a real treat.

Wow, I didn't realise. Now I remember that the show I bought tickets for got cancelled in 2000.

Since then it's been so great :peace:

I wish I was at that gig, I listen to the bootleg so much!

(http://www.gnrontour.com/sets2001/20010101photo01.jpg)

Rock in Rio is my favorite.

Damn right Gezzy, I would give anything to have been there. Just listening to the intro gives me goosebumps like nothing else.

I would love nothing more than to see this released as a DVD sometime in the future. It might never happen, but it would be a big shame if it doesn't. Any GN'R fan past and present are lying if they deny they would be intrigued like hell to see this show, this is the holy grail in terms of GN'R DVD's.

I just hope it exists, it's gotta have been recorded, although I have not heard anyone from the GN'R camp state that it had, but I may be wrong.

Here's to hoping.

 :beer:

Turns out it was filmed and professionally recorded, and planned to be released on DVD when the mark 1 version of Chinese Democracy was originally supposed to be released in June 2001.

(http://www.gnrontour.com/sets2001/20010101photo09.jpg)

But as we all know, Roy Thomas Baker got hold of the helm later on that year and insisted all 70 or so songs they had, were to be all re-recorded. They moved studios, it took RTB weeks to find the perfect Marshall head for a guitar part etc.

Didn't Axl answer a question about this so called DVD, during one of the online chats?. I'm sure he did, I'm going to try to find the exact quote, but I'm sure he did.



That's the one, so we can't tell much by this really. Axl just stated that there were no plans to release any DVD, and didn't make his answer specific to the subject mentioned in the question.

Well fuck that would have made a kick ass good DVD...


Joe

RIR 3  Best show of my life   something special  !! :yes:

01-01-01 was the first gnr show i ever got to go to.  i'll never forget it.  i had no idea what to expect.. will they play old songs? will they play new songs? will they even show up??  the opening cords to wtj at about 3 am was one the greatest concert moments of my life.  the show was unreal.  i still hope the dvd will surface someday

i remember it like it was yesterday. waiting in line all day & night long. watching the line grow, everyone chanting. watching the people going in to see the goo goo dolls. (they picked the wrong show). almost getting kicked out of the line for someone giving me $600 bucks to cut in line. (fuck who ever told on me!) finally running in getting front stage on the baracade, & then waiting, & waiting. when axl walked out it was unreal. i've seen them plenty of times before, but this was different! it was special & everyone knew it. getting a chocolate rose from buckethead was awesome.(i still have it). it was pure happines. a pure warmness of the soul. i honestly cried tears of joy during & after the show. i spoke to rick rubin after the show, he said "i simply could'nt believe what i witnessed, that was magic!" & thats what it was, "magic", so from the bottom of my heart, thank you, axl & co.

That's so nice to hear, I can't even begin to imagine how cool that night was, and I have seen GN'R in Vegas in 2006 twice. But the 01/01/01 show was the show of all shows. You sir, witnessed something very special, and I'm happy because you know it and appreciate it too.  : ok:

Buckethead was sick in Summer 2001? I heard that the bands then manager signed contracts without Axl's final sayso and the tour was cancelled due to the manager agreeing and committing to a tour the band had not confirmed.

I was at the show as well..I don't recall having to wait on line all day..I got there an hour or 2 early N' was able to get a good standing spot..

the reason the line wasn't too long wasa because it was a clb, not areana show..I was able to get on line before it wrapped around the corner o' the Mandala Bay Casino!
Great show!! Still think abot the excitement often!!

Unbelievable that it?s been 10 years! I just remembered hearing Chinese for the first time because of Vegas, then Rock in Rio III (I watched the gig at the front raw n? met all the band but Brain n? was at the pool when Axl talked to the fans!) n? at the end of 2001, the LA Weekly ad!! Long time, well worth all the wait! Chinese Democracy ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANKS GUNS N? ROSES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!  : ok:

So it's now time to officialy

Do a Chinese democracy 10 year anniversary gig! and reunite the old band!

Axl
Chris
Tommy
Dizzy
Paul
Robin
Brain/Josh
Buckethead

and play some great tunes!

I love the current band but I miss Bucket a lot. Maybe someday in the future he'll be a part of the band again. Axl said (back in 98 at the chats) that he doesn't have anything against Bucket n' that they could even work together.
I miss Robin n' Brain too. Paul was a complete surprise to me - first it was so cool to finally see how he looked like. Back in the hotel he was way too nice to the fans!!
It's great to know that are new songs with all this incredible people!

BUCKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish we could see at least once live Robin playing This I Love n' Bucket playing songs such as TWAT n' Shackler's.

One thing that I still dream of is hearing more songs from the '99 Appetite (Axl-Robin-Paul-Tommy-Josh-Dizzy-Chris). The end of Big Daddy's Sweet Child kicks major fuckin' ass!!!! One of those days I heard a GH from the LA Guns called Black Beauties or something n' there are some rerecordings of their own songs. I was imagining something like, in 10 years from now, Guns releases their first GH (at least the first one that Axl would want to if he ever want it) but all the old songs rerecorded! Well, time to wake n' go back to work!! lol!

Couldn't have said it better brother.  : ok:

Having Robin and Bucket in the same band was something very special indeed. And people don't realise it until it's gone, same story as usual.

But one thing I'm still clinging to, is that maybe one day Robin will special guest at a GN'R show and maybe play This I Live or even Better.

Robin was a true gem, and I too want to hear more Robin, Bucket, Paul, Brain type of material, from the next album.

that would be like a karaoke band putting out a greatest hits album. they are hits for a reason, and the new members aren't it, so to me that would be pissing on the gnr legacy. I think it makes more sense to hope that the new songs are one day on a greatest hits album, which I can definitely see happening.

It's just a way to see it. I don't see it as "pissing on the legacy". Could be just something new - it wouldn't kill the old, n' the fans would have something else to hear too. Nobody's against the old material but could be interesting. I pretty much doubt that you wouldn't get a copy for you!  ;)
Karaoke makes no sense, sorry!  :no: When I hear the old songs at the live gigs (since 2001) I think it sounds much better - it's my personal opinion n' we don't need to start a discussion about who's best n' blablabla. What I'm saying is that they don't sound as copycats. Never. Some solos are kinda untouchables but what was added since 2001, at least in my opinion, deserved a studio version. Things like Bucket's Nightrain solo for instance.  : ok:

Yeah Robin is very unique. At least we have Better live with him back at the 96/97 tour!

Sure, I see what you are saying. Guilty as charged, I'd probably buy a copy! I think it would be safer to make it more like a live album, but I've always thought it would be great to have a studio quality record of the songs with all the intros, noodling, improvs in between songs.

Am I missing something  ??? Surely you mean 2006 - 2007  :yes:

I know we will get a little far from the topic, but what about Mr. Brownstone's backing vocals in Live Era? Ever time I show that to someone, they think it's Robin. It really sounds like him. I've heard so many rumors about some of the stuff from Live Era being in fact parts of the re-recorded Appetite (well we know that some parts were really re-recorded but this doesn't necessarily means it's from the "new" Appetite).
Live Era just reminded me of when Oh My God was released!! I think I heard that song on repeat from weeks!! Poor neighbours! Well at least at the first few times maybe they were happy about not hearing the old ones for once in a lifetime!! lol! I hope someday we have a live CD from the Chinese Democracy World Tour - the band is so amazing, it deserves to be officially registered on cd. ;)

Typed wrong!!! SORRY!! '06 n' 07 !!!

96/97 - DARK YEARS!!!!! Glad it's gone!!!!  :beer:

Ahhhh the HOB show!  what amazing memories.. I wrote a super long review which probably has a bit of hyperbole in it looking back, but I was so excited and happy seeing them.  It was my first show and the anticipation and not knowing what to expect was insane!!!  I also was going crazy when the tickets went on sale knowing I HAD to get them!
I remember waiting in line for around 8 hours.. didn?t know they would go on past 3 am!!  I went with my cousin and listened to all the albums on the drive to vegas and it was surreal.  I remember playing pool the day before with my cousin and meeting up with several people from the GNR Dust n? Bones list and sharing a room with some of them (including a dude from Germany!).  We discussed what we thought would happen the night before, before going to sleep.  Electricity was in the air.  I don?t even really remember the countdown too much since we were waiting in a long line.  I remember a girl asking me if I wanted to sell my ticket.. hell no of course, she didn?t realize how many years I had waited for that moment!!!
The storm surge in the crowd when Jungle started was pretty heavy and almost disarming!!!   I remember while waiting, some of us were yelling at a dude who brought in a camera because we were afraid that something bad might happen!
I still recall how much I loved the Blues that night even though some of the songs were kind of hard to recall after hearing them for the first time.  November Rain was so awesome live!  The setlist in my review is wrong, at the time we thought one of the songs was - it was difficult to pick out the lyrics.  The stage set up was unlike any before or since then.. I really liked what they did with all the effects and the TVs on stage, and the animated video intro which was such a trip!  It was so strange to see Pitman up there since we had no idea he was in the band and also to see Paul for the first time.  Buckethead blew me away!!  I was pretty happy to hear that he ended up still being on the album after he left Guns.

This was definitely one of the best shows of all time for me!!!!  Also, afterward my legs hurt more than they ever have before and we ended up staying up for 24 hours by that point.  I think eating at a crappy diner/casino and collapsing followed the show.  Who knew at that time how long the album would take to come out and what would happen with the lineup changes, drama, etc.. it?s been a hell of a ride!  Hoping for a kickass 2011!!!

If anyone is interested here is a link to my long review I wrote after the show in 01 in PDF format:
http://qfg2.info/misc/gnrhob010101.pdf

Just read your review, it was great. Thanks for sharing it! :)

Nice review!

My Top 10 memories from Rock in Rio III:

-   The sick intro followed by Jungle ? Robin?s riffs at the beginning n? Axl?s incredible scream just put 200.000 people literally on their knees!
-   Oh My God, Chinese Democracy n? Think About You ? the first 2 ones were so insane live n? hearing Think About You was something we wouldn?t even dare to dream inside our dreams in the past (I knew it was played in Vegas but when it started there?GOD!).
-   Hearing Madagascar for the first time was a religious experience to me. It was very special, intense ? well, that gig still is ? for me, for thousands of fans n? probably to Axl too, the most emotional gig so far.
-   Meeting Axl n? have the knowledge of how cool n? special he is!
-   Bucket?s electric eyes turned on at the end of November Rain (insane!)
-   See how much love n? respect the crowd still have for Axl ? when he started to talk about the old band n? etc I was afraid that people would start getting pissed off because 1) The show started almost at 2am so people were dying there! lol 2) He was clearly against the former members.
But more than 200.000 listened n? waited patiently n? enjoyed what they heard. Also, putting all this amazing crowd together after 7 years of silence, no singles, no videos, no album, just 1 original member?that showed to the whole world the power Guns N? Roses still have!
-   Meeting all the new members (but Brain) n? Dizzy ? Bucket was a little bit anti-social n? he was going to pass through us without saying a word but then he saw my Buckethead CDs n? came back. He was SO COOL!!!!!!!
-   Being able to meet people like Beta, Del, Robert John, Marc Canter (I didn?t knew Marc Canter back then n? Robert introduced me to him!) n? even Earl  ? all those people were inside our worlds for so long n? it was so cool do meet them all!
-   Being awake from  the 11th till the end of 15th almost without sleeping. My friend n? I would have like 10 to 20 minutes of sleeping each while sitting at some couch of the hotel ? one would rest a little while the other one was awake waiting for the band!? that was out of this world! I went there driving with a friend from Sao Paulo to Rio (+ - 5 hours) n? then came back at the 15th because I needed to work at the 16th!!! Still trying to figure out how I made it!
-   Being able to thank Axl in person for all the good things he brought to my life through lyrics n? interviews ? I gave him the 92 Rolling Stone magazine to be signed n? he started looking at the magazine ? he said there was a long time since he didn?t see it n? was amazed by how new it was lol!

That was my particular beginning of the CHINESE DEMOCRACY ERA! !!! And it's not over yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're welcome, glad you guys enjoyed it!!

btw i also now recall meeting Del before the HOB show and he commented on my old GNR Coma tshirt, and also said that we were in for a hell of a show (little did we know how crazy it would be!!)
Also met Robert John for a little bit.. they both were cool.