Wasn't this one of the three venues Guns played as a warm up to the UYI tour, along with clubs in New York and LA?
gnrontour.com has all (or most) of gnr's concerts over the years. here's a review from that site....
- Harry Sumrall, Mercury News Music, 5.11.91
Guns N' Roses is an odd group.
The ultra-metal quintet, which rampaged the charts in 1988 with its multi-platinum album "Appetite for Destruction," is scheduled to release not one but two new records of studio material, "Use Your Illusion I" and " . . . II." Odd.
And while it is one of the biggest groups in the country, it hasn't actually played in this country in three years. Odd.
And what does it do before heading out on its upcoming tour but play an unadvertised show at the Warfield Theater on Thursday, in what lead vocalist Axl Rose referred to as a "live rehearsal"? Very odd.
But oddest of all was the way it played at this show. This wasn't a performance as much as a brawl, with Rose and his companions storming and ranting onstage. The bulk of the material was new, so new that Rose sang to a TelePrompTer most of the time. And when he wasn't reading the words, he and his mates were hopping about and making in-jokes and dropping cues and acting like a group that had just dropped in from a garage.
In other words, it was a fine show indeed. One of a kind. Real nasty.
Yes, they did play a familiar song or two, such as "It's So Easy," and "Welcome to the Jungle," which they pounded into a fine powder with their crunching metal chords and slamming rhythms. But most of the rest, such as "Bad Obsession," were straight off the assembly line but just as ornery as the group's warhorses.
Along the way, they did a wonderfully mangled version of Paul McCartney's masterpiece James Bond theme "Live and Let Die," with Rose screeching the words. And guitarist Slash broke off a solo to play "Happy Birthday" as Rose pulled the group's new manager onstage.
What?
Along with the new manager and songs, the group also trotted out a new drummer, Matt Sorum, who was goosed with a timpani stick by bassist Duff "Rose" McKagan during a drum solo.
The capacity crowd loved the whole mess.
This wasn't the sleek, slick show that the group is certain to perform on its upcoming tour -- which makes its way to Shoreline Amphitheater on July 19. This was Guns N' Roses having some fun.
On "Civil War," Slash opened with a spare set of guitar phrases that were sloppy but thoroughly mesmerizing. His solo was ragged and raw but infused with intensity. Rose and the rest then slammed into the song with the same fervor. At the end of its nearly two-hour performance, Slash made a few remarks to the crowd in his usual manner, which is to say that every other word was a copulative adjective. "It's (bleep) great to be in (bleep) San Francisco . . . ," he said. And as he launched into the set's last song, he noted, "You'll know this one when you recognize it."
Right.
With that, he and the group slogged into a tremendous rendition of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." It had all the subtlety of a sledge, with Slash and guitarist Izzy Stradlin' strumming the song's elegiac chords with a jittery grandeur and Rose yelling the words. Guns N' Roses performed it the way all good rockers should: flat out, no holds barred, give a (bleep), and take no prisoners.
What? That was this show in a coconut shell. It shouldn't have added up, but it did. It shouldn't have been good, but it was. If the tour is as good as this rehearsal, everyone should be happy.
Guns N' Roses appears Friday, July 19, at 8 p.m. at Shoreline Amphitheater. Tickets, at $22.50 and $25, go on sale today at 10 a.m.
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