The stage is still empty when all the phones are up. The festival site in Weert has been eyeing Guns N’ Roses, champions of the hard rock rebellion since 1985, for a half hour on Tuesday night, when a helicopter appears in the distance. Anyway, that was a good omen. Because in their heyday, the band wasn’t shy about making sold-out football stadiums wait hours, if only because their singing HRH Axl Rose didn’t feel like screaming empty-lungs yet.
At the time, he could get away with it because GNR – after years of no-nonsense blank hair metal and poser rock – had made definitive records that gave hard rock soul once again. But as grunge buried the genre, the band continued to struggle, and the announced album floundered endlessly Chinese democracyCountless feuds, legal trench battles, gang wars and lineup changes. However, in the last encounter (in 2015), hope emerged, especially when performing at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival two weeks ago. cheery I receive. It might be a lovely evening in Weert.
Dusseldorf
Spoiler: It didn’t happen.
And were we already in Weert? Not if it’s up to Axl Rose. „I remember being here in Dusseldorf”, he tries to please the audience. When he realizes his huge mistake after a burst of laughter, he confesses: “That was a little embarrassing. ”
This also applies in advance to moving the show from the Pinkpop site in Landgraaf (60,000,000 visitors) to the Bospop site (30,000), in Weert. „I don’t know where I amThe singer apologizes. „I am here just for you. “
The question is whether this is true. From the first song “It’s So Easy” doesn’t sound bad, but it’s bad. Oddly enough, screaming is better for him than just singing. To keep him out of the wind, guitarist (and Chris Zegers lookalike) Duff McKagan and keyboardist Melissa Reese support him on every line. But alas: the healthy man is ruthless and only pumps a hoarse voice above the rest of the music.
If this were a Guns N’ Roses cover band, everyone would be laughing at the singer. But this husky spring chicken is definitely Axl Rose.
dead horse
The rest of the band also has the spirit of a dead horse. Guitarist Slash (of course with mirrored glasses and a tall gravedigger hat) darts through his solos and is even surpassed in ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ (another alternative) by clean-playing guitarist Richard Fortus. Meanwhile (another bloodless alternative) drummer Frank Ferrer beats his skins instead of beating them.
Often (Nighttrain, My Michelle) you get a glimpse of how it could have been, but the most hopeful thing about these three-hour torments is that Axl Rose can set the record straight these days. „I don’t know where I am‘, he apologizes again at the beginning of ‘Welcome to the Jungle.’But you know where you are. You are in the woods, my dear!“