“Welcome To The Jungle” “Mr. Brownstone” “The Garden” “Live And Let Die” “Attitude” “Nice Boys” “So Fine” “Double Talkin' Jive” “You Ain't The First” (for which they busted out an old, worn couch, which band members propped themselves on for the next five acoustic numbers) “You're Crazy” “Used To Love Her” “Patience” “Knockin' On Heaven's Door” “November Rain” “Mongoloid” “Dead Horse” “Guitar Solo” “Sweet Child O' Mine” “Don't Cry”

Growing up in suburban Connecticut rumors abounded in the East parking lot of my high school, where the ‘Easties’, or social misfits, hung out to smoke their cigarettes and contraband on the perimeter of the school’s property, just outside the jurisdiction of the school’s administration. I’m not making this up. I did not grow up in 1957 and I did not steal this from “The Breakfast Club”. That’s actually what the punks, rockers, motorheads, jokers, smokers and midnight tokers called themselves back then, and that’s how everybody knew them. There were two kids in particular, twin brothers actually, who were both skinny, pale, longhaired dead ringers for Axl Rose, and whom we cleverly dubbed ‘The Axls’. The Axls were transfers from Granby, the hick town next over from my white collar, yuppie, suburban hell. Rumor had it that William B. Bailey (AKA W. Axl Rose) himself used to romp around these parts when he was younger. But I never believed it. It sounded like typical school bus stop shit talking to me. But at one point during the show in Hartford, Axl paused between songs and confessed to the packed Civic Center, “I used to hang out around here. My family used to vacation in Granby.” I never doubted anyone with long hair ever again. I can only imagine what the Bailey family summer vacations consisted of in rural, forested, tobacco-field-blanketed Granby, Connecticut.

Edgar had the opportunity to see his beloved Guns on two occasions in Mexico City, both at the Palacio de los Deportes, or Rebotes, as he calls it, which is a pun that refers to the lousy acoustics and reverberating sounds generated inside that ancient concrete dome. So you can’t imagine how psyched we were upon learning in January that dates had been scheduled in Mexico for the ongoing, and never-ending, GN’R World Tour. They would be touring in support of their new album, Chinese Democracy, a costly thirteen-year work-in-progress which has seen nothing but endless delays, production setbacks and legal problems. The new album was supposed to be released this March. It is now June and no one seems to be in any rush to release the album to coincide with the tour, which originally began in 2001(!) and is now on its FIFTH leg. Our music reviewer, Rodney Huw Evans, who is as a big a guns fan as either Edgar or myself, claims there will likely be democracy in China before Chinese Democracy ever sees the light of day. Despite that bold self-fulfilling prophecy, at least half a dozen songs (all unauthorized and supposedly unfinished) have somehow been leaked onto the internet. Could this be a newly devised marketing ploy concocted by clever and desperate record label suits, hard-up for new promotional ideas, now that Rome is officially burning? Perhaps this is all part of a master plan in the post-internet marketing of big budget, wide-appeal rock acts that can no longer depend upon album sales to recover their investment? My conspiracy theories aside, the Gunners did manage to sell out three stadium shows in Mexico without any advertising campaign, no new material available in stores and limited radio airplay of only some illegally leaked songs. Go figure.

Last update : 04-11-2007 12:07

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