Guns N’ Roses returns
Axl Rose and company will kick off tour at Summerfest on July Fourth. Green Sheet,
Guns N’ Roses is touring North America this summer — and the first show will be at Summerfest, on Independence Day.
Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan and company are playing 19 shows across North America from July to August. Eighteen of those venues are baseball and football stadiums. Summerfest is the only amphitheater show on the tour, and with a seating capacity of just 23,000, one of the most intimate venues for the run. (Two stadiums at the end of the tour’s run have comparable seating capacities.)
The booking arguably marks the most impressive get for Summerfest so far this year, the first year for the remodeled American Family Insurance Amphitheater. The venue is scheduled to open in June following a $53 million reconstruction.
It’s a continuation of the band’s “Not In This Lifetime” tour, which kicked off in 2016 and brought back together the once-estranged frontman Axl Rose and guitarist Slash. As a result, the band was the fourth topgrossing touring act in the world in 2016, and the second-highest touring act in the world in 2017, according to concert trade publication Pollstar.
That 2017 tour included a stop at the Bradley Center, Guns N’ Roses’ first Milwaukee-area concert in 26 years. The band, which developed a bad reputation for delayed and uneven shows in the ’90s, performed for three hours and 20 minutes; the show ended up on the Journal Sentinel’s best concerts of the year list.
Tickets for their return to Milwaukee are available to the general public beginning at 10 a.m. Friday at the Maier Festival Park south gate box office, by calling (800) 745-3000 or visiting Presales begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday through the band’s website. Prices have yet to be announced, but tickets will include Summerfest general admission July 4.
Guns N’ Roses is the seventh show announced for Summerfest’s amphitheater in 2020.
The others: Justin Bieber, with Jaden Smith and Kehlani, on opening night, June 24; Luke Bryan with Morgan Wallen, June 25; Chris Stapleton with Sheryl Crow, June 30; Ozzy Osbourne with Marilyn Manson, July 1; Dave Matthews Band, July 2; and Halsey with Chvrches and Omar Apollo,
July 3.
The amphitheater has also booked five shows so far for after Summerfest ends July 5. They are: Hall & Oates with Squeeze and KT Tunstall, July 26; the Black Crowes, Aug. 22; Nickelback with Stone Temple Pilots and Switchfoot, Aug. 27; Maroon 5 with Meghan Trainor, Aug. 30; and KISS with David Lee Roth, Sept. 15.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
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