Guns N’ Roses makes up for lost time with 3-hour-plus show
REVIEW
If you’re a band looking to make amends for years of devastating dysfunction and disappointment, a killer three-hour-and-twenty-minute concert — with no intermission —is a good way to do it.
That’s what Guns N’ Roses brought to a largely full BMO Harris Bradley Center Tuesday night, for its first Milwaukee-area show since kicking off its infamous “Use Your Illusion” tour at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy in 1991.
Erratic frontman Axl Rose repeatedly delayed concert start times during that run — sometimes by as long as three hours — and addiction brought guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan to the brink of death a couple of years after those shows.
The current, blockbuster “Not In This Lifetime Tour” is the first time the three have played together in two decades.
Tuesday’s show wasn’t exactly a band-member lovefest; even with the show’s massive runtime, only Rose minimally spoke between songs. But it’s clear the musicians had great respect for each other — and more importantly, for the fan.
The band’s key threesome gave their all, and then some. From sprawling song lengths to constantly flamboyant vocals, Rose rarely knows when to rein it in, and the show’s demand at times got the better of him, his voice thin and cracking during parts of “Prostitute,” “This I Love” and a cover of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman.”
But Rose’s aggressive, unflinching ambition was magnetic, and his vocal prowess frequently matched up Tuesday. “Estranged” was literally a vocal roller coaster, with Rose’s voice unexpectedly plummeting from a tantalizing falsetto to a soulful rumble, and the live train whistle that kick-started “Nightrain” was downright docile juxtaposed with Rose’s own powerhouse wailing. He complemented the vocal showmanship with ceaseless energy, frequently sprinting across the stage, flinging his mic stand during “Live and Let Die” and matching his primal performance of “Welcome to the Jungle” with a touch of Irish step dancing.
Slash had his own bombastic moves, jumping down every other step on a staircase during “Nightrain,” and ferociously stomping his right foot during a dazzling guitar jam on “Double Talkin’ Jive,” like a puppy getting the perfect scratch. The show’s scores of guitar solos included a flashy, notestuffed homage to Chuck Berry via “Johnny B. Goode,” but he also vividly re-imagined his most famous work, teasingly deconstructing the opening notes for “Jungle,” and bringing unexpected menace to his soaring riff for “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”
By comparison, McKagan was practically subtle, but there was ample opportunity for rock-star posturing, including on lead vocals for a playful punk cover of the Misfits’ “Attitude.” Guitarist Richard Fortus held his own during a nimble back and forth on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” and commanded the critical solo for “Rocket Queen,” while longtime keyboardist Dizzy Reed kicked off Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” with a ragtime interpretation.
When the confetti and smoke cleared after finale “Paradise City,” Rose threw his mic into the crowd (sparking a brief, security-interrupted battle between two fans). The towering Slash offered one last surprising feat: a joyous handstand.
Who would have thought the band would have made it this long, that these two, and McKagan, would ever play together again?
And who could have dreamed that the live show would have been this good?