Monday, March 07, 2005

Take me down to the paradise city...

The IlkBlog generally doesn't bother linking to stories from the Old Grey Lady, especially now that William Safire's gone. But this piece about the Guns N' Roses album that isn't is definitely worth a read.

I've seen GNR twice. The first time was on the Monsters Of Rock tour in 1992, where they shared the bill at what was then Rich Stadium with Faith No More and Metallica. As a somewhat gawky and geeky 17-year-old, I was pretty scared of all the "headbangers" running around. But then the women started flashing the stage, and it was all good.

Second time was in the fall of 2002 at the Allstate Arena. Axl was bloated and dreadlocked, and came on stage in a Michael Vick jersey and sang 3 or 4 songs before he finally realized he was in Chicago and switched to the more familiar blue and orange #54 of Brian Urlacher. The band actually sounded almost the same as the original lineup, although Buckethead struggled mightily with Slash's solos.