 |
TORONTO - Sex and rock 'n' roll were on display Wednesday night when Guns N' Roses pulled into Toronto's Air Canada Centre for the first time in four years.
As for drugs? Short of doing a urine test on Axl Rose - the last man standing from GNR's original lineup - and his seven-piece band, we'll never know for sure.
The sex part came via one of three opening acts, Suicide Girls, an "alternative" burlesque show borne out of a indie-minded porn website featuring "hot, tattooed, and pierced chicks," as one of the members explained from the stage.
The female troupe wiggled, jiggled and stripped their way through 25 minutes of recorded music by Steeler's Wheel, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes and others, but they never really got naked - save for black pasties and g-strings.
By the time the Gunners had started - at 11:40 p.m (who else does this on a weeknight at an arena?) - the audience was more than ready to rock despite the ACC not being completely sold out.
There's definitely been some heightened anticipation about the latest GNR jaunt with the 12-years-in-the-making new album, Chinese Democracy, thought to be coming out next Tuesday. Turns out that was a very tentative release date and the disc won't likely be released before next year.
The album's delay didn't prevent Rose and his band, including longest-serving GNR member and keyboardist Dizzy Reed plus a trio of blazing guitarists Robin Finck, Richard Fortus and Ron Thal, from playing new songs like the piano-driven The Blues, the anthemic Better, and the Asian-influenced title track.
Still, the majority of the two-hour-and-15-minute set was made up of songs from a nearly 20-year-old album, GNR's 1987 monster debut, Appetite For Destruction, which has sold 20 million copies worldwide.
And it was those tunes that proved to be the evening's standouts: The exciting opener Welcome To The Jungle (complete with dry ice, explosions and firebursts), Sweet Child O' Mine, Out Ta Get Me, November Rain (featuring Rose on piano) and the rip-roaring closer Paradise City (with more explosions, firebursts, fireworks and red confetti).
Also good were the GNR Lies' classic Patience, covers of Paul McCartney's Live And Let Die and Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door, the Fortus-Finck guitar instrumental of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful and Thal's trippy, Jimi Hendrix-like version of O Canada.
Sadly, there were some less-than-riveting moments in between the highlights, which is a lot to bear given many people had been at the ACC for almost four hours before GNR even took the stage.
"I remember how great a crowd we had last time we played here and I thank you, I thank you," said Rose, 44, who was in decent voice for most, but not all of the songs.
At least, he proved to be an energetic sprinter and dancer.
Meanwhile, opener (and Peterborough's own) Sebastian Bach of Skid Row fame joined Rose for an iffy duet on My Michelle after an introduction by The Trailer Park Boys' Bubbles.
During his earlier 40-minute set, Bach dropped the F-bomb as often as the Suicide Girls dropped their gear. He also went down memory lane dredging up now-gone Toronto nightspots like Larry's Hideaway - the site of his first ever rock concert - and The Gasworks.
"Toronto, you're responsible for Sebastian Bach," he screamed. "It's all your f---in' fault!"
Not even an appearance by all of the Trailer Park Boys during's Bach's set could erase those haunting words, but at least the trio's rendition of Liquor & Whores was a welcome distraction.
Otherwise, plucky Toronto thrash trio Die Mannequin delivered a spirited if messy half-hour opening set with the singer-guitarist making mad forays into the crowd.