If you didn’t go, you’re probably sick of hearing what you missed and if you did, probably nothing could either erase or embellish your memory of the event. Still, here goes.
Skid Row kicked everyone’s ass with a high energy, hour long set playing only the best from their debut like I Remember, 18 And Life, Youth Gone Wild, they concentrated on new material as Sebastian Bach sweated his way all over the stage.
Slave To The Grind, Get The Fuck Out and of course, Monkey Business particularly rocked my world. Solid sophomore effort stood it’s ground live this night!
The Guns came out blazing and heavies like Mr. Brownstone and Nightrain, fell quickly. Keeping with his current trend toward exposed shins, Axl came out first wearing a kilt later changing to the more familiar bicycle shorts (rose patterned). He donned a plastic pig snout he said was given to him by Tacoma’s P.D. and slung some mud at St Louis’ P.D. finishing it with,
“Anybody who has a problem with that we dedicate this next song to them. It’s called Double Talkin’ Jive Mother Fucker!”
Duff was “Mr. Congeniality” for the hometown crowd as Axl ripped over every inch of the catwalks and stage sometimes having to backpedal just to slow down. New guys Matt Sorem and now full-fledged Dizzy Reed infused GNR with a renewed energy and soul. Axl wore his patriotic leather for the first of the ‘movie songs’, Civil War, which was followed by T2s screamin’ You Could Be Mine with Dylan’s Knockin’ coming later in the set.
In between faves like Patience, Welcome To The Jungle, Rocket Queen and McCartney’s Live And Let Die they showcased tunes from Use Your Illusion with Axl playing piano on November Rain and Izzy vocalizing on Fourteen Years.
Slash was smokin’ in leather chaps over his Levis, stepping into all the hyper-cool cigarette rock god postures and working his sunburst in the spotlight to create a shadowy caricature on the back wall (under the shitty seats). The video screens on either side of the stage constantly kept up with the action often times using some fairly sublime imagery; like Slashes’ fretboard wanderings pasted against Duff’s silhouette.
At one point idiots with bottle rockets almost ended the show but Axl quickly regained his composure to pound out a couple more new ones and wind the whole thing up with the encore, Paradise City. The end saw Izzy windmilling for all he was worth and Axl’s trademark stage dive, thanking “the faggot who tried to tear my shorts off.” .
After the lights went up on the sea of crushed “recyclable” Dome cups, we headed backstage to have a word with some of the guys.
Well, we wound up in a sort of groupie purgatory with members of Skid Row and about thirty aesthetically pleasing females. Lacking either rock stardom or a certain curvaceousness, I did feel somewhat ill-at-ease being in this cattle run of a squeeze room.
But I got over it.
City Heat: “Hey, hey, what’s that you guys are listening to back there?”
Slash: “Alice In Chains.”
CH: “What else do you listen to backstage or on the road?”
Slash: “Alice In Chains.”
CH: “Anything else?”
Matt Sorum: “Yeah, Temple Of The Dog.”
Slash: “Oh yeah. That’s Matt’s favorite.”
CH: “What new songs did you play tonight?”
Sorum: “Estranged. Dust And Bones. Perfect Crime… lets see … Bad Obsession and Fourteen Years—that’s about how long it took for lzzy and Axl to get from Indiana to California to making it. Ah shit what else did we do?”
Karen Mason: “You did Matt’s solo tonight”
Sorum: “Yeah, (humble smile) we did a new drum solo, that’ll be on the album.”
CH: “What was Duff doing up there with you, tympani?”
Sorum: “Yeah he was playing tympani, it was fun.”
CH: “Will we see Volumes I and II before September?”
Sorum: “Well, I can’t really tell you about that because, fuck, I don’t know. Hopefully by the end of August”
As his voice trails off the last remark, I see the unspoken communication he’s making, and as I turn to look, I see that it’s with a very concerned brother who doesn’t seem to appreciate my electric accoutrements. As I try to make my mini cassette more inconspicuous…
Sorum: “That’s Earl. He’s very big and he will kill you. We’re cool Earl”
Mason: “We love Earl, he’s a very cool cat” (I hope so.-Ed.)
CH: “How’d you feel about the Puget Sound response?”
Sorum: “Rockin! Best show we’ve done since Philadelphia Spectrum.”
Mason: “Was that before St. Louis or after?”
Sorum: “Before.”
KM: (Justifying), “That was a fair question!”
CH: “How much longer does this deadly double bill last?”
Sorum: “Another two weeks then we take two off in LA before we hit it again with someone else. (Sensing the next question) I don’t know who yet.”
As Sebastian Bach saunters past, I turn to him…
CH: “So I hear you’re bailing in a couple weeks. Opening not good enough for you chart busters anymore?”
Sebastian Bach: “Nah, but… that’s not to say we won’t respect these guys in the morning.”
CH: I caught you guys (Sab, Axl, Duff and Slash) playing RIP Magazine’s [5th Anniversary party] stage together last November. Is that kind of when the friendship took hold?”
Bach: “Pretty much, yeah. [reflects] That was a fucken blast!”
CH: “By the way, (referring to their debut on Billboard’s Hot 200 at No. 1 with Slave To The Grind) that was quite the coup you studs pulled.”
Bach: “Yeah we’re real sorry about that too. Real damn sorry! We kinda said, “’scuse us, Paula (Abdul), we just need to slip in here.”
CH: “When you head back out, who are you taking?”
He points at the shirt on his usually bare chest indicating a band that signals another of their turns away from commercial conformity. Pantera.
Bach: “These guys. We love ’em.”
As the doobie and paper cup of Jack Daniels again make their way around the circle, so goes another night with two of the hottest (and most honest) bands in the business.