I noticed with some bemusement recently that a band purporting to be Guns N' Roses is playing at Webster Hall this coming week. The original line-up of same famously played that venue back in 1988 when it was still called The Ritz. In honor of this coming event, Webster Hall is re-naming itself "The Ritz."
I hate to be Johnny Pedantic (who, me?), but Guns N' Roses DID technically play the Ritz again after that late 80's show -- only it was the Ritz that had moved uptown to the site of the ol' Studio 54. I know because -- WAIT FOR IT -- *I WAS THERE*. It was 1991, and the band had just announced an intimate club date to celebrate the release of the Use Your Illusion albums. It was also at this show wherein they taped the video for "You Could Be Mine."
Getting tickets for this gig was a very complicated affair. You couldn't just walk up to the box office and get'em. Because I was unencumbered with employment at the time, my friend Rob B. recruited me to go and stand on line all day on West 54th Street (in front of that garage that, I believe, is no longer there) to claim a voucher (see below). You then came back with your voucher and then got a wrist-band. That wrist-band then enabled you to go through some other painstaking process (blood test? urine sample? Who remembers?) to actually gain entry into the premises.
If truth be told, I wasn't that big a fan of the band. I mean, I certainly liked them, but despite all the talk of them being so punky and street, I didn't really see much credibly "punk" about them beyond their penchant for wearing T.S.O.L. and CBGB t-shirts in their videos (yes, I realize Duff was in Seattle's Fartz, but you'd have never guessed it from their sound). Regardless, I certainly liked my share of dumb metal as well, and G N' R fit that bill nicely. I do have fond memories of Appetite for Destruction. During my senior year of college, I lived off-campus with six other idiots, and Appetite was one of the exceptionally few albums that we could all agree upon. As such, it scored many an irresponsible evening of ill-considered beer-consumption and petty property damange.
Regardless, this show was indeed something special. For a start, there were massive camera towers on the floor. And the band's stadium-ready sound system, I'm sure, probably had something to do with the tinnitus that I now grapple with. I remember drummer Matt Sorum wearing a Sisters of Mercy t-shirt, Axl making more costume changes than a Liza Minelli drag revue and Duff McKagan attempting a drunken stage-dive. It was indeed a fun evening.
Today, the original Ritz is now Webster Hall. Studio 54 stopped being the New Ritz at some point in the mid-90's (which was unforunate -- it is a great venue). It now plays host to Broadway shows, if memory serves. Guns N' Roses, meanwhile, soldier on as Axl's little folly. Maybe Duff or Slash will pull a surprise cameo at this upcoming gig. I wouldn't hold your breath.
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