Back in 2012, I posted a little piece here about going to see Guns N’ Roses at the New Ritz (formerly Studio 54) on West 54th Street in 1991, and the steps I had to take to procure tickets. It’s not that I was an especially pronounced Guns N’ Roses fan (then or now), but I was unemployed, at the time, and my friend Rob convinced me that it would be a thing to see and what the Hell else was I doin’, etc., so I happily went down and stood on line all day to get a special voucher and blah blah blah (it’s all in that old post).
As I mentioned in that post, even during their oft-rhapsodized heyday (that being the wake of their 1987 opus, Appetite for Destruction), I don’t think I was ever really convinced that Guns N’ Roses was anything more than just a hair-metal band wearing punk t-shirts. That first record was perfectly enjoyable, but hardly what I would’ve considered groundbreaking. I’d sooner point to their rivals in Jane’s Addiction as the more exciting band of that moment, but whatever.
My friend Phil Freeman of Burning Ambulance (referenced back on this post) wrote an amusing takedown of GN’R’s new bloated box set, today, and in doing so revealed that the entirety of that 1991 show at the New Ritz I took pains to attend was included as a bonus in the box. I relayed that to aforementioned Rob on Facebook, and a friend of his posted the video below -– which is that very show, sparing anyone reading this the trouble of having to go out and buy the thing (and if you were really considering doing that, might I suggest raising your standards).
I don’t remember much about this show other than, as I said in that earlier post, more costume changes than a Liza Minelli drag tribute revue for Axl. But here it is now.
Look for me in the crowd.
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