Guns N' Roses To Club It Up

Photo from Guns N' Roses' Facebook page

The one time we saw Guns N' Roses was the opening night in Alpine Valley of their Use Your Illusion world tour. It was a huge, bombastic show; one of those hugely over the top rock concert spectacles. The band was at the height of their powers. Man, a lot can change in 21 years, huh? The current touring version of the band is missing almost all the original members of the band but the replacements are all seasoned pros and are more than capable of helping W. Axl Rose maintain the stadium spectacle. Despite the incredibly disappointing Chinese Democracy the band has continued to successfully tour and have a huge back catalog that immediately triggers the smell of hairspray and sweaty leather. Despite the passage of years the band's fan-base still allows them to fill stadiums.

Which is why we were so surprised to hear the band is doing a brief tour of small clubs with a stop at The House of Blues in Chicago on February 19! There's no new album in the offing and no real "anniversary" to celebrate so all we can figure is that Rose is doing this because he simply wants to. We imagine it must get lonely up onstage when you're always playing to massive crowds, right?

Whatever the reasoning behind the tour we're certain of two things; it's going to be awesome to have a chance to see this band in a room the size of The House of Blues, it's going to be a nightmare to see this band in a room the size of The House of Blues and tickets to this show will sell out faster than you can say "November Rain."

The ticket presale for Chicago is February 1 at 9 a.m., with public on-sale Friday, February 3 through the band's website.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on January 30, 2012 12:15 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

slickpoetry

I kinda want to go to this....sadly.

Nicole Massey

Illusions? GNR were dead to the rest of us by then. They had become a glitzy Vegas rendition of a rock band. This Axl Rose band incarnation is hardly any different. Judging by the legit sales numbers of the last tour (not the papered tickets) it's clear that club-sized venues were the next logical step.

Tankboy

I'll differ with you on the world being dead to GNR around the time of the Illusions discs. And I also doubt that they're current audiences have truly shrunk to a venue sized similarly to HOB.

Nicole Massey

You're right. I should have qualified my statement. For fans of "Live Like A Suicide" and "Appetite," the about face on Illusions was similar to when KISS went disco. They were essentially dead to me and my friends. I saw them on the Metallica/Guns tour in which I went from being indifferent to Metallica to being in awe (at least of their live performance). 20% of the Silverdome left when Metallica was finished. After witnessing what had become of GNR, I wished we had as well.

The last tour played to large arenas, but they're clearly no longer capable of filling them (despite how it looks).
Pollstar 2011: 73. GUNS N' ROSES Gross (millions): 11.2Average Tickets: 6,446Cities/Shows: 33/35

Mike Tattoo

My favorite part about that tour was that Faith No More in all their Angel Dust glory was the opening band and they were talking so much shit about Axel on stage and in the press that they got bounced from the tour, right around after James Hetfield caught on fire that one night.

Tankboy

Annnnnd thanks for reminding me that I've never seen Faith No More, one of my absolute favorite bands!

Tankboy

Gotcha on the about face. I think both those albums have aged poorly while Appettite still feels as fresh and vital as it did when it was released. And I totally agree with you on Metallica being a live beats--especially at that time.