Guns N' Roses: Rock am Ring 2006 (2006) (TV)

User Rating:

9.4/10   

Release Date:

8 August 2006 (Germany)

Genre:

Music

Tagline:

It's been too long since you've had your ass kicked properly! Finally, the wait is over...

Plot:

Guns N' Roses return to Germany as part of their European tour for this nationally-televised special, including such hits as "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine." |

Plot Keywords:

Guns n Roses | Rose

Cast

Sebastian Bach	...	Himself
Bumblefoot	...	Himself
Robin Finck	...	Himself
Richard Fortus	...	Himself
Brian Mantia	...	Himself
Chris Pitman	...	Himself
Dizzy Reed	...	Himself
W. Axl Rose	...	Himself
Tommy Stinson	...	Himself
Ron Thal	...	Himself

Runtime:

Germany:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Trivia:

1. Welcome To The Jungle 2. It's So Easy 3. Mr. Brownstone 4. Better 5. Live And Let Die 6. Knockin' On Heaven's Door 7. The Blues 8. You Could Be Mine 9. Out Ta Get Me 10. November Rain 11. My Michelle (Ft. Sebastian Bach) 12. Sweet Child O' Mine 13. Nightrain 14. Madagascar 15. I.R.S. 16. Patience 17. Robin's guitar solo 18. Paradise City Sebastian Bach (ex- Skid Row) sings on My Michelle as a special guest. "Out Ta Get Me", "Madagascar" and various solo's and jams were originally performed but not televised due to time constraints.

Axl's voice at its best since the early '90s - FAR better than the '02 tour

I've become highly skeptical in recent months of Axl Rose and his "new" Guns N' Roses. I was fully supportive of them up until last year, but I guess once my fanboy mindset settled and I went back to some of the older music I realized that there are always two sides to a story - and certainly this is the case with GN'R. After this tour kicked off I realized they were just doing the same setlist as 2002 all over again with a couple new songs, and I had to question whether Axl felt the music from Chinese Democracy was really worthy or whether he just didn't want to unleash all of it yet.

The 2006 tour was rather strong and Axl's voice has clearly improved since 2002. The first show kicked off in NYC in May and had guests such as Mickey Rourke, Lenny Kravitz and even Paris Hilton in attendance. But as the tour progressed I got bored with the setlist as aforementioned and Axl's performance at Rock in Rio 5 really disappointed me.

However, Rock am Ring was a real breakthrough - it's by far the best show I've seen or heard by the new band lineup and Axl's voice is at its strongest since the early 1990s. A few songs are "iffy" - The Blues is disappointingly flat when it comes to the vocals (despite a cool twist on the ending that I hadn't heard before) and as always Axl really seems incapable of singing Sweet Child O' Mine properly. Also, despite ATROCIOUS vocals in 2001 and 2002, you can sense a real loss of energy on his behalf - he's getting up there in his '40s now and his hard-living lifestyle from a decade ago is catching up with him. At times he looks very young and at other times he could easily be mistaken for a man in his mid-'50s. The cornrows don't help much, either.

However, I was blown away by Axl's vocals on Nightrain and Welcome to the Jungle here. By far the best performances of these songs I've seen in years. Nightrain was simply amazing, and although his vocals aren't as strong as they were back in the '90s, they're in a whole other league apart from 2001/2002 - the rasp is back. Fantastic stuff.

Slash may be gone and I'm not a big fan of the new fill-in, Bumblefoot (who took over from Buckethead who departed in 2004), but the solo on Nightrain is amazing. The new band really does play it better than the 1990s lineup in terms of excitement - it's overwhelming.

This gave me restored faith and hope in Guns N' Roses after a fairly underwhelming 2006 tour (mainly due to the setlist and repetitive nature of the whole thing) - this was a great way to end it.

As for the new songs - IRS is performed here quite well (off to a weak start but the rasp kicks in midway and Axl's energy is above average) and unfortunately Madagascar was cut from the broadcast. Better is fantastic and the vocals, energy and overall performance of the song is the best I've seen yet.

Overall this is the best display of "new" GN'R - comparing this to their 2002 VMAs performance is almost laughable. Whereas Axl's appearance then was laughable and his vocals sounded like Mickey Mouse being raped by an elephant, his vocals now are noticeably stronger (albeit still weaker than back in his prime), his image is MUCH more like a typical "rock star" and the band doesn't seem like a bunch of goth misfits - Robin Finck has ditched the NIN look and the absence of Buckethead (despite his amazing technical skills) does give the band a more "credible" image.

An essential show for anyone who's wondering whether Axl still has it - the answer, in short, is yes, he does: the problem, it seems, is that he just chooses not to give it his all sometimes. The Nightrain performance from this telecast alone is refreshing.