Hair Band Rock

Twenty-four years, four albums and countless lineup changes ago, Guns N' Roses played the Ritz in New York City. MTV's cameras caught the then-ascendent group in action, and the performance achieved legendary status, eventually making its way to DVD. Last night (Feb. 15), as GNR returned to the venue for the last of this month's three NYC club gigs, the question was how Axl Rose -- the lone remaining member from that 1988 incarnation -- would mark the occasion. He might have followed the 'Live at the Ritz' setlist, or better yet, he could have snuck in OG sidemen Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan or Steven Adler, musicians he'll supposedly reunite with in April at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Alas, Axl and his super-mega-jacked new lineup -- three guitars, two keyboards, bass and drums -- did precisely what they've been doing for the last year. They came on late and played for three nonstop hours, during which time they turned in serviceable renditions of old favorites and made as strong a case as might be made for 'Chinese Democracy,' airing about a third of that long-delayed, oft-mocked 2008 disc.

Today's GNR is loud, flamboyant, precise but not exacting and staffed with colorful characters, among them former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and stick-thin, tat-covered guitarist Richard Fortus, the only guy onstage who could have gone clothes shopping with the 'Appetite for Destruction'-era group. In his dark shades and Macho Man Randy Savage mustache-and-cowboy-hat combo, Axl remains a shadowy figure -- an unknowable entity who's all the more transfixing and unpredictable now that he's into his Elvis-in-Vegas years.

And yet what now passes for Guns lacks firepower. Opener 'Chinese Democracy' proved a satisfyingly sleazy lead-in to 'Welcome to the Jungle,' maybe the sleaziest song of all time, and over the next ten songs, the band showed adequate hunger on four additional 'Appetite' tunes; maimed -- but didn't kill -- with their cover of Paul McCartney's 'Live and Let Die,' prefacing it with bits of the James Bond theme; and played to a backdrop of swimming dolphins on 'Estranged,' harking back to that inscrutable trio of videos they put out in the early '90s.

There was little cause for disappointment, even for those who shelled out more than $125 for scalper tickets, but it was hard to feel part of a "once in a lifetime" experience, as the concert had been billed.

Courtesy of Hair Band Rock - 80's Rock and www.noisecreep.com