Date: Thursday, July 27, 2017
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: The Dome at America’s Center
Opening act(s): Deftones
Headlining act: Guns N’ Roses
Deftones Setlist:
Passenger
Digital Bath
Knife Party
Change (In The House Of Flies)
Rosemary
Sextape
Phantom Bride
My Own Summer (Shove It)
Minerva
Guns N’ Roses Setlist:
It’s So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
Double Talkin’ Jive
Better
Estranged
Live And Let Die
Rocket Queen
You Could Be Mine
Attitude
This I Love
Civil War
Yesterdays
Coma
Slash Guitar Solo [Johnny B. Goode/Speak Softly Love (From The Godfather)]
Sweet Child O’ Mine
Used To Love Her
My Michelle
Wish You Were Here
November Rain
Black Hole Sun
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Nightrain
———————
Sorry
Patience
Whole Lotta Rosie
Don’t Cry
The Seeker
Paradise City
Notes:
- First time seeing Guns N’ Roses live, with Slash & Duff McKagen having returned to the band in 2016.
- Fourth time seeing Slash live following one show with Velvet Revolver (August 17, 2005) and two with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators (July 25, 2014 & May 18, 2015). Second time seeing Duff McKagen live following one show with Velvet Revolver (August 17, 2005).
- Longest show I’ve ever seen by both song total (29 plus solos) and time (more than three hours long).
- First Guns N’ Roses show in St. Louis in more than 26 years after they were banned from playing the city following the riot at their July 2, 1991 concert at Riverport Amphitheater.
- Second stadium show, this one indoors at the former home of the St. Louis Rams.
- Deftones opened this show, but I did not see their set.
- Show #1 at this venue.
Videos:
Review:
One can’t mention Guns N’ Roses and St. Louis in the same sentence without recalling the infamous Riverport Riot in 1991. That was the last time GNR played this city, and the riot that followed frontman Axl Rose’s stage dive to fight an audience member resulted in the band being banned from playing here ever again.
Of course, things got worse for GNR after that since Slash, Duff, and others left the band and it went semi-dormant while Axl put together a Spinal Tap-long list of new band members that contributed to the also infamous Chinese Democracy album and a handful of tours.
Following Slash’s exit from GNR, he released two albums (1995 and 2000) with his band Slash’s Snakepit. He then formed Velvet Revolver in 2003 with fellow GNR members Duff McKagen and Matt Sorum along with Scott Weiland (from the recently disbanded Stone Temple Pilots), and they released two excellent albums in 2004 and 2007. That gave me my first chance to see Slash live, as I saw Velvet Revolver in concert on August 17, 2005. Following Velvet Revolver’s demise in 2008, Slash released his first solo album in 2010 and it featured an array of guests and rock legends.
In recent years, he has been recording and touring as Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators. They were essentially the touring band for his 2010 solo album, but they became official by releasing their 2012 album Apocalyptic Love. I saw them live for the first time on July 25, 2014 when they opened for Aerosmith and they stole the show. They released their second album, World On Fire, just a couple of months later and I saw them again as a headliner on May 18, 2015.
I was completely hooked and couldn’t wait for the third album from SMKC, and their plan was to go back into the studio to record in 2016. So naturally, the unthinkable happened.
Guns N’ Roses reunited.
Well, sort of.
It figures that when I get super into Slash’s work that it would be interrupted by one of the most unlikely things to happen in rock history. GNR regrouped with Axl, Slash, and Duff for the first time in over 20 years. Other original members were nowhere to be seen, leaving a weird hybrid of past and present to hit the road for a massive stadium tour in 2016.
Of all of Slash’s work, Guns N’ Roses would be my second to least favorite… It’s a toss up between Velvet Revolver & The Conspirators for my favorites, and I’m least into the Snakepit albums though I haven’t listened to them nearly as much as the other stuff.
I’m very familiar with Guns N’ Roses, and in my opinion, they are one of the most overrated bands of all time. Their debut album Appetite For Destruction is without a doubt one of the best rock albums of all time. It’s a classic from top to bottom and has several songs you still hear all over rock radio today.
After that though? A couple of EPs, a bloated set of albums that should have been condensed to one great album (Use Your Illusion I & II), a shitty covers album, and the most expensive flop of all time.
That’s why I prefer Slash outside of GNR, where he can focus on guitar without all of the self-indulgence of Axl’s bullshit.
But… I couldn’t pass up the chance to see as close to the original Guns N’ Roses as possible, so when the St. Louis date was finally announced, I grabbed relatively cheap tickets.
The show was taking place at The Dome At America’s Center, the former home of the St. Louis Rams. I had only ever been there for comic conventions, so it was my first time visiting for a concert and it was my second stadium sized show of the year following Metallica’s concert at Busch Stadium.
Finding a place to park took so long that we missed all of the opening band, Deftones. I didn’t really care as I wasn’t a fan of theirs anyway.
The walk up to the 400 level of the dome was exhausting, mostly because I had spent hours earlier in the day walking through the wilderness of Illinois while searching for a good spot to propose to my girlfriend this upcoming weekend. But I couldn’t tell her that, so she wondered why I was more tired than she was as we made our way up to ours seats.
Axl has a long history of showing up late as fuck for concerts, but this reunion tour has gone off without a hitch. That was no different here in St. Louis, as the lights went down and an intro tape started right on time, complete with the humorous statement “It seems like just yesterday we were here.”
Then they were introduced and hit the stage with their debut single “It’s So Easy.” And it was immediately apparent that sound in the massive venue was utter fucking shit. I’ve never heard echo so bad at a concert venue, but one can’t be too surprised in an enclosed venue of that size.
As for the band, they sounded really good. Axl’s voice hasn’t aged all that well, and he sounds like Mickey Mouse at times. But on the lower range material, he sounded just fine.
It was also funny to see all of the cell phones come up to shoot photos and video as soon as the band hit the stage. The Riverport Riot of 1991 started because a fan was taking photos or video and after security failed to stop them, Axl jumped into the crowd to fight the guy. He stormed off stage and the riot followed.
In 2017, he’d really have his work cut out for him when it comes to stopping people from filming or taking photos.
The set continued with another classic from Appetite, “Mr. Brownstone.”
Slash & Duff are being good sports, as they’re even playing material from 2008’s Chinese Democracy. The title track, which is actually a decent song, was played third in the set. You never see David Lee Roth performing Sammy Hagar era Van Halen, so it’s interesting to see Slash & Duff performing GNR material from when they weren’t in the band. But it was cool to see and Slash definitely made the song his own with the guitar solo.
“Welcome To The Jungle” was played surprisingly early in the set. It’s overplayed on rock radio and at every sports event since the fucking song came out, but it was neat to hear live with the original trio even though I’d seen it live before with The Conspirators.
The band touched on subsequent albums after, first performing “Double Talkin’ Jive” from 1991’s Use Your Illusion I. Then came “Better,” another one of the (ahem) better songs from 2008’s Chinese Democracy.
Use Your Illusion II was first represented by “Estranged.”
The first cover of the evening was GNR’s well known version of Wings’ “Live And Let Die.” The song was highlighted by pyro-less explosions. An always lengthy version of “Rocket Queen” followed, which is notable for being the first full performance in St. Louis… As it was during that song that the riot began back in 1991.
The excellent “You Could Be Mine” came next and it’s one of my favorite GNR songs.
The evening would be filled with covers, both that the band has recorded & released and that they only play live, and one was the Misfits’ “Attitude.”
Several songs later, Axl introduced the entire band with Slash and Duff getting the loudest responses as expected. Axl introduced Slash as his “partner in crime,” again calling back to the riot. That preceded a performance of the Use Your Illusion I epic “Coma.” That song always takes me back to seeing Def Leppard in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, as it was part of the run of songs leading up to the show beginning and the length of the song drove me insane.
Now here I was, seeing it live.
Slash performed his typical guitar solo to give the band a rest, and it included a jam of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” before morphing into the Godfather theme he always plays.
The rest of the band returned for the classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and the humorous “Used To Love Her.”
More covers appeared later, as Slash and other guitarist Richard Fortus teamed up for Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” a song frequently covered by Velvet Revolver.
A grand piano appeared for the band’s performance of “November Rain,” though issues with the piano disrupted the song twice.
Axl and company paid tribute to Chris Cornell with a cover of Soundgaden’s “Black Hole Sun,” which was interesting. To see an ’80’s hair band cover a 90’s grunge band’s song was a heck of a juxtaposition.
Yet another cover followed, as they performed Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” They had been performing that song as far back as the mid to late 1980’s, but didn’t release a recorded version until 1991’s Use Your Illusion II.
Another one of my favorite GNR songs, “Nightrain,” closed out the main set.
Recent sets had only had a few encore songs, and Brittany and I didn’t really care to see “Paradise City” as we’ve already seen it live with Slash. So we decided to try to beat the massive crowd out of the dome by leaving before the last song.
Chinese Democracy tune “Sorry” kicked off the encore, which was followed by “Patience.” That was when Brittany and I made our exit, though the band wound up continuing on for several more songs including more covers.
Guns N’ Roses with Slash and Duff is another band I can mark off the bucket list. I never thought I would have the chance to see them but I’m glad I did despite the fact that it delayed Slash’s work with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators.
Props to GNR for not only coming back, but putting on solid performances that often last for three and a half hours (as tonight’s show did). Having said that, the shows are like a lot of what GNR has done in the past… It’s bloated and may benefit from being shorter. Much like the Use Your Illusion album’s, it felt like there was a lot of filler and if it was condensed, it would be an overall better product. It’s great that the band is playing for so long, but there are way too many covers.
I don’t know what lies ahead for Guns N’ Roses. I believe they have additional dates scheduled into 2018, but I’d be happy to see this come to a close so Slash can return to making new music and performing with the far superior Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators. Still, I had fun the GNR show and I would see them again if they return to St. Louis.
Even if it doesn’t happen until 2043.
Media Review:
In marathon Dome show, Guns N’ Roses extend an olive branch to St. Louis
Any questions about whether Guns N’ Roses would address its last visit to St. Louis were deftly answered during the band’s marathon concert Thursday night at the Dome at America’s Center.
The 3½-hour show, kicking off the new leg of the band’s long-running “Not in This Lifetime” tour, finally — and unexpectedly — put the “Riverport riot” to rest.
Of course, no one familiar with local rock history has forgotten the band’s 1991 show at Riverport Amphitheater (now Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre). A melee broke out when singer Axl Rose tackled a spectator who was photographing the show, resulting in injuries, arrests and property damage.
The rockers hadn’t returned to St. Louis until now, and they definitely came in peace.
“St. Louis — seems like just yesterday we were here,” said a voice off-stage as the band members — including Rose, guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, guitarist Richard Fortus (of St. Louis) and drummer Frank Ferrer — took the stage.
The tongue-in-cheekiness at the start was welcome, though also inadequate. “How you doing? Good to see you again,” Rose said later, a sentiment he’d repeat.
But what finally put the Riverport episode to bed was the band’s St. Louis-centric wardrobe choices. Rose hit the stage wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo for the long-gone Coral Court Motel. McKagan wore a Streetside Records T-shirt, a nod to the former Delmar Loop store. Fortus chose a Kennedy’s shirt, a throwback to the Laclede’s Landing club where he performed with his old band, the Eyes.
These tributes were a perfect olive branch. All is well, and let the haters hate. The 37,000 fans in attendance certainly came with open hearts.
The tour, the biggest so far this year, reunites classic Guns N’ Roses members Rose, Slash and McKagan, after more than 20 years apart.
Rose once famously said a reunion wouldn’t happen, “not in this lifetime,” and seeing them perform to epic proportions was new rock history at its fullest.
From a production standpoint, there wasn’t much we hadn’t seen before; the projection screens, occasional pyro and other elements were pretty routine, compared to other tours. But having most of the group’s core together again set the show part.
The 31-song set, performed without an intermission, was a thrilling, extended ride through Guns N’ Roses history, filled with Rose’s trademark wail, Slash’s tremendous shredding, McKagan back where he belongs, a strong turn from Fortus performing with the band in his hometown for the first time, and a number of fitting tributes and covers.
The band, which also included keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese, came roaring out of the gate with vintage song “It’s So Easy” from “Appetite for Destruction” (1987) and kept the decibels on high and the pace on overdrive for songs such as “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Chinese Democracy,” “Double Talkin’ Jive,” “You Could Be Mine,” “Rocket Queen” and Wings’ “Live and Let Die.”
It was evident that this reunion was meant to be.
Rose, wearing a least a dozen different T-shirts throughout the night and almost as many hats, seemed invested and interested during his St. Louis return, and his distinct vocals were strong. Slash, referred to by Rose as his “partner in crime,” shredded like no other and at one point detoured in Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode. McKagan, whose guitar was emblazoned with Prince’s famous symbol, was a welcome and overdue return to the group.
A rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Were” allowed Slash and Fortus to play an incredible duet. “Black Hole Sun” paid homage to Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, who died in May; the tribute didn’t bring down the show, though. Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was dedicated to McKagan’s dog Buckley, who recently died.
“November Rain,” with Rose at the piano, made the set list, along with the ballad “This I Love,” a bit of a departure. After “Civil War,” Rose commented on the strong smell of marijuana in the Dome, saying he’s a law-abiding citizen and “somebody must be having a medical emergency.” Other songs performed were “My Michelle,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Yesterdays.” There was no hint of new material.
The generous encore included a couple of other covers, including AC/DC’s “A Whole Lotta Rosie” (a nod to Rose’s recent moonlighting with the band) and the Who’s “The Seeker,” as well as “Patience” and “Paradise City.” The latter ended with confetti blasts and pyro. The band left the stage but returned for a final bow.
“Hopefully we’ll see you again,” Rose said. “Hopefully a lot sooner.”
The Deftones opened this date of the tour and delivered, though it’s not easy to be memorable when supporting another band on a stadium trek, even when you’re been around nearly as long.
By Kevin C. Johnson @ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2017
No Riot Act: Guns N’ Roses and St. Louis Hug It Out at First Show Since 1991
“The last time we were here was half of my life ago… Half of my freaking life ago. It’s good to see you again.”
Axl Rose got through “Rocket Queen” without starting a riot on Thursday.
The last time Guns N’ Roses visited St. Louis, way back on July 2, 1991, the Los Angeles hard rock band was in the middle of the Appetite for Destruction corker when a hot-tempered Rose dove into the crowd to confront a camera-wielding fan before storming off, thus setting off what’s now known as the “Riverport Riot.”
More than a melee, angry fans reacted to Rose’s leap by tearing up the then-new Riverport Amphitheatre, leading to dozens of arrests and injuring 65, including two-dozen police officers. He was later arrested, charged, found guilty and fined, followed by civil lawsuits that ended in undisclosed settlement amounts.
Rose dispensed some justice of his own over the years, via a shout-out in the Use Your Illusion liner notes (“F-ck you, St. Louis”) and by wearing his “St. Louis Sucks” t-shirt and, of course, steering clear of the Gateway City during the few occasions the band has played North America.
It’s an ugly chapter in the band’s history, but one that Rose and company finally decided was time to move past.
“The last time we were here was half of my life ago,” Rose said during Thursday’s return concert, held at the cavernous Dome at America’s Center. “Half of my freaking, fu–ing life ago. It’s good to see you again.”
And Rose really seemed to mean it, leading the nation’s top touring act through a marathon 31-song set that included early rockers (“Mr. Brownstone,” “It’s So Easy,” “Nightrain”), strut-and-sway ballads (“Patience,” “Don’t Cry,” “November Rain”), faithful covers (Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie,” The Who’s “The Seeker”) and all the greatest hits you’d expect, nee demand at a GNR show, with a few Chinese Democracy tracks thrown in for the completists. Rose, 55, maintained his familiar high-growl the entire night — aided by frequent breaks — and the band was as tight and relentless as you’d expect.
What Rose (or Slash or Duff McKagan or even Dizzy Reed — all GNR members back in 1991) didn’t do on Thursday was hammer the Dome audience with many direct references to the riot, its aftermath or all those hurt feelings over the years. They cliché-edly “let the music do the talking” — a wise move.
That said, there were a few very subtle nods to 1991 and its legal fallout. Introducing Slash, Rose snickered, “Ladies and gentlemen, my partner in crime, as we return to the scene of the crime.”
And setting up the Appetite classic “Yesterday,” Rose noted the earthy aroma in the air: “We’re all law abiding citizens here… I know I am. So that smell must be… somebody must be having a medical emergency. Let’s make sure they’re okay.”
The band also dished out some t-shirt diplomacy, which may have gone over the heads of many in attendance. McKagan, for example, wore a tee from Streetside Records, a beloved-but-defunct local music store chain; Rose donned a shirt with the Coral Court Motel, a long-gone Route 66 motor inn known for its art deco stylings; and in a sincere (and very cool) gesture, guitarist Richard Fortus, who lives in St. Louis, wore a shirt from Kennedy’s, an also-gone rock club where his old band (Pale Divine) used to play. “He fu–ing lives here!” Rose said in amazement at one point of Fortus, “inviting” the crowd to his house for the after-party.
Slash went with one shirt the entire night, but he did give St. Louis a nod during his solo, which included a portion of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
Fortus, who played with Richard Butler in Love Spit Love and later Enrique Iglesias before joining GNR, didn’t say much the entire night, but his joy in playing in front of family and friends in a massive hometown stadium show was evident.
(In a recent profile in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Fortus recalled playing a gig the night of the 1991 riot. “I remember people coming in from the riot with pieces of chairs,” he said. “I didn’t realize the scope of it until later. I would have been there if I wasn’t working.”)
The band chose their long-awaited return to St. Louis as the launching pad for the next leg of their North American “Not In This Lifetime” tour. Through 23 shows, the tour has grossed a tick over $99 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. The band’s reunion has also helped its promoter, Live Nation, maintain a dominant position among its competitors — the concert giant has grossed more in the first half of 2017 than the seven next biggest promoters combined.
Twenty-six years is a long time to wait for a GNR show, but the “truce” between band and city on Thursday seems to have changed that. “We hope to see you soon,” Rose said before walking — not storming — off. “Hopefully a lot sooner.”
By Marc Schneider @ Billboard.com, 2017
Media Retrospective:
Looking Back at the Riverport Riot as Guns N’ Roses Return to St. Louis for First Show in 26 Years
Triggered by a fan with a camera, Axl Rose dove into a crowd mid-song, setting off a destructive chain events that led to arrests, injuries, property damage and years of hard feelings. Here, a journalist who was there recounts the chaos.
St. Louis is a day away from welcoming Guns N’ Roses back to town for the first time in 26 years. But will Guns N’ Roses — and more importantly, frontman Axl Rose — welcome St. Louis back… to the jungle?
That’s where the two parties left off more than a quarter century ago. The band’s July 2, 1991 concert at the then-brand new Riverport Amphitheatre (now known as Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre) in nearby Maryland Heights, Mo., erupted into a violent and bloody riot, injuring 65 people — including 25 police officers — and resulting in dozens of arrests and hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.
Rose himself was charged with four misdemeanor counts of assault and one misdemeanor count of property damage. He was found guilty and fined $50,000. He and the band also faced numerous civil suits stemming from the incident.
Now, 26 years later, one would presume that all such legal matters have been put to bed. A generation has passed and both the city and the band — as well as their fans — seem willing to let bygones be bygones.
But while it’s possible to forgive that evening’s transgressions, or simply get beyond them, it’s unlikely that anyone who was in the thick of the chaos and destruction of the concert’s aftermath will ever forget. I know I won’t.
At the time, I was an arts editor at the Riverfront Times, an alternative weekly. I attended the show with a colleague, staff writer Thomas Crone. Neither of us were covering the show, per se, but habit forced me to bring a notebook and a pen, just in case something newsworthy happened.
Good call, Dan.
The show — which lasted for nearly a full concert before the trouble started — was terrific. GNR was firing on all cylinders back then, with Axl, Slash, Duff McKagan and even Izzy Stradlin in the fold. The band played through “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Mr. Brownstone” — by then, already hard-rock classics — from Appetite for Destruction, an album currently celebrating its 30th anniversary.
But the real appeal of the show was a handful of soon-to-be classics from the then-forthcoming Use Your Illusion albums, which wouldn’t be released until that September: “You Could Be Mine”; “November Rain”; and the band’s epic cover of Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” were all performed that night.
It was nearly 90 minutes and 15 songs into the show, during the performance of “Rocket Queen,” when things went sideways.
Rose became furious with a fan in the first several rows, yelling, “Take that! Take that! Get that guy and take that!” Before security could act, or even know who or what he was talking about, Rose exclaimed, “I’ll take it, goddamn it!” and dove into the crowd. His objective was later revealed to be a camera being used by an audience member.
This was during the pre-smart phone era, recall; not everyone in attendance at a concert had ready access to a camera like they do now, and there actually was a reasonably-lucrative trade in grainy, poorly-lit concert photos shot surreptitiously with less-than-adequate equipment.
So it was a problem, albeit a microscopic one compared to the melee that ensued.
It took a while for Axl to get fished out of the group of people he’d leapt into, which — Oops! — just happened to be a motorcycle gang called the Saddle Tramps. Their leader, Bill “Stump” Stephenson, was the one with the camera.
Back onstage, Rose said, “Thanks to the lame-ass security, I’m going home!” He trashed his mic and stalked off. “We’re outta here,” Slash shrugged, and the band filed out in Axl’s wake.
No one was quite sure what had just happened or what might happen next. Time froze. Eventually, the lights came up and egress music began playing, but by then the audience’s blood pressure was up. Debris rained down on the stage and GNR roadies only exacerbated the situation. One of them — a man dressed in multicolored tights, wearing metal bracelets and holding a walking cane — taunted the crowd, grabbing his crotch and making jerking-off motions.
Meanwhile, violence had broken out everywhere. Rapt by the cinematic unreality unfolding all around us, Crone and I watched from our seats in the eighth row. Here are a few mental snapshots:
‣ A man, naked to the waist, with a gash on his shoulder and blood running down his face, broke free from the donnybrook down front and ran up the aisle.
‣ Another man, his head taped to a stretcher, was carried out.
‣ Police, summoned to the venue by a disaster-level “Code 1000,” ringed the stage, and some from the crowd unwisely chose to challenge them. One was tackled and beaten on the knees, further enraging the audience, which chanted, “F–k you, pigs.”
‣ Two young men in front of us stomped their seats to pieces. One of them flung the flat portion toward the stage, Frisbee-like, where it crashed into the forehead of a security guard, who later required numerous stitches. The bros laughed and high-fived each other.
‣ A fire hose was rolled out onstage, the idea being to blast anyone who dared try and break the cops’ perimeter. Unbeknownst to them, there was almost no water pressure. One man jumped onstage and stepped into the ineffective stream, then pulled down his pants and waved his penis at the cops.
Eventually, the police retreated and turned the venue over to the rioters. Video screens were ripped down, newly-planted trees torn out, and fires started out on the lawn.
Taking temporary shelter at the soundboard, I found a technician who stuck out his hand and, by way of introduction, said, “Hello, I’m unemployed. And you know why? Because Axl Rose just f–ked up.”
Together we watched as revelers swung from cables underneath the 60-ton sound-and-light rig, which lurched sickeningly from side-to-side. “If that rig comes down, there will be massive death,” the tech said.
A member of the security crew contracted by the venue was standing behind us, content to stay out of the fray. “This is a joke,” he said. “We’re staying here, covering our ass. People are animals.”
That was true on both sides of the law. Outside the venue, a large number of police queued up, ready to retake the venue and maybe bust some skulls.
Tapping his baton into his hand, one of them said, “Good thing I watched my LAPD video again tonight.”
This was only a few months, remember, after the release of the video showing the brutal beating of Rodney King. It seemed clear that was what he was referring to.
“Did you hear what he just said?” I asked Crone.
“I did.”
It went in the notebook and into the story I later filed for the RFT.
Back inside, the police methodically stormed the pavilion, working bottom to top. We watched from the upper end, and when they approached us, I held up my ID and yelled to them that we were not rioters, but rather press.
“F–k you, cocksucker,” one of them yelled back.
“We’re reporters,” I tried again as they neared.
“That’s nice,” another one said as he viciously jabbed Crone in the kidneys with his baton and the rest of them unceremoniously dumped us down a flight of stairs. As we hobbled off to find a place to recover, there was a whiff of some sort of chemical agent in the air. Cops denied using tear gas, but it could have been any one of a number of variations on that eye-burning, throat-constricting theme.
And with that, our evening came to a close.
A few months later, Axl immortalized the event, more or less, via a small notation in the liner notes of Use Your Illusion: “F–k you, St. Louis!” it read.
At the time, the feeling was pretty much mutual.
But time passes. Things change. Axl is back again with Slash and Duff and the boys — not a full reunion, but at least a regrouping of the GNR principals, which is what fans have wanted all along.
The band is even on a roll right now; its Not In This Lifetime Tour stands as the top-grossing tour so far in 2017.
And now, at long last, they’ve come back to St. Louis. They’re not playing what was once Riverport, however — probably to everyone’s relief. Instead, they’re downtown, playing the Dome at America’s Center, the usually-empty former home of the now-Los Angeles Rams.
Will the band open the concert with “Rocket Queen,” a nod to the previous show’s calamitous end? Will Axl address the situation? Will GNR and their fans alike just let the past go, pausing if only for a minute to think about the wasted years of bad blood between the band and the city, and for that matter, between the band members themselves?
Worst of all — (gulp) — will anything untoward happen again?
Whatever the outcome, I’ll be watching and listening, notebook — and, this time, a camera-equipped smartphone, too — in hand.
By Daniel Durchholz for Billboard.com, 2017
Links: Original Riot Article
TurnToDust86 