Back in the early-‘90s, there weren’t too many other rock bands that could incite more excitement in fans while simultaneously striking fear in the hearts of concert promoters and their security teams worldwide than Guns N’ Roses!

From the moment I first heard the intoxicatingly awesome guitar riff on both “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, the drum beats on “You Could Be Mine” (that feel as if they’re hunting you down),  or the over-the-top yet everlastingly memorable video for “November Rain”, I was hooked.

Make that hopelessly addicted, actually. I knew full well that these wanton individuals from the debaucherous streets of Los Angeles were “bad” for me during my formative teenage years (something my mother constantly reminded me of), but it all fell on deaf ears. I’m not kidding; I don’t think my hearing has ever been the same since GN’R and Metallica nearly tore down Toronto’s rickety old Exhibition Stadium in September of 1992!

I literally wore out the ribbon on my cassette copies of Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion (both I and II). Yes kids, I used to listen to Guns N’ Roses over and over on my bright yellow Sony Sports Walkman… GN’R are that old!

I also thought at the time that they would be a group to be reckoned with for years to come… as long as they kept their $#!& together… which they didn’t, to no one’s surprise. Drugs, booze, infighting, erratic behavior (not to mention more than a few riots at concerts), and the rise of Nirvana and alternative rock in general all combined to bring the Gunners down, except in one person’s eyes.

I can’t even begin to imagine what lead singer Axl Rose’s life has been like over the last 15 years or so. He’s seen every “classic lineup” member who had played a note with the band from 1985 to 1994 leave under less-than-friendly circumstances, most notably the incomparable, top hat-wearing Slash, yet that hasn’t seemed to faze him. I honestly think that in his mind, “Guns N’ Roses”, whatever the incarnation, are still at the top of the rock pile, even though it’s painfully obvious that hasn’t been the case in a long time. New members have been rotated in and out ever since, with Axl at the helm, all leading up to the recording and release of his own “Mr. Rose’s Opus”, Chinese Democracy, the follow-up album to end all follow-up albums, which finally saw the light of day in November of 2008, long after I had stopped caring about GN’R.

I didn’t pay much attention as the record failed to impress, both sales-wise and critically. It underwhelmed, to say the least. And for all the work he put in to it, Axl himself didn’t seem all that interested either, as he promptly went into hiding for close to a year instead of oh, I dunno, helping recoup even a fraction of Geffen Records’ reported $13 million investment in him and his band of “hired guns.”

That is until now. Team GN’R broke their silence this past October with the surprising announcement that they would be going on tour in 2010 in support of Chinese Democracy, beginning January 13^th in Winnipeg, Manitoba, of all places, followed by an additional 12 dates across Canada, making stops in pretty much every major city in the country you can think of apart from Vancouver. I guess there are still some hard feelings in “Vansterdam” due to Axl not appearing for a concert in 2002, causing yet another infamous GN’R riot. And don’t get me wrong about The ‘Peg; the city has a great rock history, but there aren’t many more colder places in the Western Hemisphere they could have chosen from to kick off their first North American shows in over three years. Fans may start to riot just to keep warm!

While it’s been ages since they’ve even been a blip on my rock radar, Canada has always been there to welcome Axl with open arms as he’s tried to keep the GN’R brand name top of mind with people. Take my younger brother Mike for example. He took our other brother Robbie to go see Axl & Company the last time they passed through town on November 15, 2006 as a 26^th birthday present. But Axl, as only Axl can seem to get away with, decided to wait until almost midnight before hitting the Air Canada Centre stage! Fed up and having to work the next day, Robbie stormed out, leaving Mike to have his frigging socks rocked off until well past two in the morning!

When properly motivated, Axl can still enthrall a crowd. Am I potentially missing out on something earth-shattering when he returns to T.O. on January 28^th? I had been clean and sober from GN’R for so many years, I had almost forgot how dangerously thrilling their music can be. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but one night just before Christmas, I fell off the proverbial wagon by looking up some info on the four shows recently played in Asia as part of the latest Chinese Democracy tour leg (an appropriate place for them to start given the album’s “oxymoronic” title).

Axl may be crazy, he may even be bipolar as has been rumored, but he’s not stupid, that’s for sure. He’s smart enough to realize that if he’s going to get people en masse behind the “new” GN’R, he needs to pull out all the stops in terms of a live show, to give people an experience they won’t soon forget. And I’ll be darned, if YouTube is any indication, Axl may be on his way to doing it! After coming out more than an hour late at their last gig, Axl and his Guns proceeded to rock the Tokyo Dome for three and a half freaking hours, featuring extended band jams, instrumental solos from all seven touring members (including Axl on piano), and a setlist filled with every “hit” a GN’R fan could hope for, topped off with every headbanger’s favorite closer, “Paradise City”!

Axl’s once skin-tight leather pants have been let out a bit, and he’s breathing heavier between lyrics, but the intensity is there, the conviction that GN’R can still be an important band in today’s rock landscape. Speaking of “the band,” they don’t sound half bad either. They’re not Slash, Izzy Stradlin, and Duff McKagan, but “Chinese Democracy” does have a devil horns-worthy riff to it (Axl’s howling is also in good form), songs like “Shackler’s Revenge” and “Better” move in an industrial strength, Nine Inch Nails-like direction while paying homage to the never die GN’R spirit, and the piano-heavy “Street of Dreams” (formerly called “The Blues” when last played live in Canada) is just plain awesome!

Not awesome in a “15 years in the making”-kind of way, mind you, but it would definitely be one of the tunes I’d be looking forward to hearing on January 28^th at the ACC! I wonder what my brother Robbie is doing that night?

Guns N’ Roses 2009/2010 Tour Dates:
01/13 – Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
01/16 – Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome
01/17 – Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
01/19 – Saskatoon, SK @ Credit Union Centre
01/20 – Regina, SK @ Brandt Centre
01/24 – Hamilton, ON @ Copps Coliseum
01/25 – London, ON @ John Labatt Centre
01/27 – Montreal, QB @ Bell Centre
01/28 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
01/31 – Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Palace
02/01 – Quebec City, QB @ Colisee Pepsi
02/03 – Moncton, NB @ Moncton Coliseum
02/04 – Halifax, NS @ Metro Centre
03/07 – Brasilia, Brazil @ Nilson Nelson Gym
03/10 – Belo Horizonte, Brazil @ Mineirinho Arena
03/13 – São Paulo, Brazil @ Morumbi Stadium
03/14 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil @ Apoteose Park
03/16 – Porto Alegre, Brazil @ Zequinha Stadium
03/18 – Montevidéu, Uruguai – Centenario Stadium
03/20 – Buenos Aires, Argentina @ River Plate Stadium
03/21 – Buenos Aires, Argentina @ River Plate Stadium
03/25 – Lima, Peru @ San Marcos Stadium
03/28 – Caracas, Venezuela @ Poliedro Space