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Rating: There are true artists and there are not true artists.
There are people who know how to put heart and soul into what they do, who put their face into it even when it's ridiculous, and there are those who hide behind a thousand special effects and good advertising.
Axl Rose is back live. The world seems to have forgotten, but by the late 80s-early 90s the Guns n' Roses were all the rage in every corner of the globe, surpassing the popularity of Metallica and being adored by thousands of fans. They had a kitschy macho metalhead image, played rough hard rock, but melodic, and had a singer with a voice that perhaps wasn't the best, but live was enthralling.
Then they too broke up, lost in legal battles and whatnot, until in the end only Axl kept the "band" Gn'R. After endless back and forths, Axl, the only one along with Izzy Sradlin and Dizzie from the old band, returned to perform as Guns n' Roses and produced an album, "Chinese Democracy", announced and denied multiple times. They were considered over, people said he no longer had a voice, that he was pathetic.
I'll tell you the truth: Axl never really had a voice, and now, with age and excesses, it certainly hasn't improved. Between one piece and another, he relies on his guitarists for endless solos whose sole function is to let him catch his breath. Not to mention that his show is a compendium of the most kitsch hard rock imagery ever produced, and his songs... well, they're decidedly passé. But this band managed to put on a great concert, because those pieces, 15 years old, like "Welcome to the jungle", the track with which they opened the show, have the same vibe, energy, and ferocity as before.
Because those pieces are fun, because that's rock n' roll. And then there's Axl, a great entertainer, someone who gives everything he's got, someone who believed in this band until it became ridiculous. A man who has passion, and passion should always be respected. The Guns played for more than two hours, mainly digging up the street repertoire from "Appetite for Destruction" without forgetting classics like "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" or "November Rain", in front of an audience of both new and old gunners, absolutely electrified.. Small note of color: at the end of the concert, Axl invited a dear old friend to sing, who turned out to be... Sebastian Bach! The leader of Skid Row! And I thought back to those days, guys!
And then there are the others. I was curious to hear the Deftones and Korn, two bands emblematic of so-called nu metal. The first to perform were the Deftones, in the sunny afternoon, penalized by the time slot and a lousy soundcheck. Chico Moreno is someone who believes in what they do, and for this reason, they have a big following, especially among the young, but their performance came across as a little subdued, and I can't stand it when someone writes a somewhat melodic song as if to say, well, now get emotional. It's true that bashing emos is like shooting fish in a barrel, but it is what it is, I come from an era without MTV, emos, and emo haircuts.
The Korn have a very powerful impact. You have to acknowledge that. Their sound is really nice and original, compact and very strong, although there are the usual melodic openings... and that's where they lose me. Maybe seeing them years ago was different, but now, with two drummers on stage, backup singers dressed as bunnies and all that, it feels a lot like a "showbiz spectacle" rather than a rock concert. In short, you can tell from various things that Korn have surpassed this dimension, partly because of their image, partly because they replay all their old songs hastily and as a token medley. In short.
And then there are true artists, who have things to say. The Alice in Chains, folks. It was somewhat of a leap into the void to see them. I loved Alice in Chains and I loved the voice of Layne Staley, their extraordinary, tormented, drug-addicted singer, who left us many years after Kurt Cobain's resounding suicide, which marked my entire generation, he left quietly, without a fuss. Finding someone with a voice like that, given Staley's unique voice, was impossible, and indeed it was. The new singer is good, engaging, and very respectful, and is not, nor does he want to be, Staley. There was an emotional Jerry Cantrell, exactly the same as ten years ago, still with his Viking hair. They were all there, and there were their magnificent songs.
Maybe the operation is questionable, but when they did "No Excuses", one of the many songs in which Cantrell and Staley sang in countermelody, you understood that half of Staley was Cantrell, that the pieces were so special thanks to both of them, and then, with such beautiful songs ("We Die Young", "Roosters", "Am I Wrong", "Man in the Box", "Again", just to name a few) why should you stop playing?
There are artists who matter, who are true, and artists who are not.
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