2011.11.09 - Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, USA

DjASHBA Guns N' Roses - Norman, Oklahoma - Tonight!!! Who's coming???? about 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite

gunsnroses Thank you OMAHA! that was good! REAL GOOD! Now busting down to NORMAN, OK! who's rockin with us tonight? #SOONERGuns 28 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

gunsnroses Good times at @OULloydNoble tonight! Thank you BOOMER SOONERS! And Happy Birthday to @DjAshba p.s. He likes "likes' on http://t.co/95t1OCD8. 30 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

DjASHBA Thank you Norman, Oklahoma, what a great crowd, were off to Kansas City!!! Such a great birthday night!!!! Now if... fb.me/UWJ4TVog 2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

One month ago, a viral video of Guns N' Roses performing "Welcome to the Jungle" in Rio de Janeiro immediately downgraded expectations for Axl Rose's Wednesday/Thursday performance at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. In the widely circulated clip that hit major music blogs in early October, Rose looked desperately out of shape and sounded just as desperately out of tune.

But what a difference a month makes.

When Rose took the stage at 10:45 p.m. after an opening set by Oklahoma City's Hinder, he looked fit and sounded much like the snake-dancing dervish who dominated stadiums in the late-1980s and early 1990s. Launching into the title track from 2008's "Chinese Democracy" and immediately hitting the crowd with "Jungle," he seemed to have no trouble reaching the high notes and, just as importantly, sustaining them. And he kept doing it for three solid hours, a massive march through "Appetite for Destruction," "G N' R Lies," "Use Your Illusion" and "Chinese Democracy" that drove roughly half the crowd back to their beds before the last explosive notes of "Paradise City" rang out at 1:45 a.m. Thursday morning.

This has been standard operating procedure for Guns N' Roses on this tour: start late, play long. Rose seemed to relish the wee hours, telling the crowd at the start of the 1 a.m. encore, "I hope all those who left early enjoyed their Lady Gaga albums."

But along the way, the 49-year-old Rose gave the audience nearly everything on their wish lists, running through "Appetite" classics such as "It's So Easy," "Mr. Brownstone" and "Rocket Queen" and carefully dispensing tracks from "Chinese Democracy" such as "Sorry" and "Better" in between the crowd pleasers.

Of course, that wry title for G N' R's most recent album almost describes what the band has become. Thanks to a legal maneuver dating back two decades, Rose owns Guns N' Roses, but by all appearances he is a benevolent dictator, showcasing his band members throughout the set. While most Guns N' Roses fans acknowledge that the quintessential lineup would include Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin and either Steven Adler or Matt Sorum playing behind Rose, the current lineup is more than up to the task of performing G N' R's back catalog. Rose first ceded the spotlight to guitarist Richard Fortus for a hard-edged take on the James Bond theme before segueing into "Live and Let Die." Bassist Tommy Stinson sang lead on The Who's "My Generation" and longtime keyboardist Dizzy Reed played a solo version of The Who's "Baba O'Riley." Lead guitarist D.J. Ashba took an extended lead before playing the familiar opening notes of "Sweet Child O' Mine," and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal played "The Pink Panther Theme" as a lead-in to "Don't Cry."

Along the way, Rose indulged in two choice AC/DC covers from the Bon Scott era: "Riff Raff" and "Whole Lotta Rosie." All these detours pushed the running time for the concert into endurance test territory, but just when energy started to lag in the arena, a stone-cold classic like "November Rain" or "Nightrain" would shock the crowd back to life.

Rose, who frequently left the stage to change hats or leather jackets, kept a quick pace, running up and down the stage ramps during the encore -- Ashba couldn't quite keep up, tumbling down a ramp near the end of the show. But Rose's pace was better than the concert's as a whole: as much as he might resist it, trimming some "Chinese Democracy" tracks in favor of the better and better-known early material would keep more people in the seats, even late into the night. But Rose proved that he could still cut it, and that the online evidence of his decline was either greatly exaggerated or simply no longer true.