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Please feel free to look around the forum as a guest, I hope you will find something of interest. If you want to join the discussions or contribute in other ways then you need to become a member. We especially welcome anyone who wants to share documents for our archive or would be interested in translating or transcribing articles and interviews.

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APPETITE FOR DISCUSSION
Welcome to Appetite for Discussion -- a Guns N' Roses fan forum!

Please feel free to look around the forum as a guest, I hope you will find something of interest. If you want to join the discussions or contribute in other ways then you need to become a member. We especially welcome anyone who wants to share documents for our archive or would be interested in translating or transcribing articles and interviews.

Registering is free and easy.

Cheers!
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Soulmonster Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:06 pm

Date:
February 23, 1993.

Venue:
Frank Erwin Center.

Location:
Austin, TX, USA.

Setlist:
01. Welcome to the Jungle
02. Garden of Eden
03. It's So Easy
04. Attitude
05. Double Talkin' Jive
06. The Garden
07. Live and Let Die
08. So Fine
09. You Ain't the First
10. You're Crazy
11. Used to Love Her
12. Patience
13. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
14. Dead Horse
15. You Could Be Mine
16. Sweet Child O'Mine
17. Nice Boys
18. Paradise City

Line-up:
Axl Rose (vocals), Gilby Clarke (rhythm guitarist), Slash (lead guitarist), Duff McKagan (bass), Dizzy Reed (keyboards) and Matt Sorum (drums).

1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Rightarrow Next concert: 1993.02.25.
1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Leftarrow Previous concert: 1993.02.06.
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Wed Apr 24, 2019 12:26 pm

This was the first show of the Skin N' Bones tour.

The weekend before the Austin show, the band (sans Axl) rehearsed in Biloxi, Mississippi. On February 24, 1993, Associated Press ran a story that was printed in many newspapers, saying that the band did a warm-up show at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, open for the public, but only 75 people showed up. From The Monitor:

1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_090
Guns ‘N’ Roses dud without singer Axl

BILOXI, Miss. — A rose may he a rose but without Axl Rose, Guns 'N’ Roses is no draw. At least not in Biloxi.

The rock group — minus their lead singer — practiced for a five-week tour with a weekend warm-up at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The rehearsals were open to the public and free, but only 75 people showed.

Last January, the rowdy band played to a sold-out Coliseum crowd.

“From what we were told, Axl said if they weren’t doing a show here, he would just wait to join them when the tour started,” Coliseum director Bill Holmes said.

The tour was to begin Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

The next day, February 25, Associated Press sent a correction. The Odessa American:

1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_091
CORRECTION

Error

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — The Associated Press erroneously reported Wednesday that a concert rehearsal by Guns N’ Roses only attracted 75 people when Axl Rose, the rock group’s lead singer, did not perform.

The Mississippi Coast Coliseum rehearsal was not publicized and the 75 people who attended had been invited.


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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Wed Apr 24, 2019 12:31 pm

Announcement of the Austin show in the San Antonio Express-News, December 5, 1992:

Tickets for Guns N' Roses' Feb. 23

Tickets for Guns N' Roses' Feb. 23 concert in Austin's Frank Erwin Center will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday through Rainbow TicketMaster outlets in San Antonio, the ticket service has announced.

Tickets, $22.50 plus a $2.50 convenience charge, will be sold at Sound Warehouses and Drug Emporiums. To charge by phone, call 224-9600.

The show will start at 8 p.m. The Brian May Band will open.

On tour since June 1991, the controversial hard-rock band will be making its third swing through Texas but its first to a location other than Dallas or Houston.

Preview in the San Antonio Express-News, February 19, 1993:

Guns N' Roses' road leads to Austin

Nearing the home stretch of a two-year tour that has taken it to every continent except Africa and Antarctica, Guns N' Roses finally will get within hailing distance of San Antonio this week.

Making its fourth Texas visit since the tour began in May, 1991, the band will hit Austin's Erwin Center on Tuesday. This will be the first time Guns N' Roses has played a Texas city other than Dallas or Houston.

By now, most bands would be going through the motions and counting the days until tour's end. As its legions of fans know, Guns N' Roses is not like most other bands.

Each time, the band has given Texas a different look. The Dallas show in July, 1991 (the first after the infamous St. Louis riot) featured guitarist Izzy Stradlin, who left the band at year's end. In January, 1992, Houston saw the Gunners' big-band look backup singers, a horn section and new guitarist Gilby Clarke. Returning to Houston for Labor Day weekend, the band was matched with Metallica and Faith No More for a mini "Monsters of Rock" bill.

The band that comes to Austin has been pared back to the basic sextet in fact, this leg has been dubbed the "Skin and Bones Tour," said a publicist for Geffen, the band's record label.

And, San Antonians who made the road trip to Dallas or Houston, take note: This won't be a carbon copy of those shows.Guns N' Roses will perform songs it has not played on the tour to this point, plus additional musical surprises.

The band, which has hit Europe, Japan, Australia and South America and which will return to Europe once these dates are done in April, has been rapped for habitual tardiness. Reports have indicated that shows begin only when lead singer Axl Rose is good and ready, meaning waits of up to two hours have been commonplace. And once on stage, Rose has been known to vent his spleen at whatever's troubling him at the moment.

But this leg of the tour reportedly is proceeding smoother, in part because opening act the Brian May Band doesn't have a massive setup like Metallica, which meant long delays between sets to haul Metallica's gear out and Guns N' Roses' in.

Still, the band remains unpredictable, going without a set list and challenging the audience's endurance by playing three-hour shows. As Geffen official Bryn Bridenthal noted when the tour began 21 months ago, "The only thing you can count on with these guys is that there's nothing you can count on."

Robert Johnson


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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Wed Apr 24, 2019 1:18 pm

Review in the San Antonio Express-News, February 25, 1993:
Rested Guns N' Roses puts on exciting show

By Robert Johnson
Express-News Asst. Entertainment Editor


AUSTIN - Apparently refreshed by a two-week vacation from its grueling, two-year world tour, Guns N' Roses on Tuesday treated a packed Frank Erwin Center to an exciting show free of arena-rock cliches and problems that had cropped up at other concerts.

For starters, the band, which has kept some audiences waiting as long as two hours, took the stage a mere 42 minutes after the last notes of the opening act, the Brian May Band, had faded. And though lead singer Axl Rose did take a brief jab at Spin magazine for being fickle ("they like all those bands from Seattle - they once thought we were cool," he said), he basically kept his comments to the evening's proceedings.

Did they ever proceed. Eschewing lasers, fog machines and arena-rock gestures in favor of lots of lights and stacks of amplifiers and loudspeakers, Guns N' Roses, in 20 songs spanning two hours, showed a willingness to take chances on unfamiliar material as well as playing the hits. Most of their chances paid off.

Though the band broke with standard practice and used a set list (which it didn't follow to the letter), the show still had a spur-of-the-moment feel. "We only threw this show together two days ago," Rose said. "We had no idea what we were doing until last night."

Despite the time off the band's last show was Feb. 7 in Auckland, New Zealand and a dose of new material, the concert was a rousing mix of high energy and finesse. A roaring version of "Welcome to the Jungle" began the show with an adrenalin rush, which the band rode through a wave of hard-rockers "Garden of Eden," "It's So Easy," the unreleased "Attitude" and "Double Talkin' Jive."

The finesse portion began with "The Garden," which the band hadn't played live before. Two tunes later, a promised unplugged segment began as an army of roadies hauled in microphones, congas, acoustic guitars, a couch and a coffee table. "I thought we'd look like Tesla without the couch," Rose explained.
With Rose alternately lounging on or climbing over the couch and at one point, summoning his chiropractor from offstage to work on his sore shoulder the acoustic Guns N' Roses dusted off "Used to Love Her," another tune making its tour debut. The unplugged set was filled out by "Patience," "You Ain't the First" and "You're Crazy."

And what would playing on a rec-room couch be without food and drink? Two topless waitresses waited on the Gunners between tunes, and a Domino's Pizza delivery boy showed up later. Rose threw the box, which apparently really did have a pizza in it, into the crowd.

Rose took a turn on piano for a grand version of "November Rain," then said, "You're witnessing a first," as he strapped on an acoustic guitar for a version of another new-to-the-tour tune, "Dead Horse."
"I'm stalling because I'm real f---ing nervous," he said, but he played the tune without a hitch.

The set ended in another burst of energy, with a Matt Sorum drum solo segueing into "You Could Be Mine" and a guitar/keyboard duet from Slash and Dizzy Reed leading into "Sweet Child O' Mine." The encore reach back into the past for "Paradise City" and the band's 1986 cover of the Angels' "Nice Boys," which includes a refrain, "Nice boys don't play rock 'n' roll/I'm not a nice boy," that's tailor-made for Guns N' Roses.

Opening act Brian May wrote the "We Will Rock You" segment of Queen's overplayed 1978 hit, "We Are the Champions." But the ex-Queen guitarist made up for that gaffe with a splendid, 55-minute set that incorporated Queen's dense, multilayered sound but left the pretentiousness out.

Playing a half-dozen tracks off his new album, "Back to the Light," May made only one musical nod to his former band when he worked the hard-rock guitar break in "Bohemian Rhapsody" into an extended version of "Resurrection," a track off the new album.

And he seemed happy to be back on stage, greeting the crowd with "It's nice to be back in the land of the living."
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:25 am

Review in Austin American Statesman, February 25, 1993:

1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_010
Bad-boy rocker puts on tame show

Axl Rose pleases young crowd with punctuality, metal sounds

By Pete Szilagyi
American-Statesman Staff

Please don’t worry if strange behavior was observed around your house about 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The teen-aged daughter maybe assumed the black lipstick, black spandex look before she went out. And your clean-cut son who deciphers the computer manual for you rummaged to find his holiest jeans and blackest T-shirt and turned his Dallas Cowboys cap backward.

Not to worry that Axl Rose, the bad boy of rock ’n’ roll, and his band Guns N’ Roses were at the Erwin Center Tuesday night.

That’s the Axl Rose who started a fight with a concert-goer and a riot in St. Louis and then dodged a summons, or the Axl Rose busted recently in Brazil for throwing a chair off a balcony at a group of people, or the same guy whose fans set fires and overturned cars in Montreal after he abruptly ended a concert.

Except for a few lyrics that would send Tipper Gore into backflips and several gratuitous crotch grabs, Rose was a pussycat here in Austin. He even sent the young crowd home at a reasonable hour on a school night. This corrupter of young minds was likable and occasionally funny, if a little bit full of himself and his public image.

I’ve been to Lady Longhorn games at the Erwin Center almost as wild as this, although I can’t remember one where the concession stands sold black G-strings printed with “Guns N’ Roses, Here Today, Gone to Hell.”

Guns N’ Roses may be rock ’n’ roll outlaws, but their fans looked to be a cross section of the same under-30 people who might be at Barton Creek Square on a Saturday morning. There wasn’t much pot toking or whiskey sneaking, although hundreds of people gathered in the park across from the arena for pre-concert power drinking. Inside the nonsmoking auditorium, the crime of the evening seemed to be furtive cigarette palming and smoke fanning.

In the line snaking into an Erwin Center’s men’s room, pre-concert speculation centered on when the show would start. Guns N’ Roses is not at all punctual — at an Ohio concert last year, they showed up 4-1/2 hours late. Here in Austin, the band startled the audience by beginning just after 10 p.m., roughly the scheduled time.

The arena was almost packed full, with folding chairs set up wherever there was room. In our row, the fourth from the floor, we sat next to a couple of pleasant young guys in jeans and T-shirts who paid a scalper $50 each for their tickets — $27.50 over face value — and they didn’t regret the purchase for a minute. (Top scalped ticket price reportedly was about $150.) Two hours, four changes of clothes, a couple dozen songs and billions of decibels later. Rose had given the audience of 16,700 a lesson in high-energy showmanship that might wrinkle even Garth Brooks’ starched shirt.

Rose’s generally well-mannered audience, watched by an army of security guards, were contented to shout and sing, dance in front of their seats and wave lit cigarette lighters.

And the music? Truth be told, the Continental Club probably has higher quality rock ’n’ roll on any given night. But Guns N’ Roses has that large, ear-warping metal sound and catchy choruses that transform a concert into a shared celebration of both rock ’n’ roll and the image of a band that, both figuratively and actually, shoots the world a bird.
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:32 am

Another review in Austin American Statesman, February 25, 1993:

1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_011
Axl leads polite Guns assault

Band delivers solid energy without fuss

By Don McLeese
American-Statesman Staff


It was hard to tell Axl’s stage from Wayne’s World. When Guns N’ Roses played the Erwin Center on Tuesday, a couch and coffee table were rolled to center stage, a couple of topless waitresses began serving the band drinks, a pizza man made an onstage delivery and a chiropractor treated the arm of frontman Axl Rose in the middle of a song. As an anything-goes exercise in antishow-biz show business, it sure beat those freeze-dried spectacles that so often pass for rock these days, choreographed to the last keyboard sample and lighting cue.

In the first concert of a smaller-market tour after last summer’s outdoor stadium extravaganza, the most notoriously over-the-top band in rock attempted to show that less is more. Known for starting riots, keeping audiences waiting interminably and causing controversy by spewing whatever pops into Rose’s head, the band proved its unpredictability this time through by staying on its best behavior.

Over the course of more than two hours, the band showed that it has expanded its vistas without sacrificing the street-level raggedness that gives the music its rock ’n’ roll urgency. While Rose still can screech like a squirrel in heat, with guitarist Slash matching him squall for squeal, the almost-acoustic couch-and-coffee table interlude found the band modulating its performance for maximum effect, showing full (if offhand) command of pacing and dynamics. And with Rose charming the audience in place of his typical rant ’n’ roll, the concert suggested that a band that was once a sure bet to bum out or wear thin just might have considerable staying power.

The spontaneity of the set inspired the band to perform songs it had never before played live, with the edgy psychedelia of The Garden serving as an early highlight. With Rose strumming an acoustic guitar onstage for the first time (and sounding like it), Dead Horse reinforced the impression of a band that places a higher premium on risk than polish. There was a spirit throughout the evening of a band that was making it up as it went along, embracing imperfection for the sake of immediacy, doing whatever felt right at the time rather than submitting to any prescriptions.

If following its own instincts occasionally leads the band astray (the mawkishness of November Rain's piano balladry suggested that Rose should be inoculated for Neil Diamond disease), the band is determined to succeed or stumble on its own terms. And as the music stormed toward a triumphant finale with Sweet Child O’ Mine, it was plain that the band had succeeded in raw, ragged glory.

Opening the show was former Queen guitarist Brian May.

While the late Freddie Mercury provided the overbite that roared within that band, May was the aural architect, as the pomp-rock grandeur of his performance made plain. Though May made no attempt to match the flamboyance of his former bandmate, the hour-long set was decidedly Queenly, from soundalikes such as the title song to May’s new Back in the Light album to a blast from the past with Tie Your Mother Down.
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Tue May 07, 2019 5:18 pm

Review of the Austin show in the Des Moines Register (March 14, 1993) which was published as preview for the show in Iowa City. There is also an interview with Brian May:

1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_022
1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_020
1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA 1993_019
PARTY TIME FOR GUNS N' ROSES

They've proved they’re a great hard rock band. Now they're out to prove that they can be a likable bunch, too.

By PATRICK BEACH
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Austin. Texas — If Guns N Roses' latest tour had a theme song, it might go: "Axl's world! Axl's world! Party time! Excellent!"

The tour, which comes to Iowa City's Carver Hawkeye Arena Saturday, is sort of a "Wayne’s World" fantasy as conceived and executed by convicted felons — a few rowdy friends, some booze, some babes and a great hard rock band.

Because when you take away the debauchery, the tirades, the tardiness, the arrests, riots, personnel problems, divorces, misogyny, overdoses and violence both explicit and implied, that's what remains — a great hard rock band.

But they've proved that already. What they're out to prove this time is that they can be a likable (not to mention punctual) bunch, too.

And darned if they don't just about do it. At the Austin show that kicked off the tour, Guns N' Roses repeatedly risked falling on its collective can in the interest of spontaneity, fun and danger. Vocalist and head loose cannon W. Axl Rose played guitar like a novice and good-naturedly cracked jokes about his ability, or lack thereof. The band also played tunes it had never played live before

Coming off last year’s titanic stadium tour with Metallica, the band ditched its horn section and backup singers and began looking for a way to further peel away the layers.

The result: About eight songs into the show here, the road crew hauled out a couch, a coffee table and some acoustic instruments.

"We’re gonna look like Tesla without the couch," Rose joked, referring to that band’s "Five Man Acoustical
Jam" album.

So here’s this band whose first album sold more copies than any other debut in history, whose legendary decadence would reduce them to caricature if they weren't so deadly serious about it, whose "Use Your Illusion I and II" albums are turning out singles a year and a half after their release, who are with out a doubt one of the biggest bands in the world — not to mention a fascinating study in deviant psychology

And here they are hanging out on a couch in front of 10,700 people, playing guitars and swilling Jack Daniel’s, acting relatively well, normal.

Appetite for destruction? Appetite for Domino's, more like. Drinks were served by a pair of clothing-impaired waitresses; a pizza guy (who was wearing a uniform) dropped by with a pie. It's like a basement party as done by a guerrilla theater group, with Guns N' Roses playing the role of the stereo.

"Everybody," says Roy Hamm, the band's chronically unflappable Geffen Records publicist, "is comparing it to ‘Wayne’s World.’ "

So, Welcome to the rec room.

It's pretty much a given that Guns N' Roses will open shows with "Welcome to the Jungle" and close with “Paradise City." What transpires over the two hours or so in between is anybody's guess, but you can’t help but be transfixed, especially by the volatile Rose. The guy rarely walks; he sprints, and with such speed that you expect him to hurl off the stage and into the crowd. Few singers can absorb and reflect a crowd’s energy, both negative and positive, with such fury.

And, of course, Rose, whose name is an anagram of "oral sex,” has a long history of focusing that fury on enemies real and perceived. The guy’s skin is about as thick as Roseanne and Tom Arnold’s. So early in the show here, he slammed former GN’R guitarist and songwriter Izzy Stradlin, random nonspecific Seattle bands, Spin magazine and other unfriendlies.

"Right now in somebody’s eyes, Axl Rose is throwing a tantrum,” Rose observed.

Well, he was. But as tantrums go, it was an entertaining one.

Rose’s energy and unpredictability make for shows that are far from technically perfect, and the band’s willingness to eschew such technical perfection is to be commended. There is much more to good rock ’n’ roll than hitting all the right notes and standing on spot X at the right time.

The acoustic set ended with a slow build-up from "Patience” to “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door" and "November Rain,” which featured Rose on piano.

"Don't worry; it only gets worse," Rose said, putting on an acoustic guitar for "Dead Horse."

“You can see why I don’t do that for a living," Rose said afterward.

While Rose may have a way to go before taking on Eric Clapton, he has grown considerably as a singer. The Edith Bunker screech — one of the most distinctive voices in rock whether you like it or not — is still there. But he’s exploring other less shrill sounds, and his voice here sounded seasoned and confident.

The band, anchored by drummer Matt Sorum, is coherent and engaged, which is surprising if tales of some members’ drug and alcohol habits are to be believed. Half-man, half-beast guitarist Slash is a narcoleptic Keith Richards to Rose’s Mick Jagger; bassist Duff McKagan has the charisma of a front man; guitarist Gilby Clarke even looks like Izzy; Dizzy Reed on keyboards provides welcome color.

While visually it may be very much the Axl Rose show, there's little doubt that Guns N Roses functions as a band, not a herd of backing musicians. The thrash-paced “Garden of Eden,” which the band somehow held together, proved that. So did the four-part vocal harmonies on "Patience.”

The band also attempted the elaborate and slightly psychedelic “The Garden,” from "Use You Illusion I."

Aside from a few oddball tracks aimed at keeping the band and hard-core fans engaged, it’s mostly a torrent of strong hits — "You Could Be Mine,” "Live and Let Die" and of course "Sweet Child O’ Mine.” All of them are tough enough to appeal to metal and hard rock purists yet just smooth enough to reach pop fans.

This may be a kinder, gentler Guns N Roses, but they’re not family fare yet. This is a band, after all, that has a clause in its contract rider requiring an assortment of pornographic magazines backstage. Some members continue to drink and take drugs at a pace that would terrify Led Zeppelin.

But barring some unforeseen catastrophe, none of that tabloid stuff will matter for a couple of hours this Saturday. Guns N’ Roses will hit the stage hard and deliver a bracing set — couch, coffee table and all.

Party on, Axl.

Transcript of parts of the Brian May interview:
Brian May feels slightly on trial in opening act

By PATRICK BEACH
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


Brian May opening for Guns N’ Roses is kind of like Chuck Berry opening for the Beach Boys.

Without the former, there probably wouldn’t have been a latter.

You can hear a lot of Queen, May’s old band, in Guns N’ Roses, especially in guitarist Slash. So having May open is the band’s way of thanking him.

“Guns N’ Roses did not need us to sell tickets," May said last week from a Toronto hotel room. “So you always feel slightly on trial.”

[...]

Because of the trials May has had in his life, does he ever offer angry young man W. Axl Rose any advice?

"I’ve had a lot of long conversations with Axl,” he said. "I have a great admiration for them all as a band and as individuals. But I have this fatherly feeling, particularly for Axl. Axl is hard to handle for a lot of people. That makes him vulnerable. He’s a very honest person. I feel a great love for the guy.”

And he’s sharing the stage with the guy, pouring it out night after night.

"Rock ’n roll actually does give you a way of screaming out and speaking from inside and finding humor and joy in life again,” said May, 45. "It’s a very physical thing, rock music. For me to get from total blackness to the light, it felt like a lifetime’s journey.”

And performing?

"It’s physically hard at the moment,” he said. "I’m screaming my lungs out and bashing away at this guitar, sweat running into my eyes, but I love it. This is where I feel, strangely enough, at home. And there’s still stuff to do.”
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Blackstar Sun May 19, 2019 9:27 pm



There are those out there that, to them, it doesn’t matter what we do. They’ll always have a problem with us. And it seems that they like a lot of the bands in Seattle. And I like a lot of bands in Seattle, and I remember when a lot of these people, like Spin Magazine and shit, when they hated everybody else but they thought that we were cool. But when we didn’t want to suck their dick like they thought we would, then we weren’t cool anymore. Which means that right now in somebody’s eyes, “Axl Rose is throwing a tantrum.”
[Makes a funny sound] Well, that’s what this little show is all about. Especially this tour. What you’re gonna see tonight is, some of the songs we’ve been doing in the summer and a lot of shit we’ve never played live anywhere. We’ll be doing – in the middle of the show we have a small [?] break where we’re gonna put together an acoustic set. We haven’t done something like that since on MTV [?]  There’s a lot of bands that are going, “We don’t want to be like U2 or Guns N’ Roses, [?] .” Well, we just wanted to see if we could fuckin’ pull out the big show; that was all. And sorry, but we’re big like that because of you. So now we’re gonna have some fun trying a bit of a show that’s kind of hard work, since we just threw it together about two days ago. Even though it was planned and we sold tickets a long time ago, we still had no idea what we were doing until last night. So [?], we’ll try to have a good time tonight. And anybody who says we’re trying to rip you off or kiss ass or that it’s contrived, they can suck my dick and they’re nothing but a bunch of Double Talkin’ Jive motherfucker. [Onstage at Frank Erwin Center, Austin, TX, USA, February 23, 1993]
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1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA Empty Re: 1993.02.23 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA

Post by Soulmonster Fri Feb 24, 2023 7:13 am

Review by @Rockphantom posted at mygnrforum:

Rockphantom wrote:Guns N' Roses
***TEXAS REDHEAD MASSACRE****
Frank Erwin Center
February 23, 1993
Austin, Texas

The opening night of the Skin N' Bones tour in Austin, Texas on February 23rd, 1993 holds a very special place in my heart.
Deep in the Heart Of Texas, Guns N' Roses delivered one of the best concerts I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I was 15 years old at the time of the February 23rd, 1993 Guns show in Austin, TX. Growing up on the Texas/Mexico border, I never imagined that I would ever have the opportunity to see my favorite band of all time, Guns N' F**kin' Roses. Thanks to my compassionate mom, I was able to see GNR not once, but twice, on the epic Use Your Illusion World Tour. Mom knew how much the band meant to me. She was kind enough to take me on road trips to see Guns N' Roses at the Astrodome in Houston during the Metallica tour on September 4th, 1992, as well as on February 23rd, 1993 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

Out of the two shows, the stripped down Austin Skin N' Bones performance was in a league of its own.
Seeing Guns without the deadweight circus act composed of background singers, horn section, and additional keyboard player, was something special which I will always remember...

The live debut of Garden of Eden, and The Garden, as well as the extremely loose feel of the Austin show, make this particular performance shine.
The 30 minute acoustic set, as well as rare live renditions of deep cuts make the Austin gig stand out from the later Skin N' Bones shows, especially the formulaic European summer of 1993 performances which were heavily bootlegged.

From the way that Axl, Slash, Duff, Matt, Gilby, and, Dizzy, blew Texas away on that warm winter night, I could sense they enjoyed performing,
probably as much as I did absorbing their explosive exhibition of no holds barred rock and sensitive acoustic ballads.

Speaking of the mid-show acoustic performance, I was quite surprised that the band brought out a couch, grand piano, and topless waitresses, for their "unplugged" set.
I did not expect an intimate acoustic set from Guns after the 2+ hour stadium rock spectacular which I'd witnessed in Houston six months prior.

Even a Domino's Pizza man made his way onstage to present the band with a special delivery.
I do remember that the pizza box was thrown into the first row of the audience. I was always curious as to what may have been in that box.

The Domino's pizza box wasn't the only thing that made its way from the stage into the audience. During Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Axl made an appearance in the back of the venue for some good ol' fashioned audience participation.
How Axl managed to appear in the back of the venue, out of thin air, without being mobbed, I will never know. Perhaps the Erwin Center has a secret entrance?


Watching Axl make his debut on guitar during the intro to Dead Horse was unexpected.
At the conclusion of the song Slash announced "Axl Rose on guitar!", and Duff put his arm around Axl to congratulate him.

The only unfortunate personal experience I had at the Austin concert was the nosebleed which occurred during Slash's blues jam right before Sweet Child O' Mine. I recall blood trickling out of my left nostril and down my throat and thinking "OH GOD, NOT NOW!!" As a teen, I suffered from chronic nosebleeds during the winter season. Sitting in the "nosebleeds", near the top of the Erwin Center, I wasn't caught off guard by my bloody nose. Thankfully, I was given some tissue paper by my mom, and was able to contain the mess until after the gig. I remember being pressured to go to the bathroom before the encores, but I refused to leave my seat and enjoyed the rest of the show with blood soaked hands and a bloodied face. Sure, the nosebleed was an inconvenience, but this was Rock N' Roll!

Near the very end of Paradise City, as Axl was running towards the front of the stage, in a split-second, my instincts told me that I would never have a chance to see GNR in their prime again, as the end was near.
Unfortunately, my instincts were right...

In case you were wondering, my mom who once *LOATHED* Guns N' Roses in the late 80's, was won over at the Houston & Austin Illusion Era gigs that we experienced, and is now a huge GNR fan!

2023 Update: 30 years later, and the Austin '93 Guns N' Roses concert was the hands down BEST concert I have EVER seen, and I have been to hundreds of shows since 1993!
If anyone from GNR Inc. or Team Brazil is reading this, I would HAPPILY spend $1000 (yes, one THOUSAND U.S. dollars) on an official Austin '93 BD/DVD9/2CD release.
Sure, I would not expect Ritz '91 HD quality from a 30 year old house show feed, but as long as the Austin '93 video quality was as good as the Oklahoma City '92 Pro-Shot, I would be happy.
What are your thoughts @Fernando ??

Fun fact: I remember the Austin '93 tickets costing ONLY $22.50 plus a $3.50 service fee, which is unbelievable, when you consider how much concert tickets cost these days.

Sadly, the Frank Erwin Center is scheduled for demolition this year.
In addition to GNR, I also caught AC/DC, Journey, Tom Petty, and many other shows over the years as a resident of Austin, at the Erwin Center.
This iconic Austin landmark will be missed...

I was going to write a new article on the GNR Austin '93 show.
However, I am very busy in my personal life and my memories of the Austin show have faded, so I simply added to my 2005 review of this legendary gig...

GNRonTour.com Setlist Info:

02.23.93 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, TX
opening act: Brian May Band
set: Welcome To The Jungle, Garden Of Eden, It's So Easy, Attitude, Double Talkin' Jive, The Garden, Live And Let Die, So Fine, You Ain't The First, You're Crazy, Used To Love Her, Patience, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Piano Solo, November Rain, Dead Horse, Drum Solo, You Could Be Mine, Guitar Solo, Guitar / Piano Jam, Sweet Child O' Mine
encore: Nice Boys, Paradise City

There is a nice Limulus remastered recording of the Austin show that was captured by Chris Milazzo and shared years ago.
Ask any of the well known GNR live recording traders (OUTSIDE OF THIS FORUM), and they should have a link to share. 😉
rockphantom
August 20th, 2005/February 23rd, 2023
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