2010.02.11 - John Varvatos Store, New York, NY, USA

The New York Post, February 12, 2010:

Axl not sweet to fashionistas

While only Fashion Week can persuade Guns N' Roses to play a secret show for 200 fans, it can't force frontman Axl Rose to turn up on time. The rock wildman was nearly three hours late for his show, leaving the well-heeled crowd -- including designer John Varvatos, p.r. icon Kelly Cutrone, One Model Management chief Scott Lipps and photographer Mick Rock -- waiting in a sweaty VIP area until just before 1 a.m. yesterday for the band to take the stage at the Varvatos store in the East Village. Once onstage, Rose -- who one guest said looked like Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" -- wouldn't stop and played until 3 a.m. The band continued the party at E__P, the music venue downstairs, until 5 a.m., when Axl shouted, "We're going to a club." As Axl staggered out, The Post's Brian Niemietz asked him how late he stays out at night and the sweat-drenched star snarled, "As long as it takes."

https://web.archive.org/web/20100216042905/http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/axl_not_sweet_to_fashionistas_VXAHw9Xmi4Rdw05Cx78IDP

Review in New York Magazine/Vulture, February 12, 2010:

Guns N’ Roses Played New York Last Night

By Amos Barshad

Whoa! Guns N’ Roses played a tiny, secret New York show last night and you weren’t there! Don’t feel too bad, though, cause neither were we, or most normal people, actually — it was a Fashion Week party at the John Varvatos store (the former CBGB) with a crowd full of glamorous, famous people like Kevin Bacon and Sebastian Bach, and the line to get in went for hours (if you are a glamorous, famous Vulture reader and actually were there last night, please do tell in the comments). But it wasn’t no skimpy “guest appearance” where a band does three songs and then gets drunk on free Champagne the rest of the night: GNR ran through an awesome seventeen-song set with only three Chinese Democracy tracks (“Catcher in the Rye,” “Street of Dreams,” and “This I Love” — or, as they’re known around Vulture HQ, the two good ones and one shitty one). BrooklynVegan has the whole set list and photos; below, you can check out a lighting-challenged video of Axl Rose awkwardly dancing his way through “My Michelle.” (He’s not used to such petite stages!) By the way, our fashion-forward sisters at The Cut hear Axl may be hanging around the city for the rest of Fashion Week, if you’re into celebrity stalking at all. Anyway, how did you enjoy 30 Rock last night?

https://www.vulture.com/2010/02/guns-n-roses_played_new_york_l.html

Brooklyn Vegan, Feb. 12, 2010:

Guns n Roses played the Varvatos store (pics, video, setlist)

Alberta Cross did in fact play the fashion week party at the Varvatos Store on Thursday night, but it ended up that they were only the opener for a much larger band. That band was Axl Rose and friends aka "Guns n Roses". Packed when it started, people waited for hours for the headliner to appear in the store that used to be CBGB. Over 90 minutes later, after Axl and band had finished a set of seventeen songs to the lucky (and fashionable) people in attendance (like Sebastian Bach and Kevin Bacon), the room was less than half full. People apparently couldn't stay awake - not because of the performance, but because of the (type of crowd it was and the) long wait time followed by the late ending. The show ended around 2:45am.

Pictures from the Brooklyn Vegan article above:

photos by Nate "Igor" Smith









Guns n Roses @ The Varvatos Store, NYC - 2/11/2010 (by theBigPA)



Photos by Josh




https://www.brooklynvegan.com/guns-n-roses-pl-2/#more

I have a google alert set up for my name and saw this forum because of the pictures I took (the top ones, and am in the bottom photos in the denim vest). I just appreciate archival projects like this so I wanted to upload Axl's set list I managed to grab. It was pretty destroyed but it was destroyed by him stepping on it so maybe that's cooler than one in good shape...

Turns out because I am a new member I can't upload anything for a week so here's the end of the servimg link if someone else wants to post it for me.

servimg /u/f80/20/35/69/51/img_7710.jpg

drivenbyboredom wrote:I have a google alert set up for my name and saw this forum because of the pictures I took (the top ones, and am in the bottom photos in the denim vest). I just appreciate archival projects like this so I wanted to upload Axl's set list I managed to grab. It was pretty destroyed but it was destroyed by him stepping on it so maybe that's cooler than one in good shape...

Turns out because I am a new member I can't upload anything for a week so here's the end of the servimg link if someone else wants to post it for me.

servimg /u/f80/20/35/69/51/img_7710.jpg

Thank you and welcome!

Here is the picture:

That's ridiculously cool! Thanks for sharing the setlist image. I will use it in the history section when I add it and credit you.

Did you enjoy the show and did you work for Brooklyn Vegan, or maybe you were a freelance photographer?

That's kinda an interesting story. I'm a freelance photographer and I was actually working for a fashion blog at the time because it was a New York Fashion Week event. The fashion blog put me on the guest list but there were a million people on it and only 150 or so people could get in. By the time I got there it was packed and the people in front of me tried to offer the bouncer $200 to get in but he turned them down. I thought it was hopeless but I saw he was wearing a Pabst Blue Ribbon beanie and so was another security guard so I thought that there was a chance that the Manhattan brand rep for PBR was at the event because he was a friend of mine. I texted him and he was there and he tried to talk to the girl who ran the list and she told him there was no chance she could let anyone in so he came out to tell me. While he was talking to me the bouncer asked him if he had any more hats and he told the guy if he let me in he would hook him up and the guy just let me in. He wouldn't take $200 but he let me in for two PBR beanies. It was crazy.

I was the only photographer there and it was this crazy intimate show and I knew the photos were gonna be valuable so I actually sold them to TMZ. They made fun of Axl and called the gallery "Sweat Child Of Mine" which sucked because I enjoyed the show a ton and didn't want my name on a negative article, but they paid me $1500 for them so I wasn't gonna complain too much. I shoot for Brooklyn Vegan from time to time so I sold them to them as well but for way, way less money. I think I might have even given them to the fashion blog for free since they sent me down there and I sold their photos, but they understood. I also sold a bunch of prints to some GNR fans who found me via TMZ which was cool as well.

I did a write up of the show on my site if you guys want more info: drivenbyboredom DOT com/2010/02/12/guns-roses-john-varvatos/

drivenbyboredom wrote:That's kinda an interesting story. I'm a freelance photographer and I was actually working for a fashion blog at the time because it was a New York Fashion Week event. The fashion blog put me on the guest list but there were a million people on it and only 150 or so people could get in. By the time I got there it was packed and the people in front of me tried to offer the bouncer $200 to get in but he turned them down. I thought it was hopeless but I saw he was wearing a Pabst Blue Ribbon beanie and so was another security guard so I thought that there was a chance that the Manhattan brand rep for PBR was at the event because he was a friend of mine. I texted him and he was there and he tried to talk to the girl who ran the list and she told him there was no chance she could let anyone in so he came out to tell me. While he was talking to me the bouncer asked him if he had any more hats and he told the guy if he let me in he would hook him up and the guy just let me in. He wouldn't take $200 but he let me in for two PBR beanies. It was crazy.

I was the only photographer there and it was this crazy intimate show and I knew the photos were gonna be valuable so I actually sold them to TMZ. They made fun of Axl and called the gallery "Sweat Child Of Mine" which sucked because I enjoyed the show a ton and didn't want my name on a negative article, but they paid me $1500 for them so I wasn't gonna complain too much. I shoot for Brooklyn Vegan from time to time so I sold them to them as well but for way, way less money. I think I might have even given them to the fashion blog for free since they sent me down there and I sold their photos, but they understood. I also sold a bunch of prints to some GNR fans who found me via TMZ which was cool as well.

I did a write up of the show on my site if you guys want more info: drivenbyboredom DOT com/2010/02/12/guns-roses-john-varvatos/

Well, aren't you lucky Thanks for sharing that cool story with us. Always great to hear from people who have been at the shows, especially these more exclusive ones.

Thank you for sharing, @drivenbyboredom

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From a later interview (January 7, 2011) with John Varvatos in the Wall Street Journal:

John Varvatos wrote:Guns N' Roses came to the Bowery store to headline New York Fashion Week and they were meant to perform four songs for me. In the end, they played for two and a half hours solid. It was a complete surprise and an amazing show that was talked about for weeks. One of the guys from ZZ Top said it was one of his five greatest moments in music.

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/SB10001424052748704679204575647231557222208

Interestingly, in June 2013, Tommy's oldest daughter was working at the John Varvatos store in New York:



Did she work there before the show in February 2010 and were somehow involved in getting GN'R to play there? Did she get the job because GN'R played there? Or just coincidental?