1989.09.29 - L.A. Weekly - L.A. Dee Da (Axl)

Transcript (excerpts):
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Perhaps because on any given day it’s a good bet that it’s someone’s birthday, on any given night the China Club seems to attract a full complement of stars. Former Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers got a feel for the China Club’s stage last Saturday night when his tennis buddies John McEnroe and Mats Willander traded their rackets for guitars, joined by Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye, while Eddie Money shared the mike with the lead singer of Europe. Yes’ Allen White, John Entwistle and Boy George O’Dowd (coiffed of late in short brown hair) stayed off-stage, where they were overrun by a surfeit of Steve Jones fans arriving from his Foundations Forum showcase at Hollywood Live.

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After Steve Jones split the stage, Hollywood Live’s main room stayed packed for Faith No More’s late set; it was their second of the evening, as they’d come straight from Irvine Meadows Amphitheater and opening for Metallica. And that’s when we started noticing that Jon Bon Jovi’s “Lay Your Hands on Me” credo has spread like wildfire among LA’s resident rock gods. Axl Rose, for instance, clad in Lip Service’s “SEX?” print, spent the better part of Faith No More’s show letting himself be manhandled in the rough-and-ready “mosh” pit (that’s the metal term for slam-dancing). Is it coincidence that we were also wearing Lip Service and hanging around in — or at least alarmingly near—the mosh pit, or another case of great minds working alike? Axl’s not the only piece of starflesh relishing the laying-on of hands: as party-boy David Lee Roth told us last week at Bordello, “Oh, you know, I like to come here, have a few drinks, then go home and count the pinch marks on my ass.” Yes, kids, it’s Diamond Dave’s New Math: “I count ’em up, divide by two, and that’s how many new friends I’ve made that night.”