2021.09.21 - Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, USA

As a longtime Peanuts fan I approve.

Duff on Instagram:
Badass St Paul! What a fun gig and killer crowd! I sound like a damn broken record...but this tour is KILLING it with how good our audiences have been! Tonite AGAIN, was super special! Photo @tadao310



https://www.instagram.com/p/CUHG5rcsVDa/

Soulmonster wrote:As a longtime Peanuts fan I approve.

Wow I missed that this is an obvious Peanuts reference. I just thought it was a cool artwork but now that you mentioned it is so obvious, I can't understand how I missed it.

In my opinion these posters artwork are the best thing about this "reunion" tour. They clearly hired a pro do that and there is clearly someone putting some thoughts and creative efforts in all of these posters. I wonder if Axl himself is involved and I would be happy if he was --- that would mean he still has some creative juices flowing and that would mean he is able to have some fun with the whole thing.

On a side note, I find extremely amusing that all the four employees are completely ignored on most of (all of?) this artwork/promo stuff. It is as if they didn't even exist.

that is the fucking dream!

Melissa on Instagram:
#stpaul #minneapolis #minnesota
#xcelenergycenter
Last night was killer!!! And though I was not thrilled with my color blocked full #tonal fit (VPL and some other functional reasons) I was still overcome with happiness and gratitude cuz u guys came ready!!! ????. Beautiful music city with beautiful fans . Biggest hugs and loves - M/Blue
PS - I feel like there is almost signs of ab muscle emerging ???? (felt the need to post IG proof). Let’s see what happens with this working out thing ????️‍�????????

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUI-Ti2LIkG/

Dizzy on Instagram:
Hiding out behind Axls piano b4 the show @summerfest #milwaukee & after battling #insomnia for the last 3 nites & being concerned i’d have no energy for the show (as you can c from the pic I took b4 hitting the stage) @xcelenergyctr I want to say thank you #minneapolis for sharing all your amazing energy w/me cause you guys rocked so hard that you got me through! Don’t know what i’d do w/out all your love & support #gunsnroses #gnr #dizzyreed #tourlife #rocknroll



https://www.instagram.com/dizzyfnreed/p/CUJh2C4ryOd/

Official photos:

Review, Star Tribune, Sept. 22, 2021:

*
Lots of distance for fans — social and otherwise — at Guns N' Roses show at Xcel Energy Center

Stars Axl Rose and Slash returned to a downsized Twin Cities crowd.

By Chris Riemenschneider

Welcome to the post-COVID concert jungle.

Guns N' Roses came to Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night a year later than planned, at a smaller venue than planned, and with a lot of uncertainty still hovering over the show like the dark cloud of hair that looms above the band's iconic guitarist, Slash.

The first of two concerts on back-to-back nights at the St. Paul arena — followed by British pop star Harry Styles on Wednesday — GNR did not implement any kind of vaccine or mask requirement despite the concert being moved indoors. Attendance may have suffered because of it.

Ticket prices were, um, slashed in the days leading up to the concert to around half-price. And that's after the show was already downsized from Target Field last summer (with about a 35,000-person concert capacity) to the X. Only about 11,000 fans showed up in the end, about 1 in 20 of whom rocked out with masks on. At least there were plenty of empty rows for the fans who did want to play it safe and socially distance.

Conversely, tickets to the Styles concert remain sold out and priced over $200 on the resale market. That's after the former One Direction heartthrob announced both a mask and vaccine/test mandate for all U.S. tour dates.

Of course, the difference in demand may have more to do with career trajectories than COVID worries.

Guns N' Roses filled U.S. Bank Stadium on their 2017 reunion tour, when Slash and bassist Duff McKagan first rejoined frontman Axl Rose in the band after 15 years apart. They haven't really done much of note since then, though, and have only one revered album to their name — although 1987's "Appetite for Destruction" remains one of rock's most celebrated records. Especially in hockey arenas in Middle America.

Tuesday's concert at least offered some noteworthy new music, courtesy of opening band Mammoth, the group Wolfgang Van Halen formed following last year's death of his father, guitar god Eddie Van Halen.
The 30-year-old rock vet — he joined his dad's namesake band as a bassist at age 16 — sounded more like the offspring of Foo Fighter Dave Grohl throughout the 35-minute set, in a good way. He shredded more as a deep-howler singer than as a guitarist during grungy and hard-driving but melodic anthems such as "Don't Back Down" and "Circles." There was still plenty of guitars, though. Two other axemen rounded out the live lineup after Wolfie played all the instruments on Mammoth's album; so he still has a little of Dad's great showoff attitude in him.

GNR hit the stage promptly at 8 p.m. — unheard of in the old days! — and opened with two old favorites, "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone."

Shaky at first, Rose sounded warmed up by the time he bellowed and screeched through "Chinese Democracy," title track to GNR's Slash-less 2008 album. That was followed by "Slither," a song from the guitarist's 2000s-era band Velvet Revolver with McKagan — one of only a handful of Tuesday's tunes not also featured on 2017's GNR set list. (Others included "You're Crazy," the trashy new one "Absurd" and covers of "Wichita Lineman" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog.")

Rose's voice is nowhere near as hair-raising as it was in the band's hairsprayed days. Like Robert Plant, though, the 59-year-old Rose has learned to modify his approach to get around the unreachable notes — a tactic that proved effective in the slower and dirtier "You're Crazy" and that should've been employed in the whimpering "You Could Be Mine."

Slash was, as always, a marksman on guitar throughout the nearly three-hour set. His grimy and downright groovy solo in "Rocket Queen" turned that semi-forgettable oldie into a highlight. His extended solo after "Civil War" — based around Muddy Waters riffs — raised the excitement level just in time for "Sweet Child o' Mine."

Along with "Patience" before the encore — and "Paradise City" at the show's end — the big singalong moments sounded as sweet as ever coming out of quarantine and without the troubled acoustics of the band's last show in town. Too bad a third as many people attended this time.

https://www.startribune.com/lots-of-distance-for-fans-social-and-otherwise-at-guns-n-roses-show-at-xcel-energy-center/600099556

From interview with Wolfgang Van Halen, AL.com, Sept. 20, 2021:

In addition to your band headlining its own shows, Mammoth WVH has been opening for Guns N’ Roses. What’s something you’ve noticed about Slash’s guitar playing from being around GN’R so much lately?

I love just watching him and how effortless he makes it seem, everything he does. It’s always fun to just watch somebody like that do their thing, because you never really get to see it much and so being able to see it every night it’s a treat, for sure.

https://www.al.com/life/2021/09/wolfgang-van-halen-talks-mammoth-wvh-guns-n-roses-tour-van-halen.html

Credits: Meegan Hodges.

Credits: Guilherme Neto

Credits: Trevor Tinberg

[quote="Blackstar"]Duff on Instagram:
Badass St Paul!

bad ass st paul in-fucking-deeed