Live | Guns N’ Roses [support: The Pretenders] – Evenemententerrein – Weert [NL]

11 July 2023

Last Tuesday, Guns N’ Roses once again visited the Netherlands for a show. First, this show was supposed to take place in Landgraaf, but due to disappointing advance sales, the show was moved to Evenemententerrein Weert. In the end, just over 20,000 visitors were able to enjoy a hefty best of Guns N’ Roses set list. Responsible for warming up the crowd, on this already tremendously hot day, was Chrissie Hynde, with her Pretenders.

THE PRETENDERS

This 70-plus year old young lady presented her hits to the audience for an hour. Hits like ,,Don’t Get Me Wrong’’ or ,,I’ll Stand By You’’ are obviously world-class songs and we are dealing here with a true legend. Whether this is the act that makes the heart of many a Guns fan beat faster, I am not so sure. In any case, the golden circle is still pretty empty and I have the feeling that the majority of the visitors have skipped today’s special guest. Although I have to conclude that Chrissie still has a good set of vocal chords, because her singing is of a more than decent level. Nice to have seen once, but no more than that.

GUNS N’ ROSES

After the Pretenders set, the stage was prepared for the evening’s main act. And as befits Guns N’ Roses, they let up a little longer than previously intended and arrived by helicopter. The festival grounds steadily filled with people. To be divided into the old guard, who had already seen the band at work in the 80s/90s, and came today to relive old memories, and the young guard, who got to see the band at work for the first time today. In any case, it was clear that people were hoping for a relatively okay performance. The bar was not set very high, at least in terms of expectations, among the people I spoke to before the performance.

During the first songs ,,It’s So Easy’’ and ,,Bad Obsession’’, it already became clear that Mr. Rose doesn’t have much of his signature voice of the past left. He mostly dragged himself through the songs with low vocals, and when he put on his signature head voice, what people got to hear wasn’t exactly pretty. The rest of the band tried in every way to assist the lead singer with backing vocals and here and there even lead vocals done by bassist Duff McKagan. But fair is fair, that’s not what people want to hear.

What was positive is that the band played tight and the sound, especially for an outdoor performance, was fine. Slash plays a leading role as always with his characteristic appearance and fine guitar playing, although the superfluous guitar solo would not have been necessary for me. Richard Fortus also plays a delightful bit of guitar. Also, no one will be able to complain about the duration of this performance, because what band ticks away a performance of almost 3 hours on the clock. You can count those on one hand.

However, it is somewhat unfortunate that Axl does not seem to realize that he was playing in Weert, The Netherlands today. Hello Düsseldorf!!! And at the end of the gig, goodbye Germany?! A bit disrespectful to the audience I think.

All in all, I saw a band that did their very best to compensate for the decaying iconic singer. That the voice of yesteryear is gone, however, cannot be disguised. The Guns that impressed in the 80s/90s didn’t seem to be firing with sharp artillery today, but with blanks.

Setlist

It’s So Easy

Bad Obsession

Chinese Democracy

Slither (Velvet Revolver cover)

Mr. Brownstone

Hard Skool

Welcome to the Jungle

Pretty Tied Up

Reckless Life

Double Talkin’ Jive

Live and Let Die (Wings cover)

Estranged

Down on the Farm (UK Subs cover)

You Could Be Mine

Rocket Queen

T.V. Eye (The Stooges cover) (Duff on lead vocals)

Absurd

Anything Goes

Civil War

Slash Guitar Solo

Sweet Child o’ Mine

November Rain

Street of Dreams

My Michelle

Patience

Better

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)

Nightrain

Paradise City

All photos by Raymond Helebrand