The leaks were intentional.

[Fenderjaguar213]

That was a joke, clown. Ever see a programme on jokes ?

nope

I Have                      

[monom]

Very, Very good said Diva, And I agree.

Thanks babe.

Of course darlin'

[misterbrownstone]

It's pretty plain really; if he had more songs there's nothing stopping him from playing them live.

actually, there was:

bootlegs.

he HATES bootlegs, and doesn't like them going around.  he said he doesn't want a shitty sounding song going around labeled as GN'R.  the leaks made it possible to play more songs.  perhaps if the new songs didn't leak they'd be playing Zip It, The General and This I Love instead of There Was A Time, Better and I.R.S.  y'know what i'm saying?  i think it makes sense.

of course, if he'd put on great shows every time, it wouldn't be a problem

[Crash99]

IRS TWAT and Better where did they come from? Catcher In the Rye where did it come from, didn't that have something to do with Piazza? I don't think CITR was meant to be leaked but I think The rest were.

[mooney]

Who knows!? Does it matter?

[Rock Diva]

he HATES bootlegs, and doesn't like them going around.  he said he doesn't want a shitty sounding song going around labeled as GN'R.

The only solution to that is an album.

[SubZero]

That was a joke, clown. Ever see a programme on jokes ?

My god, I love that attitude

[dope_davey]

3 leaks. and s perfect coincidence that those 3 are axl'S favorites....

demo is to give an idea about something and that was his plan. do you really think axl would be playing those songs because somebody he don't know leak his material?? no one can even tell him what to do so i dont think personally a unknown guy would do so...

he leak them to give us a little something to eat before the big dinner and to be honest, when a band plays live and the crowd dont know the song, the respond is not as good as it could be.

the leaks were a reason to sing along!

[misterbrownstone]

he HATES bootlegs, and doesn't like them going around.  he said he doesn't want a shitty sounding song going around labeled as GN'R.

The only solution to that is an album.

of course, if he'd put on great shows every time, it wouldn't be a problem  

but yea, he said 'hold your breath a little longer'.  we'll have it soon enough, and then we can all bask in the glory of This I Love, Prostitute and The General

[MetaSouL]

Of course the facts are debatable without a solid source, but it doesn't take a genius to make a logical deduction based on the events which we have witnessed.  Without throwing out some wild conclusion like "it's coincidence that he played 3 of 4 leaks out of 85 possible new songs", there are really only a couple of possibilities:  

1) The leaks were intentional:  They literally turned the tide on the audience response to the new stuff live...literally.  I was there, 80% of the crowd was singing the new shit.  The leaks were what everyone talked about leading up to the show. It made the difference.

-or-

2) Axl let a thief influence his live act:  In other words, whoever leaked the tunes without his permission influenced Axl to play the leaks out of fear of giving away too many surprises from the album.  There may be other justifications for this, but it still boils down to "someone else" having some level of influence over Axl.  Personally, I find it hard to believe that Axl would let the actions of another influence his musical direction.  

If neither of these are exclusively the case, then it could be a mixture of the two.  If this is the case, I would bet that IRS and CITR might fall into this category.  He may have chosen not to play CITR because this particular song wasn't intentionally leaked (unlike the others) and it was one of his "big guns" that he didn't want to spoil, possibly because its going to be a single. IRS is the next likely conclusion given the Trunk incident and being different in age and mix than the other tunes, possibly opting to play it because its a good rocker without the risk of exploiting a single.

~M

[xron]

i've been sayin that since they first came out.... gives people a chance to get to know them a bit and increase the live performance, raises interest in him again and raises the profile of his tour and indicates that this time he is serious about C.D