I scanned it but then realized what a pain in the ass it is to post an image, so I decided to be nice and retype the article for everyone...
Guns n' Roses
Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
November 5th, 2006 (Four stars)
Axl Rose takes New Jersey witha hit-packed extravaganza
"Do you know where the fuck you are?" Axl Rose howled, seconds after walking onto a darkened, smoky arena stage. It was, for once, a question worth pondering, if only because the answer was so hard to believe: It was 2006 and we were somehow at a Guns n' Roses concert - one where a bunch of guys with names like Brain and Bumblefoot were about to play an improbably note-perfect version of "Welcome to the Jungle." Every riff, drum accent, guitar solo, vocal harmony and scream was in its place, down to Rose's song-closing "Huh!" Over the next two-plus hours, the band went on to give the same precise treatment to momst of G n' R's greatest songs, from "Patience" to "November Rain," plus the old band's two most famous cover tunes, "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
It sounded like the perfectionist Rose has been rehearsing this band - in which keyboardist Dizzy Reed is the only link to earlier lineups - eight hours a day for years, forcing them to live up to the name they inherited. The most significant departure from the original arrangements came in the extended guitar solos from new guy Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal - the replacement for the departed Buckethead - who burned through un-Slash-like alien-sounding licks. (Two other guitarists, former Nine Inch Nails member Robin Finck and Richard Fortus, filled the Slash and Izzy roles."
The eight-member band arrived onstage close to midnight, delayed by problems with a keyboard, and played until 2 A.M. "Those technicals delays had nothnig to do with my sorry ass - not tonight!" said Rose, who appeared to be roughly double the size of his 1988 self, which made his still-nimble dancing seem more ursine than serpentine. But he was in a cheerful mood and in spectacular voice, or, rather, voices: As always, the emotive near-baritone he uses on "Patience" bore little resemblance to, say, the devil-woman shriek of "Night Train."
If anything, the show - which came complete with long solo spots from most of the band members and lots of pyro - was overslick, with a creeping Vegas-y vibe. But Rose's inclusion of four songs from teh purportedly due-this-year Chinese Democracy helped the performance feel vital - especially since one of them, the poppy yet headbanging "Better," is among the best tunes he's ever written. "I like it here," Rose said early in the show. "I think I'll stay a while."
Sorry for any typos, I need to go to class. Also, I like how the writer doesn't realize that Frank was replacing Brain and that it's "Nightrain."
