By J.C. Correa

Inconceivable as it may seem, since 2016, Guns N’ Roses have toured the world repeatedly with a level of frequency and consistency, and with enough professionalism, to rival any act in music. The legendary band, which partially built said legend on a reputation of constant tardiness and unreliability, in its early ‘90s heyday reveled in an existence of absolute chaos that even left a trail of riots in its wake. Since partially reuniting original members Duff McKagan and Slash with infamous frontman and leader Axl Rose nine years ago, the group has engaged in the most impressive of victory laps that simply doesn’t seem to want to let up.

That four-year-long reunion jaunt was then appropriately coined Not in This Lifetime… Now, almost ten years later, the Gunners have embarked on their third mammoth global odyssey with (mostly) the same lineup; one they are choosing to cheekily call Because What You Want and What You Get Are Two Completely Different Things. The trek had a stop in Barcelona on Monday night at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in front of over 50,000 fans. It was the outfit’s first visit to the city (and venue) in seven years.

If you’ve seen GN’R live since the iconic triumvirate got back together, the June 9th show in Spain felt mostly similar to what the band has continuously been presenting on stages ever since. Which is not to say that they didn’t deliver what was promised or leave the majority of the attendees in a gratified state of rock ’n’ roll bliss. It is simply that, in a concerted effort to embrace all manners of professionalism, the group has been structuring performances that, while solid and undoubtedly effective, leave little room for surprises. But they did manage to squeeze in a few the other night, including the decision to abandon their tried-and-true opener of the past nine years, the punky “It’s So Easy,” in favor of arguably their most seminal number, the iconic barn burner “Welcome to the Jungle.”   

Much has been made of Rose as of late in terms of both his singing and physical appearance. At Monday’s concert, he sported a trimmed-down, leaner look than in recent years, when he seemed to have gained some weight. He also made it a point to remain in one outfit (a plain black T-shirt and black jeans) throughout the night, choosing only to add two jackets on two brief occasions, but almost entirely eschewing his penchant for continuous costume changes of some sort. All of this may be symbolic of the fact that Rose, who for many years relished in playing the role of rock’s greatest villain – and quite well at that – now performs with a calm and calculated energy that suggests he may finally be at peace with who he is. Vocally, though light-years away from his heyday, he still manages to bring it, even if he has to rely on an open falsetto to substitute for his famously-wailing one of yesteryear. At 63 years of age, the vocal requirements of the band’s catalogue are surely a daunting task, yet Rose found ways around this that didn’t shortchange the songs or the show. Watching him reminded me of big-league pitchers who, in their twilight years, resort to their curveballs to get the big outs that they once did with the high-heat fastballs of their prime. Unsurprisingly, whenever the moment calls for it – such as on “Mr. Brownstone,” “Patience,” or the Use Your Illusion cut “Bad Obsession” – Rose is much more comfortable in his natural baritone, which remains vibrantly strong to this day.

Slash, the top hat-wearing, six-string virtuoso, remains the group’s MVP during live gigs. When not tearing it up on his usual arsenal of Gibson Les Paul guitars, it was nice to see him trade those in for an axe that resembled Chuck Berry’s vintage Gibson ES-355 for “Yesterdays,” or a Gibson Explorer for an even rarer rendition of the U.K. Subs’ “Down on the Farm,” which the band originally covered on their 1993 album The Spaghetti Incident? A guitar solo that preceded megahit “Sweet Child O’ Mine” felt fresh and renewed by having the other musicians join in to create the feel of a barroom blues shuffle. Covering Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” which the group frequently likes to do nowadays, allowed Slash to showcase his chops on acoustic guitar, providing a welcome variant. And “Rocket Queen,” a GN’R live staple, continued to be a highlight by allowing rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus to deliver a blistering introductory solo, which nicely dovetailed into Slash’s own, replete with a talk box accompaniment for the tune’s extended middle section.

Of the three main Gunners, only McKagan looked somewhat disconnected, performing with a reserved energy that can best be described as uninvested. Though he did kick it up a notch when he took over on vocals for his token slot to sing a cover of the Misfits’ “Attitude,” the usually-charismatic bassist was generally lacking in his spirited demeanor throughout the evening. If anything, all of it may have instead been absorbed by Isaac Carpenter, the cherubic-looking drummer who is making his debut with Guns N’ Roses on this tour. Replacing long-tenured timekeeper Frank Ferrer, Carpenter looked like he was having the time of his life, and his exuberance injected the show with a needed youthful spunk. Most importantly, he handled himself very competently on all of the material, and based on this particular performance at least, he is a welcome replacement for the at-times groove-challenged Ferrer. At 45, Carpenter is at least fifteen years younger than the band’s core members. He is bested in youthfulness only by Melissa Reese, the outfit’s keyboard and synth player since 2016, who is not only ten years his junior, but who has now also been in the lineup for three more years than founding member Izzy Stradlin.

Amidst the mostly-static structure of their recent treks, at the June 9th gig GN’R triumphantly brought back “Out ta Get Me,” the damning protest number from their groundbreaking debut Appetite for Destruction. The Use Your Illusion records featured five songs a-piece and comprised a third of the set list, with the aforementioned “Bad Obsession” and “Yesterdays” standing out by virtue of being welcome changes. Chinese Democracy, the band’s perennially-controversial LP has, oddly enough, always been represented in some form since the reunion tour. Aside from the mainstay title track and ballad “This I Love,” the Barcelona crowd was treated to the scorching rocker “Better,” arguably the album’s best cut. The sprawling, free-form epic “Coma,” which has been a set list fixture over the past decade, once again proved that the group can conjure up high drama while completely throwing away the rule book. “Estranged,” the stunning, 9-minute masterpiece, with its beautiful piano interlude by keyboardist Dizzy Reed, was thankfully saved for the home stretch this time around, recalling the days during the Use Your Illusion Tour when this ditty would serve as an epic encore. Only “Absurd,” GN’R’s painfully-insipid single from four years ago failed to connect completely by appropriately living up to its title.

These days, the only hard rock band of legendary status who can probably match (and possibly surpass) Guns N’ Roses in terms of sheer quantity and length of product during a live performance are the Foo Fighters. Across three solid hours and a set list that spanned 29 tunes, GN’R gave the Barcelona faithful more bang for their buck than just about every other comparable artist still touring today. When you consider the fact that legacy groups from their era like Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard put on a 90-minute show nowadays, there is a seriously-marked difference here. Even Metallica, in their current worldwide jaunt, does not exceed a two-hour production, and caps their set at 16 songs. Regardless of what you make of their music, by all of these metrics, Guns N’ Roses handily comes out on top in comparison to their peers, or at the very least, awards a value to their brand that is tough to beat. Whether they are doing it strictly for the money, the need to feed giant egos, or a plain ole love of rock ’n’ roll (I suspect it’s a combination of all of the above, with the first of these leading the charge), they continue to set a very high standard for others to follow. How much longer will the machine keep churning at such a high level? Who knows? Will they ever put out another record? Does that even matter? In the end, who would have guessed that what was once the world’s most erratic and dysfunctional band would one day become a model of efficiency and reliability? Absurd indeed!