Appetite for Destruction – GnR will rake in money in Regina

An LP of Guns N’ Roses debut album.

    “Are you out of your mind?”

    That was my first reaction when I saw the ticket prices for the Guns N’ Roses concert in Regina on Sunday at new Mosaic Stadium.

    When I looked at the Ticketmaster map to see how well ticket sales were going, I began to question if I was lost with some parts of today’s world.

    The prices were outrageous. Most seats were tagged at $165 and upwards plus fees. Floor seats were going for $275 plus fees. Admission for the standing pit area in front of the stage was $350 plus fees.

    Tickets are also available for $75 each plus fees, and a handful of those went on sale in the north end zone of new Mosaic. The Friday ploy is a standard entertainment industry practice were a handful of tickets are held for release a couple of days before the event.

    While the pricing was a shocker, the other shocker was tickets were selling. The Ticketmaster stadium map was dominated with white, which is the colour that marks a sold seat.

The back of a Guns N’ Roses debut album in LP format.

    The biggest concentration of open seats are in the two most expensive areas on the floor and in front of the stage. With that said, the floor is about 60 per cent sold.
    Doors open for Sunday’s show at 4:30 p.m., Our Lady Peace goes on stage at 6:15 p.m. and Guns N’ Roses hits the stage at 7:30 p.m.

    GnR’s current tour is dubbed the “Not in this Lifetime….. Tour,” and it features the reunion of core members in frontman Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan.

    Anyone that is aware of this band’s history figured this reunion would never happen. Following the band’s heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Slash departed in 1996 and McKagan followed in 1997. The feuds between Rose, 55, Slash, 52, and McKagan, 53, appeared to revolve around ego.

    A reunion of the three core members was always possible from the standpoint it could happen because way too much money could be made. That reason was a big factor in KISS reuniting with its original lineup in the late 1990s. Motley Crue would constantly fly apart and reunite bringing in boatloads of money in the process.

CDs of GnR’s Use Your Illusion albums.

    In the case of KISS and Motley Crue, there always seemed to be an underlying respect and actual brother type caring between the band members.

    In Guns N’ Roses case, it seemed like tensions were always so toxic that a reunion would never happen. At times, it seemed tensions were beyond toxic as far as a hate meter was concerned.

    When Rose, Slash, and McKagan, did get back together in early 2016 and their initial reunion grew into the band’s current tour, I know for myself I didn’t know how to take it.

    During my high school years, Guns N’ Roses was my favourite band. In my Grade 11 and 12 years, I became sort of minor cult figure in Winnipeg’s J.H. Bruns Collegiate singing GnR songs in the hallway and also performing “Don’t Cry” once at a gym rally. There were a number of classmates that just knew me by the nickname “Axl.”

    It should also be noted my high school sweetheart hated Guns N’ Roses in an extreme way, and that might have played a part in us breaking up right after her high school graduation ending a two-year relationship, but I digress.

    That part of my life would appear on the odd occasion during my university years in Regina. I sang “Patience” and “Don’t Cry” at the impromptu after party of the University of Regina Cougars award night in 1998 at the now defunct Bart’s On Broad in Regina. In my best suit out of all things, I sang in front of all the school’s athletic teams and a number of coaches, who clearly enjoyed the entertainment that night.

Guns N’ Roses concert VCR tapes from a show in Tokyo.

    Most of Guns N’ Roses songs had a rage and emotion to them that seemed linked to the late 1980s early 1990s time period. Even power ballad type songs like “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Don’t Cry” and the softer “Patience” required you get to that emotional point that was linked to a romantic relationship.

    You went to KISS to enjoy yourself and to Motley Crue to party. I paid $145.50 for a floor seat for Motley Crue’s farewell tour stop in Saskatoon in December of 2015, when they toured with Alice Cooper. Both groups put on iconic performances that night that were true to who they were.

    Guns N’ Roses was an attitude and you went to a show to act out in a pissed off way.

    Concerts in 1991 in St. Louis and 1992 in Montreal ended in riots, and part of the draw was seeing an act that was so unstable that mayhem might break out. I had a friend that went to the Montreal riot show, where GnR toured with Metallica, and he recalled seeing live fires all over the place.

A Guns N’ Roses VCR tape.

    In recent years even before the reunion, I often saw signs that the band wasn’t forgotten. The GnR tribute band The Nightrain seems to have been around forever.

    I would see Guns N’ Roses T-shirts on sale in respectable clothing outlets, which was something you would never see in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

    I would also see the odd young lady in her late teens wearing a GnR T-shirt or the T-shirt of another hard rock band that made its name in the 1980s. It always struck me how these young ladies knew of these bands.

    In early April, I was in Prince Albert covering hockey. I was checking out a retail store hours before the hockey game, when I visited with a really good looking young lady with blonde hair, who had to be 18 or 19 years of age.

    She was wearing a Guns N’ Roses tour T-shirt, and she had the bottom part tied to her waist, so the T-shirt fit tight to her body. She also donned black yoga pants and cute set of sandals.

    She looked amazing. I told her stories about the band in its heyday, and she was entertained and laughed with amusement at them. She was clearly in for the nostalgia.

    It struck me you would never see any young ladies dressed like her back in the band’s heyday, where GnR’s every day female fans dressed like tough head banger chicks with tight jeans or black leather pants. They also wore stylish footwear that could do damage in a fight. They still looked hot, but they had the image that they could really mess you up if given the chance.

    So far on their current tour, Guns N’ Roses sound like they are delivering. They are expected to have one of the top grossing tours of 2017.

A Guns N’ Roses poster from 1991.

    They played at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg on Thursday night. According to the review in the Winnipeg Free Press, which is one of the last bastions of good independent journalism in Canada, Guns N’ Roses turned back the clock and were as good as their best days in their prime ripping through a three-hour set.
    The show also started on time, which harkened back to the fact GnR concerts had a habit of starting notoriously late in the early 1990s.

    Having only casually followed news on the band since 1996, I am finding I can’t get myself back in that emotional place to go see one of their shows. On an impulse whim, I find I can’t dish out money for a ticket with the crazy prices that are being charged.

    Judging by Regina ticket sales, a lot of people want to see the reunited band, and they are willing to pay big amounts of money to do it.

    I hope they enjoy the show and the band impresses. For me, my passions in life have changed, so I believe I will take a pass on this concert.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.