This weekend is a very special one for die-hard fans of legendary heavy rock. Last night (October 6) was the first night of Power Trip, a specially curated festival located
Steven Adler could barely contain his excitement when he called in last month to talk about his new reconfigured band, simply called Adler, and the release of their first album, Back From The Dead. Full of catchy, rocking tunes, the former GNR drummer feels like he has finally found the band he has been looking for since his departure from the original Guns in 1990.
Richard Fortus has been around the block a time or two in music but has settled in nicely with this supergroup. But it’s not his only playground. He loves to sit in with other bands when time allows him to do so. He added stripped-down guitar attitude to The Compulsions, a New York based bluesy-rock-with-punk-undertones band whose most recent CD is called Beat The Devil and features his GNR bandmate Frank Ferrer. He sometimes tours with the legendary Thin Lizzy, one of his favorite bands. And he recently hooked up with Norwegian musician Lasse Kvernmo for Saivu.
This is not your old school GNR. Those days are gone and need to be put aside so that you can enjoy what this band has to offer. If you live in the past too headstrongly, you will miss the finer points of the musicians that Rose has assembled and what individual nuances they bring to such songs as “Sweet Child” and “November Rain.” They are not automaton players set up on stage to reenact the classics note for note, although they do try to keep the originality and integrity of said songs. I
Building his reputation playing guitar – he now plays alongside Axl Rose and Nikki Sixx in two of the most popular bands in rock & roll – Ashba is now making his name on the other side of plucking chords: as a businessman. I sat down this past weekend with Ashba during GNR’s current Vegas residency and talked to him about this part of his life … after I asked him about those crows that decorate his chest.
Slash performing at the Ramshead Live, Baltimore MD 5.3.12.
For a man who has been out on the concert trail for a number of months, Richard Fortus is feeling surprisingly invigorated. The guitar player for Guns N Roses and The Compulsions, has been rocking across the country but he is finally home in St Louis, happily surrounded by his family and far away from the lights, the fans and the long bus rides.
Greg McLoughlin’s thoughts and Jeremy Gordon’s photos from GN’R’s return to “The Ritz.”
Last Spring, LCD Soundsystem decided to call it quits, going out in style by with a series of instantly sold out hometown farewell concerts at New York’s Terminal 5, with
If Van Halen reunites at the Grammys, don’t expect to see Sammy Hagar there.
