1992 newspaper review of Guns n' Roses/Metallica stadium show

[Mister Freeze]

Dueling metal: Guns Ν’ tiny thrown objects
By ROGER CATLIN
Courant Rock Critic

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — A tiny thrown object that hit its target in ego-bloated, costume-changing Axl Rose cut short the Guns N’ Roses performance at Giants Stadium Thursday morning.

Even so, the mammoth double headlining show with Metallica, in its second sellout date here, had already gone more than 7 1/2 hours — until 2:35 a.m., the latest show yet for the unwieldy rock tour.

The idea was to match two huge acts on one big stadium tour and not confine either act to a shorter opening status (that was left, alas, to Faith No More, who played almost unnoticed Wednesday as the crowd filed in).

So Metallica, the California metal band with a huge New York following, put on its full 2 1/2-hour, three-encore show, on a reasonable facsimile of its diamond-shaped stage set from its recent world tour.

It took 90 minutes to tear it down and build Guns’ set, whose main feature is a little room where Rose can run back and change costumes during a 2 1/2-hour set, which ran short at least 10 minutes.

There was no two-band jamming at the end; the groups didn’t even mention the other. Yet on a steamy night, the crowd of bare-chested men and scantily-dressed women loved the show, realizing they were seeing two shows and only fighting traffic once.

In the two-band competition — although Metallica is giving the edge to Guns by letting them close — the evening clearly belonged to Metallica, whose musicians are stronger, more assured and less sloppy and unpredictable than the headliners. And they get to play before the crowd is drained.

The foursome was sharper, even, than its own headlining arena tour. And as loud as Metallica was, darned if the audience wasn’t louder in its applause. Jets overhead must have experienced mild turbulence as they flew over.

That’s not to say most everyone didn’t stay to hear Guns. They still bring a lot of excitement to the stage. But musically, they’re still quite erratic — stunning on versions of “Sweet Chile O’ Mine” and “Welcome to the Jungle,” but tied to lugubrious, overblown pyrotechnics on “Live and Let Die” and prone to all kinds of bad 70s references, from the theme to “The Godfather” to Alice Cooper’s worst song, “Only Women Bleed.”

Nobody changes clothes more often during a concert than Rose, not even Stevie Nicks. Unwilling to simply rely on his voice, he depends on his goofy togs to tell a song’s story. During “Civil War,” he wore no less than four jackets. Among his offensive T-shirts was one that said “Nobody Knows I’m a Lesbian” and another, his only political message, said “Free Mike Tyson).”

Rose claimed to be in too good a mood to engage in any of his notorious rants. Still, he urged fans to pummel anyone throwing things at the stage. Although he did mention a New York Times critic, at least he did not read aloud and rebut specific passages of the offending review, as he did last time.

When Rose was hit (but clearly not injured), he made good on his threat, storming off stage after throwing down his microphone and flinging his white cowboy hat (which went with the white fringed coat). The amusingly inarticulate Duff and Slash were left to shrug and attempt to explain why things were being cut short.
Hats off, indeed, to the flinging fan. If he hadn’t acted, we all still might be there.

***
Diary of a 7 1/2-hour concert (still knockin’ on heaven’s door)

■ Wednesday, 5 p.m. — Gates open for the show; thousands have been outside for hours in tailgate activity, sunbathing and hobnobbing amid the broken glass and asphalt.

■ 6:31 p.m. — Souvenir stands already flooded with customers for T-shirts priced up to $30. There are ones for Metallica, others for Guns N’ Roses and the most popular, a special combined T.

■ 7:00 p.m. — Opening act Faith No More goes on stage on time before a fraction of the audience. Under the sunlight, the stage lights are ineffective; it’s also tough to see the banks of TV monitors helping to make performers look like more than mosquitoes from across the football field.

■ 7:45 p.m. — Faith No More’s exit is on time, too. Despite biggest reaction to the hit “Epic,” there’s no chance of an encore. Roadies descend to change the stage even before the band is off.

■ 7:55 p.m. — Crowd boos as first huge beach ball is taken away.

■ 8:01 p.m. — A few dozen contest winners are led to Metallica “snake pit,” much smaller than on a recent tour, looking more like a hole in the stage from which the underworld can peek up.

■ 8:13 p.m. — Big buildup to Me-tallica’s set is aided in audience by illegal fireworks (M-80s) going off in the stands. The crowd cheers.

■ 9:15 p.m. — Jason Newsted’s bass solo begins.

■ 9:37 p.m. — “You’re not getting tired, are you?” inquires lead singer James Hetfield. “We’re just getting warmed up.”

■ 10:05 p.m. — Band goes off, but there’s three more encores.

■ 10:20 p.m. — Pyrotechnics usher in second encore, starting with “One.”

■ 10:37 p.m. — Metallica finally leaves for good, hordes of roadies begin to change the stage.

■ 11:17 p.m. — Cheers as eight-story Guns N’ Roses banners are pulled up, replacing Metallica banners.

■ Midnight — Audience cheers lustily as video cameras zoom in on random females in the audience, many of whom expose their breasts.

■ Thursday, 12:13 a.m. — The playing of “We are the Champions” by Queen indicates that the final set is coming soon.

■ 12:30 a.m. — Axl Rose issues first diatribe, at New York Times critic Jon Pareles, to whom he dedicates “Live and Let Die.”

■ 12:47 a.m. — Axl appears in red hot pants instead of the white hot pants he had been wearing; they last one song.

■ 1:02 a.m. — Slash begins first guitar solo.

■ 1:40 a.m. — Matt Sorum’s drum solo.

■ 1:50 a.m. — Slash has a blues guitar solo.

■ 2:03 a.m. — Axl, rising out of the stage on a motorcycle attached to a grand piano, begins a solo leading into “November Rain.”

■ 2:31 a.m. — Axl, hit by some sort of small thrown object in the audience, storms off, leaving the rest of the band to finish “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”

■ 2:35 a.m. — Concert’s over, with no encore, more than 7 1/2 hours after it started. Some boo anyway because it didn’t go to 8.