Los Angeles – With concerts scheduled throughout Europe this summer and its 10-years- in-the-making album slated for release this fall, Guns N’ Roses appears ready to make its rock ‘n’ roll comeback.
Does anyone care?
Some clearly do: Tickets for the band’s four New York shows, which began Friday at the Hammerstein Ballroom, sold out in a snap.
Tracks from its long-anticipated album, “Chinese Democracy,” leaked onto the Internet and caused a frenzy. A surprise radio appearance by GNR frontman Axl Rose stirred up a swirl of online chatter.
Still, rockers at classic haunts along L.A.’s Sunset Strip mostly greeted word of a Guns N’ Roses comeback with a yawn. Or worse.
Gina Penney, a talent booker at the Strip’s Whisky a-Go-Go, where the band played its earliest shows in the ’80s, said Rose is old news.
“He really lost it for himself,” she said. “The other guys were taking other projects and keeping themselves visible (but) … a lot of people just feel that he’s kind of a joke.”
A return to the group’s glory days will take a lot more than Rose, said David Boivin, as he dined with friends at the legendary Rainbow Bar & Grill.
“It’s just Axl, not Guns N’ Roses,” he said. “It’s not really the band.”
Guns N’ Roses rose to multiplatinum prominence with its debut record, 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction.” The group was one of the loudest forces in rock when it disbanded in the mid-1990s.
While Rose faded into obscurity, former bandmates – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – joined with Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland to create Velvet Revolver.
Rose staged something of a Guns N’ Roses comeback effort in 2002, though only he and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained from the band’s original lineup. The group ran into problems when Rose failed to show up for a performance in Philadelphia.
Fans haven’t forgotten that, said Rainbow regular Amanda Pelisek.
“There was a stadium in Philly filled with fans who were ready to give the new Guns N’ Roses a chance,” she said. The no-show hurt.
Rose declined to be interviewed for this story.
His return to the spotlight has been gradual. It started in January when he showed up at a Hollywood party and soon after, rang in his 44th birthday at New York City nightclubs.
Three “Chinese Democracy” tracks found their way onto the Web in February, then the band’s scheduled European tour dates emerged.
The demand for tickets to the New York shows demonstrated “how much people want to see Guns N’ Roses,” said Dessica Depompeis, a bartender at the Cat Club on the Sunset Strip.
“They’re a straight-ahead American rock ‘n’ roll band. If they pull themselves together, they could make a major comeback.”
