Guns N’ Roses Bring Shockwaves to the Aftershock Festival

It’s a scorching 92-degree Sunday afternoon in Sacramento, and “Rocktober” has arrived in a big way with the Aftershock Festival, which concludes here at Discovery Park on the eighth day of the month. Northern California has become known for a slew of rock ‘n’ roll activity in the tenth month of the calendar year, and 2023 is no different, with no less than Guns N’ Roses headlining the final night of this four-day hard rock fiesta. Hence, many fans will travel from the Bay Area up to Sacramento and back down to catch Guns N’ Roses in their only Northern California appearance of the year.

The Aftershock Festival launched in 2012 and has grown to become one of the premier hard rock and heavy metal festivals in the US. The previous three days have featured the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, Incubus, the Cult, Stone Temple Pilots, Tool, Godsmack, Coheed & Cambria, L7, Megadeth, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and 311. Now fans are ready to rock a Sunday Funday highlighted by Rancid, Queens of the Stone Age, and Guns N’ Roses. 

The legendary Los Angeles rockers are coming in hot off a high-profile appearance at the Power Trip Festival in the Southern California desert 48 hours earlier on an extended 2023 tour that has seen the band continue to rock the planet as few others can. Few other groups have impacted the rock ‘n’ roll landscape like Guns N’ Roses, with their incendiary sound that disrupted the music industry in the late 1980s and their timeless songbook that continues to resonate 30-plus years later.

After the breakthrough success of their instant classic debut album Appetite for Destruction in 1987-1988, the anticipation for Guns N’ Roses’s second album grew to a level unlikely ever to be matched again. When a series of delays forced the band to hit the road for their 1991 summer tour before the Use Your Illusion double albums could be released, it was a situation that would have ruined most bands – having to go on tour and play a slew of new songs that most fans had never heard and had no reference point for. 

But the material was so uniformly strong that it didn’t matter, as the band crushed it so hard every night that fans loved every minute (except for those angst-filled lost minutes when shows were starting late or ending early due to singer Axl Rose‘s notorious mood swings.) When the Illusion albums were finally released in September 1991, fans lined up around the block at record stores across America for quite possibly the most cathartic album release in rock history. 

When Rose and iconic guitarist Slash finally buried the hatchet to reunite along with indefatigable bassist Duff McKagan in 2016 for their first tour together since 1993, the shows had a similar feeling of catharsis as Guns N’ Roses reclaimed their crown as one of the greatest rock bands. While new material has remained elusive, it turned out that the back catalog was as classic as fans sensed the first time around.

The fanbase is thus turning out in strong numbers here at Aftershock. Discovery Park has a decent amount of shade, much to the credit of festival organizers who knew what they were doing when they chose this location with lots of trees. Many attendees are thus taking advantage of the shade to chill out and rest up during the undercard in the afternoon’s earlier hours before the big names come on with Rancid at 5:00 pm, Queens of the Stone Age at 6:00 pm and Guns N’ Roses scheduled from 7:25 to 10:25 pm. 

Would the Gunners really play a three-hour set? This reporter witnessed a historic three-hour, 36-minute show from Guns N’ Roses at the LA Forum on 3 August 1991, an epic rager for the ages that concluded the band’s 1991 summer tour in truly monumental fashion. A three-hour set at a festival would be extremely rare, but who knows? 

Rancid rock a fun punk rock vibe with upbeat crowd pleasers like “Side Kick” that turn the clock back to a more innocent time in the mid-’90s, before America’s post-9/11 dystopian decline. “Salvation” is another charged rocker from the Berkeley band’s 1994 album Let’s Go, as guitarist Tim Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman sing out for some salvation. “I Want a Riot” is a recent winner from 2015’s All the Moon Stompers, with a retro vibe that feels like it could fit on the soundtrack for a sequel to 1984’s classic flick Repo Man. The infectious “Ruby Soho” closes the set with a flourish, and Aftershock is now moving into higher gear.

It’s finally starting to cool down as Queens of the Stone Age are about to hit the stage, so it’s time to grab a cold beer. Selection varies, with some bars only serving pints on tap. Still, others have the Hop Valley Pineapple Stash House IPA in 19 oz tallboy cans, perfect for nights like this as Aftershock wins points in the often elusive festival category of beers that deliver on both flavor and value. “No One Knows” opens the set in familiar territory to get the party going before guitarist/vocalist Josh Homme takes a moment to comment on being “stoned as fuck” and feeling “amazing” about it, which only elevates the festive vibe. 

The catchy syncopation of “Smooth Sailing” gets the crowd grooving, with some killer bass riffage from Michael Sherman and freaky synths from keyboardist Dean Fertita. “Emotion Sickness” is a standout cut from Queens of the Stone Age’s new album In Times New Roman, with a classic Queens of the Stone Age vibe blending catchy hooks and heavy riffs to get the crowd clapping in unison. “Carnavoyeur” is another intriguing new song with a sexy David Bowie-esque vibe. “The Way You Used to Do” and “Make It Wit Chu” keep that groovy vibe going, with the latter inspiring a crowd sing-along and a tease on the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You”. They crank up the energy on “Go With the Flow” and the ultra-heavy hooks of “Song for the Dead” to close the set in style, leaving no doubt that Josh Homme still has his mojo working.

The scheduled one-hour set from Queens of the Stone Age concludes on time at 7:20. Then the waiting begins as 7:25 comes and goes, then 7:35, and 7:45. Some fans start getting restless around that 20-minute mark, with Axl Rose having been notorious for delayed showtimes on the band’s Use Your Illusion tour from 1991-1993. Yet Rose has been on good behavior since the 2016 reunion. Guns N’ Roses finally hit the stage at 8:00 pm with “It’s So Easy”, and all is quickly forgiven.

“Bad Obsession” is the first of nine songs from the Illusion albums, and it sizzles with Slash’s smoking slide guitar work. “Chinese Democracy” and Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” keep things rocking, but it’s that timeless funky ode to getting high with “Mr. Brownstone” that provides the next big crowd-pleaser. “Pretty Tied Up” demonstrates the depth of the Illusion albums with its scintillating tale about “the perils of rock ‘n’ roll decadence”, as Guns N’ Roses were already foreshadowing their demise in real-time. McKagan’s tight heavy groove stands out here, while Slash slays some wicked melty wah-wah leads.

When Guns N’ Roses drop their breakthrough classic “Welcome to the Jungle”, it feels downright bizarre due to the audience’s reaction. As on the 2016 “Not in This Lifetime” tour, there’s an incredulous majority of fans holding up their cellphones to take a video of the opening minutes instead of furiously rocking out as Guns fans did back in the day. Yet, while this lends a bizarre Brave New World vibe to the moment, it’s also a testament to how “Jungle” has become a larger-than-life song in the broader pop culture landscape. 

For fans longing for new material from Guns N’ Roses, the new single “Perhaps”, released this summer, stands out. It’s got an Illusion type of vibe with its blend of hard rock and piano, and it’s even co-written by the entire current touring lineup with guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer, and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese receiving writing credit along with Axl, Slash, and Duff. Yet further research indicates it was originally recorded during Chinese Democracy sessions in 2000. The seemingly new “Hard Skool” released in 2021 likewise dates back to Chinese Democracy sessions. But it’s still refreshing to hear Guns N’ Roses mixing it up a bit. “Better” is one of the better songs from the album that was finally released by Axl in 2008, and it completes a trifecta interlude of sorts.

Guns N’ Roses then deliver another shockwave for Aftershock with the hell-raising “Double Talkin’ Jive”. Written by original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, it’s great to see the song remain in the repertoire because it straight-up destroys. It’s a simple song to play on the guitar, but the wicked riffage and heavy groove make for one of the group’s best headbangers, as well as an excellent platform for Slash to melt face with some of his hottest lead guitar work of the night.

It’s moments like this – with Slash slaying at such a high level as to demonstrate he’s still one of the greatest guitarists in the world – where the transcendent rock power of Guns N’ Roses really comes into focus. Slash always rips, and he’s great to catch at more intimate venues with his own band, such as last year’s show at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater. But a unique sonic alchemy occurs when Slash, Duff, and Axl rock out on these classic Guns N’ Roses tunes, generating a mesmerizing effect transcending time and space.

Guns N’ Roses are lit now and keep rolling on the smoking groove of “You Could Be Mine” and the ever-dynamic “Rocket Queen”, with Duff crushing the signature bass lines. Axl’s emoting on the “Rocket Queen” outro is ever heartwarming, even if he might not have quite the same range now at age 61 as he did in Guns N’ Roses’s heyday. He’s still got one of the most original voices in rock, though, and getting his mojo back in 2016 has made for a great third act after two decades that were largely wasted. 

That mojo stands out on “Estranged”, the epic ballad from Use Your Illusion II that can still hit deep in the feels for anyone who might have gone through a tough breakup in the early ’90s (or in any era). The song has always shined like a gem in the live setting with the crisp piano parts, the “killer guitar melodies” from Slash (credited by Axl in the liner notes), and Axl’s mesmerizing vocals as he laments a devastating heartbreak. Along with “November Rain”, “Estranged” broke the mold of the typical pop metal power ballad by delivering a truly powerful ballad instead of just overproduced cliches like so many of Guns N’ Roses’ peers churned out.

Another peak moment occurs with “Civil War”, which resonates with an extra zeitgeist in the wake of the Middle East conflict that has flared up over the previous 24 hours with the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The song has resonated through the decades as one of the most powerful in rock history, proving Axl Rose to be quite frankly woke as fuck long before the phrase became trendy in recent years. When he sings out about how he doesn’t want a war “that feeds the rich while it buries the poor”, it’s a statement against all war, like classic predecessors such as Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War”, Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”, and Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun”. 

Guns N’ Roses have always told their fans the truth, whether it be their sordid true tales of life in Hollywood in the mid-’80s in songs like “My Michelle”, to the more profound truth in “Civil War” (and it’s fitting that McKagan and his wife Susan host a weekly show on Sirius XM Radio titled “Three Chords and the Truth”.) Seeing a slew of US Congresspeople currently profiting off stock in military defense companies that are rising due to the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine is downright appalling. It could well be the topic of a timely sequel to “Civil War”.

The opening track from Use Your Illusion II originally appeared on the radio in 1990 as a single from the charity album Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal. The compilation put together by George and Olyvia Harrison benefited Romanian orphans suffering after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union. There’s going to be plenty of suffering orphans in Gaza, Israel, and Ukraine, and so “Civil War” hits deep as ever here with Slash shredding hot molten lava in a way that recalls Hendrix on “Machine Gun”, as fans rock out on one of the night’s best jams. Slash includes a “Voodoo Child” tease at the end, as he often does, and it’s one of the top moments in rock in 2023 to hear Guns N’ Roses crush “Civil War” as this world gone mad descends into further chaos.

“Sweet Child of Mine” shifts the vibe with the classic romantic rocker that elevated Guns N’ Roses to superstardom in the summer of 1988, and it sounds great here on this balmy night in Sacramento. Axl flips the script by following with “November Rain”, the other epic piano-driven ballad from Use Your Illusion I that predates Appetite From Destruction. Fans eager to hear more material from Guns N’ Roses during the long wait for the Illusion albums could find a tape circulating with covers and deep cuts, including an acoustic version of “November Rain” with a genuinely poignant vocal from Axl. That recording is one of 25 tracks from the 1986 Sound City Session restored for the Super Deluxe Edition of Appetite From Destruction, providing a fascinating portal to the band’s roots. 

“November Rain” rocks the night here as another of those timeless, universal tunes that make Guns N’ Roses so unique and special because there’s hardly anyone writing epic songs like this anymore. They keep the hits coming with their ever-powerful version of Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, a song they came to own for many fans, similar to how Jimi Hendrix delivered the ultimate version of “All Along the Watchtower”. Dylan may not have gone on record about Guns N’ Roses’ version like he praised Jimi’s “Watchtower”, but he has gone on record to praise Duff McKagan’s 2019 socio-political gem “Chip Away” as a song that has “profound meaning” for him.

It’s getting close to 10:30 pm as the set truly steams toward a conclusion with “Nightrain”, the classic ode to getting drunk on cheap wine. There were lots of hard rock bands singing about getting wasted in the late ’80s, but few of those songs had this level of sincerity, swagger, and electrifying energy. It sets up a big finale with the obligatory romp through “Paradise City”, the other song from Appetite From Destruction that helped propel Guns N’ Roses into mainstream popularity because it was so catchy and hard-hitting that it became an anthem for teens and college kids across the nation. 

Looking up “Paradise City” on Spotify, there’s an array of covers, including a symphony version, a string orchestral version, a string quartet version, a piano version, a lullaby version, an 8-bit emulation version, and even a Yogi version! That is straight-up pop culture domination, demonstrating how Guns N’ Roses have transcended the hard rock genre to become one of the most iconic bands in music history. It’s an impressive journey for a group that started as just the new favorite of metalhead stoners in the 1987-1988 school year. The set winds up being just over two and a half hours long, and the Aftershock audience is satisfied at the end, for this has been another bravura performance from Guns N’ Roses. Thank you, Sacramento!

Whether we’ll get a new album from Guns N’ Roses remains a nebulous proposition. The lack of new material certainly doesn’t lie with Slash (who has released two further albums with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators since 2016), nor with Duff, who has his third solo album, Lighthouse, coming out on 20 October. The first three singles are winners, suggesting a great LP that blends Duff’s punk rock roots with an Americana-flavored acoustic rock style he attributes to jam sessions in the mid-’90s with the late great Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees after McKagan got sober after his rockstar-level boozing nearly killed him.

But who knows what goes on in Axl Rose’s mind regarding the songwriting process? The fact that Chinese Democracy apparently took him more than a decade to feel like he had it right suggests a neurosis that might best be left alone. Maybe he and Slash don’t have that kind of friendship and creative chemistry anymore after their long estrangement. Or perhaps he’ll flip the script again and surprise everyone – the world sure could use that sequel to “Civil War” right about now. But the bottom line is that the rock ‘n’ roll world is better off having Guns N’ Roses back together, as all the happy faces exiting the Aftershock Festival can clearly attest.