In 1988, with torn acid-washed jeans, bandannas, big hair and lighters held high above our heads, my high school friends and I loved hearing Axl Rose shriek, “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Guns N’ Roses’ current tour, Chinese Democracy, started in New York back in May, and took the boys to Europe over the summer. They’re seeing the Western U.S. this fall and will visit most of North America before they get a chance to rest again, giving kids who grew up in the late ’80s a chance to reminisce about the good old days.
I played football my freshman year of high school “” the fall of 1988 and we listened to either GNR’s “Appetite for Destruction” or Def Leppard’s “Hysteria” every single day.
For some reason, coach made me a defensive tackle “” a 5’11”, 140-pound defensive tackle!
To this day I have no idea how he expected me to take on lineman who were eating whole bull elk for breakfast (I grew up in rural Oregon), but I tried my best, even racking up one quarterback sack, albeit during a scrimmage.
Guns N’ Roses helped me get through those few months of cold rainy muck. Knowing that after practice on the 40-degree muddy fields we would all run back to the shelter offered by our tiny freshman locker room and Mike Ware would crank his “boom box” up.
The fall dance gave us our first opportunity to really get down to the not-so-subtle melodies of Axl and co. “” we were too young to attend the upper classmen parties, instead huddling in the school bathroom with smuggled liquor and talking about which girls we wanted to dance with.
Occasionally, one of us would hear a great song and approach a group of girls, a gesture that was sometimes rewarded by 4 minutes with a dance partner. Other times, no matter how suave we were, rejection was inevitable.
It didn’t get any better than slow-dancing to a power ballad with a girl dressed like Cyndi Lauper while your buddies looked on enviously.
A few months and upperclassmen acquaintances later, it became cool to attend a Friday night varsity game at Autzen Stadium, home of the Oregon Ducks. The whole way there “” usually riding in the back seat wedged in so tight that breathing was not guaranteed “” we would belt out GNR’s “Paradise City,” a Los Angeles anthem that made no sense to us at the time.
The band’s profile has changed some since I was a teenager. Lead vocalist W. Axl Rose is the only original member in the current lineup, supported by keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman; Tommy Stinson, formally of the Replacements, on bass guitar; drummer Bryan “Brain” Mantia, formerly of Primus; and guitarists Robin Finck, Richard Fortus and, finally, Ron Thai.
While the tour brings fans like me only one original band member “” though perhaps the most iconic of the bunch “” the nostalgia that the music incites is as strong as ever, stirring up memories from an era for which Guns N’ Roses provided the soundtrack.
GNR was scheduled to visit the ipayOne Center Thursday, Oct. 5, but postponed the show after this article went to press. The band now tentatively plans to visit San Diego Jan. 16, 2007.