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Unloaded: Guns N' Roses Tour Off
It's official: The bloom is off the Guns N' Roses.
Dozens of the 15,000 band faithful in attendance found themselves with an appetite for destruction after the revamped Gunners unexpectedly scrapped Friday night's performance in Philadelphia's First Union Spectrum arena.
The cancellation sparked a late-night riot that sent 15 people to the hospital and caused minor damage to the arena. On Monday, concert promoter Clear Channel Entertainment pulled the plug on the remaining dates of GNR's ill-fated Chinese Democracy tour--the band's first in more than a decade.
According to local media accounts, the crowd was informed of Friday's cancellation after 11 p.m.--the typically tardy time Axl Rose and his new batch of bandmates swagger onstage. Making matters worse, the audience was already pumped up from a 40-minute opening set by Philly-based metal act, CKY, along with an hour of beats from DJ Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys.
Mike left the stage at 9:40 p.m. Ninety minutes later, the Gunners were still AWOL. Finally, the house P.A. croaked the reason behind the delay and ultimate cancellation: An unidentified band member had fallen ill.
From then on, things followed a familiar script.
Irate fans changed the usual epithets ("Fuck Axl!" "Axl Sucks!" etc.) and those in the upper decks began chucking beer cups, bottles and even ceiling tiles down toward the stage--and onto fans in the lower section. Meanwhile, ground-level rowdies hurled chairs at the mixing board. Several fights also erupted; ultimately 15 people were taken to nearby hospital Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with minor injuries, mostly to their backs and necks.
No arrests were reported. Despite the fracas, an arena spokesperson said most concertgoers left without incident and refunds would be made available at their points of purchase.
The latest concert meltdown comes a month after the tour kickoff turned into a disaster.
The group stiffed fans in Vancouver by scuttling the Chinese Democracy opener just hours before GNR was supposed to go on. The reason: Bad weather prevented Axl from making it to the gig on time. The no-show sparked a melee that led to property damage and forced police to use pepper spray to quell the rowdy crowd.
Despite some technical glitches, the band kicked off their tour the next night in Tacoma, Washington, to mostly decent reviews.
Axl and pals seem to have an uncanny knack for setting off their fans. During a joint tour with Metallica in 1992, the Gunners infamously aborted a show in Montreal, leading ticked off fans to spill into the streets for some rampaging.
Meanwhile, neither the band's label, Interscope Record, nor promoter Clear Channel offered a reason for the cancellation of the Chinese Democracy tour, which had 14 dates remaining through January 3. Tickets will be refunded.
Aside from the last-minute postponements and ensuing riots, Guns N' Roses' comeback hasn't exactly been embraced by fans. In smaller cities, ticket sales had been a bit sluggish with the band sometimes playing to partially filled halls on those nights they actually turned up.
With the tour shelved, maybe Axl and his Guns-for-hire can finally put the wraps on Chinese Democracy, the unfinished album that's been in the works for years.
We're not holding our breath.
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