The second slither was definitely better.

It's more the style I think is a waste, like if he sang it with the venom and aggression type sound he uses on songs like Shadow of Your Love -then it would have been an interesting interpretation - like a GNR version of a VR song.

Like how the old covers - like KOHD etc were really different arrangements to the originals.

But if they're doing it as a straight up cover with a clean voice, when then it will be ok somenights, but thats kinda as good as it's going to get.

I've come to this conclusion too.

I'm sure occasionally there's genuine issues where they can't hear themselves - which makes life hell for musicians - but in this type of professional big budget show it ought to be rare as hell.

IMO, Whenever he seems to be having a particularly weak night they hide him as low in the mix as they can get away with to cover it with the live audience, then if it's a show that's being broadcast on radio or live streamed or something where they can't completely control the output then he always seems to have been performing despite having a major cold.

I hate to be a prick like this but it's happened so many times now I can't ignore it.

Maybe he's just unlucky and falls ill whenever there's an important appearance and maybe the sound issues just legitimately haunt the band despite the budget and crew.

But it doesn't seem to happen to other acts, and when you add it to the fact that there's obviously some issue with his voice, it seems a bit fishy.

Generally I agree - that's been the historical trend.

My issue though is that basically the whole of the 2017 GNR leg (post Ac/Dc) Axl's voice sounded shot.

The excuse presented then was overuse.

So I dunno. It's kinda like the first half of the tour we're going to present it as not warmed up, then the second half of the tour it's burnout!

I'm not trying to be a dick - i'm just saying - generally his vocals have been mickey since 2011 now - the start of 2016 was great - but he was in the chair - and then there were a few sold shows standing - in particular houston 2016. Then he screamed the house down with Ac/Dc. Then 2017 Axl was a return of 2012 style mickey Axl except now when he went for the occasional scream his voice was cracking and breaking.

We put it down to over use. Now he's back and it's weak again and it's from underuse.

I'm starting to think he's just really hurt his voice badly.

Well on the positive side:

1. They did something new

2. Axl singing the chorus up an octave would have been cool if he'd been using one of his stronger voices. Like it sounded bad here - but it would be cool in Ac/Dc voice or in say a 1990s or 2000s Axl voice.

On the bad side....I seriously think the era of good Axl performances is coming to an end.

He was good in ac/dc but thats because those songs allowed him to just use his scream voice that was still functional then, but he was covering vocal weakness in GNR in 2016 with screams, and by 2017 he was faltering badly. I'd been hoping it was just for the end of the tour - but here we are with a break and it's worse again.

I think we basically need some studio stuff out of the band, it makes me sad but Axl's problems live just make even things that would once have been jawdroppingly awesome to me bland.

Listening to this song 10 years ago would have made me super happy, but it just sounds bad here. I wish it didn't.

I'd love to hear more GNR in the studio, and I love listening to recordings and boots from the past when they were strong live. But sadly, i think we've got to a point where the live show is no longer going to be amazing.