My thing is while Absurd and Hardschool were not the new Jungle or Estranged they were pretty damn fun to me in their own way.

I'm middle aged. Axl is 61, Slash is only a couple of years behind him.

We've already lost Axl's prime voice but I think he can still go in the studio where they can select takes and thicken his sound etc. How many more years till Slash finds it hard for his fingers to keep pace with his younger self? Or until someone else gets some fucking illness or something.

I mean I get art is not on a timeline, and why Axl didn't wanna finish records by specific marketing timelines and what not. But at the same time, soon it's going to be too late, at this stage it's more about fun than pressure you'd think, I really hope they just put some new stuff out for the hell of it. Like no one is demanding it be as good as the best song he ever wrote anymore. Like absurd...like is the whole song kinda silly yeah..could it be better in a perfect world ? yeah...but it kinda rocks up loud...and i'm glad to have it compared to not having it. I wish they would just drop some more stuff like that for us to enjoy.

Like who even cares anymore how it looks? We're old men, they are multimillionaires? Pop culture has moved on without them and us. What the fuck is there to lose at this stage.

I had a good time at the show but I noticed a lot of the perks were less too.

For example the VIP pit in 2017, I got a GNR satchel bag of actual reasonable quality, I forget the precise contents but it was filled with the type of fan trickets they put in the AFD box, like postcards, picks, a type of memento book with a whole lot of glossy pictures, replicas of the bands original flyers and that kind of shit.

To be honest I didn't care cos I don't really collect that kinda stuff for bands, but I'll give them in the word of GNR where a lot of things seem to be made by the lowest bidder it was quality, like I came across it around my garage again the other week and noticed now nice the bag is.

But this time in 2022 that was gone, and we got a little tin box with like 2 guitar pics and some type of silver coin or something. Like I said I don't really care either way, I'm at the show for the show, and I'm VIP when I can afford it for the front row access not the toys, so I don't mind what nick nacks they put in...but if i'm being honest you could really see the production value of it seemed less. Or even if it actually cost them more or something the presentation was less. Was kinda like last time you get served in china and this time in paper cups. Like I'm the sorta guy that drinks in paper cups so I don't give a shit...but yeah...you could see it....when you couple that with the loss in pyro and smaller set up over all...you'd be forgiven for thinking they'd hit hard times and not that the tour reaped hundreds of millions....lol.

That said, as I said in my review at the time, I actually had a really solid night at my show, and while Axl's voice isn't what it was in his prime, as a band they were still a fun night out. I really hope we get more these Absurd/Hardschool style CD-reboots this tour though. Cos the 'fresher' stuff in the set like Reckless Life (I know its old but its not like it was a staple in the CD era) and Absurd and Hardschool were a lot of fun.

That's my take on it.

Axl used to take it hyper seriously and have plans to change all of creation with his music. But the pressure of that nearly caused him to kill himself multiple times. So now he just treats it as a hobby that he says whatever to. He does shows for fun cos despite himself he's an artist and likes to perform on some level. It also helps keep the bank balance in the tens of millions which is handy when you kindly look after the people who help you not feel so bad.

Slash is the opposite, he works cos if he had fun he might wind up dead. Fun for him is too dangerous - the only rush he can get without dying is playing and keeping busy so he does that. He had to rejoin the band cos being gone was letting other people shit on his legacy. So he's back and he wants to keep busy, but he's not going to do anything that causes a new blow up. Wasted too many productive years on that drama already.

Duff gets the money side of things and understands how retarded they all were to let the band fall apart before. But lets not do it again.

So here we are, Axl probably wants to release a new album some days but its all a bit much, his priority is staying ok. Slash wants to release a new album but he knows its really Axl's call, and it's not worth starting shit over it. And Duff wants whatever keeps everyone else happy. Thus nothing happens, except when once in a blue moon when Axl feels like doing something, maybe he felt good that day, maybe he read someone ranting that it would never happen and felt like fucking with them, who knows. Lets hope it happens again.

OMG is some of Axl's most badass lyrics though, i hate the guitars on the end of days version...but lyrically and vocally it's awesome.

Given there was a bucket/bumble (forget which it is) version floating around about 5 years back as a leak...I'd say it's still on the short list to make a return....it's a weird style sure but so was Absurd previously.

China seems to often engage in provocative actions then get offended when someone responds. But each time they get away with a little more than they did the time before.