Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Times Union on Nov. 21, 2002.
Word comes this morning that Guns N’ Roses will return to the area for a Sept. 1 show at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. From our archives comes this article on all you need to know about the L.A. rockers, circa November 2002:
Among local rock fans, claiming you saw Guns N’ Roses at the Palace Theatre in 1987 is the equivalent of saying you voted for John Kennedy in 1960. Everyone wants to be present at the creation. It was shortly after the band’s breakthrough album “Appetite for Destruction” was released, although the record hadn’t broken through yet — nobody knew who Guns N’ Roses were. (Nobody knew who the opening act was, either — EZO, a Japanese heavy metal band that performed in kabuki-meets-Kiss makeup.)
That night, the members of Guns N’ Roses were everything a lean, mean rock act should be. They pumped out raw, powerful and genuinely dangerous music with little regard for the consequences. If memory serves, the band was furious that the orchestra pit had been lowered to create a moat between the stage and the fans. It must have been Slash, the guitarist, who jumped into the pit like a buccaneer — guitar in one hand, bottle of Jack Daniels in the other.
Ironically, there was no need to separate the band from the fans: Only 187 fans attended the show, in a theater that could have held 2,500 more.
There would be few empty seats for Guns N’ Roses in the years to come. A few months later, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” made it to MTV and rock radio, and the band was launched on a rocket ride that included big albums, bigger tours (including a slot opening for Aerosmith at SPAC in 1988), and even more monumental tales of excess, debauchery and bad manners.
A very different Guns N’ Roses — essentially lead singer Axl Rose and a crew of hired…
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