Appetite for Destruction: A GnR cover band

Blowing the dust off this old blog. It's certainly been awhile since I've been on here, but I'm back.

Ed and I went to go see a Guns n' Roses cover band last night, but it wasn't Cocaine Tongue (shocking). This GnR cover band travels all over the country and stopped in for a show at the Middle East downstairs last night. The last time I was at the Middle East was Roadsteamer's last show before the band broke up. The Middle East is still a great venue to watch a show (I could definitely see the stage as a background of any level in Guitar Hero). Anyways, on to the show.

One of the opening bands, ZO2, was pretty good. The lead singer reminded me alot of Steven Tyler before he started getting old and looking like an old lady. When AFD came out, each band member dressed the part of each person in the band (which I believe is a must for a cover band like GnR, I once saw a Van Halen cover band that didn't dress up at all, the guy that was supposed to be David Lee Roth was like 5'4 and bald!!!!). The lead singer definitely had the look of an Axl Rose, Slash was a little suspect though, but the effort was there. The sound itself was great, alot of the songs were spot on (I would recommend going to their website to get a good idea: http://www.notquitegnr.com/index2.aspx?pageid=6 ).

Now, one thing Ed and I were doing throughout the show was comparing this band to Cocaine Tongue. If AFD is one of the better GnR cover bands in the country, then CT stacks up pretty well with them (and no, it's not because they shot outs at the show and I go way back with a few members of the band). I think both versions of Axl Rose do a great job with vocals (getting through every lyric of "You could be mine" is quite the accomplishment). Both bands are able to emulate the sounds of the original GnR. One big difference between the two bands is that AFD did not have a keyboardist. This surprised me because one of GnR's biggest hits, November Rain, does require someone on keys, therefore it was no surprise that AFD didn't play it last night. Cocaine Tongue does have a keyboardist and are not only able to do November Rain, but have also done a cover of Black Sabbath's "It's Alright" (so would that be a cover band covering a cover?). Great crowd though, as most cover band's will bring out both young and old to sing along with songs from long ago!