1. The big news from Guns N’ Roses’ headlining set on Saturday: Guitarist Angus Young joined the band for a pair of AC/DC songs, “Whole Lotta Rosie” and “Riff Raff,” unexpected but also unsurprising. Just three hours before GNR hit the stage, AC/DC issued a press release confirming reports that GNR’s Axl Rose would take over for Brian Johnson as AC/DC’s vocalist, for a series of European dates and rescheduled U.S. shows. A cynic might suggest that Rose brought Young up for two AC/DC numbers as a way to promote their upcoming collaboration—and to provide evidence to doubters that Rose will be up to the task (more on that below)—but regardless of the motivation, the outcome was fairly epic, with Young and GNR’s Slash, two of rock’s most beloved guitarists, playing together on one of the world’s most iconic stages.
2. GNR started on time. Okay, not technically. The band was scheduled to begin at 10:30 p.m. and hit the first note at 10:36, but by GNR standards that’s like going on 30 minutes early. Good thing, too, as the two-and-a-half-hour performance still broke the festival’s 1 a.m. curfew by four minutes.
3. Back to Rose’s voice. The last time I saw him perform, during GNR’s 2012 residency at the Joint, he struggled to find his pipes early, then rallied for the concert’s second half. For Coachella, he needed no such warmup. From the first verse of opener “It’s So Easy,” the 54-year-old’s instrument sounded full and fierce, even handling the lengthy shriek in “Welcome to the Jungle” without signs of strain. As the night progressed, Rose faded a little, coming up a bit short at points in “Estranged” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” for example, but on the whole, he impressed. AC/DC fans should be in good hands.
4. That might be attributable to his seat. Having recently broken a bone in his left foot, Rose spends most of his time onstage in a large throne—lent to him by the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, who used it after breaking a foot on tour last year. At the Joint show four years ago, a rambunctious Rose spent the night running around the stage (and frequently disappearing offstage), and one wonders if his forced limitations are better for his breathing, and his focus.
5. Much as the world would surely have loved to see Izzy Stradlin and either Steven Adler or Matt Sorum join in—making this a more complete classic-era GNR reunion—the band Rose brought to the stage Saturday night served him well. In particular, Frank Ferrer, the group’s drummer since 2006, drove the music with an intensity and consistency that would likely have been tough for the former players to match, and holdover guitarist Richard Fortus, whose time in GNR dates back to 2001, paired nicely with Slash and appeared relatively comfortable ceding the spotlight to him for most of the show. Sure, it’s a bit strange seeing formative bassist Duff McKagan on the same stage with brand new keyboardist Melissa Reese, but Rose’s project has featured a rotating membership from the very start, so it’s pointless holding out for some perfect lineup. For years, fans yearned to see Rose and Slash together onstage again, and now we are, and the results are impressive.
And a few non-GNR thoughts:
• Deerhunter designs its sets to fit within its surroundings, which means the Georgia indie band’s two daytime Coachella performances—at the Outdoor Theatre in 2010 and Saturday in the Mojave Tent—have been fairly sedate affairs, a sharp contrast to the noisy eruption we saw in 2013 at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Live. This time, frontman Bradford Cox and his mates kept things relatively calm, plucking down-tempo cuts from latest album Fading Frontier (“Breaker,” “Living My Life”) and beyond (“Revival,” “Helicopter”), and though the music sounded fine, only a funky version of closer “Snakeskin” really got the tent worked up beyond appreciative respect. Next time, schedule ’em at night, Coachella.
• GNR aside, rock acts struggled to produce large crowds on Saturday. While Deerhunter played to a half-full Mojave, England’s Bat for Lashes drew less than that next door at the Gobi Tent. Other underattended sets: Australian singer/guitarist Courtney Barnett at the Outdoor Theatre and soul-psych act Unknown Mortal Orchestra in the Mojave. Later in the night, however, LA’s Silversun Pickups proved it can still be done, filling most of the Mojave, and then reminding us of the enduring power of a catchy rock riff as they sent the tent into ecstasy with “Lazy Eye.”
• Kudos to Coachella for installing heaps more charging stations across the Empire Polo Club grounds, and to AT&T for keeping things connectable. By sundown in past years, I’d usually given up on having a functioning phone, making it tough to coordinate nighttime meetups. This time, I’ve had no such issues. Jinx? Day three awaits.
