Slash, McKagan reunite with Guns N’ Roses for Las Vegas show

When Guns blaze, the box office burns.

Question: Who knew a certain fellow in a top hat and a business-minded bassist with his own wealth management firm would add so much to the draw of an iconic hard rock band?

Answer: Pretty much everyone.

Because that’s who’s bought tickets to Guns N’ Roses’ blockbuster “Not in This Lifetime Tour,” where original members Slash and Duff McKagan have reunited with singer Axl Rose after years apart.

Since launching at T-Mobile Arena in April 2016, it’s pulled in over $430 million, making it the fifth-highest-grossing tour of all time.

For the first half of this year, it was the biggest show on the road, selling over a million tickets to the tune of $151.5 million.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to see Guns N’ Roses in their current incarnation, here are a few pointers to enhance the experience:

Get ready to reassess “Chinese Democracy”

Look, when Michael Jordan failed to score 30 points in a game it didn’t make him Olden Polynice.

Now, we’re not saying that the Axl Rose-assembled GNR of the aughts was the rock and roll equivalent of MJ, but the point is, when expectations are great, good doesn’t suffice.

This is the dilemma of Guns N’ Roses’ much-maligned sixth record, “Chinese Democracy,” an album that didn’t quite measure up to its predecessors.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good record — it is.

Because “Democracy” took 13 years to make, though, few saw it as a real Guns N’ Roses album. And because Rose is about as sympathetic as the Grinch upon showing up four hours late to steal Christmas, it was roundly dismissed after its November 2008 release. It wasn’t long before Best Buy was selling it for $2.

Though “Democracy” could stand to lose an overinflated power ballad or two (or three), songs such as the title cut, “I.R.S.” and “Better” propel a dynamic, hard-driving record with more hits than misses.

Don’t just take it from us, though.

“It’s a really good record,” Slash said in a 2008 interview with MusicRadar.com, long before he had a financial incentive to prop up the album, as he and Rose had yet to officially mend fences. “It’s very different from what the original Guns N’ Roses sounded like, but it’s a great statement by Axl. Now you understand where he was heading all this time. It’s a record that the original Guns N’ Roses could never possibly make.”

True to those words, it’s highly doubtful the record would have emerged the way that it did had the band’s current lineup written and recorded it. So it’s interesting to hear what GNR OGs such as Slash and McKagan bring to the table in service of these tunes.

They have ample opportunity: The band regularly plays five to six “Democracy” cuts.

Granted, they’re not tried-and true Guns N’ Roses songs.

Yet.

Unless you fall into a coma, don’t miss “Coma”

“Coma” is Slash’s baby, and that thing was thrown out with the bathwater when he acrimoniously split from GNR in 1996.

Though the Slash-less Guns N’ Roses toured heavily in the past decade, they never played this tune, for obvious reasons.

Prior to the start of GNR’s current reunion, it had been 23 years since they tackled the “Use Your Illusion” epic, the band’s longest tune, clocking in at over 10 topsy-turvy minutes.

But with Slash back in the fold, so is “Coma,” and it’s the most exciting addition to the band’s post-reunion set list.

A turbulent, multipart song suite with no chorus, “Coma” was written in a heroin fugue, according to a now-sober Slash, who scaled one of Guns N’ Roses’ creative peaks while hitting rock bottom.

The song soundtracks a nervous breakdown, and it feels like one: Beginning with the thump of a beating heart, Rose tests his upper register on the early verses before quickly working himself into the kind of spittle-flying rage that leads to the toweling off of microphones.

From there, “Coma” twists and turns in on itself, vaulting from hysteria to hope.

Eventually, it ends with what sounds like a new beginning.

“When you reach the point of breaking,” Rose sings at song’s conclusion, voice escalating. “Know it’s gonna take some time / To heal those broken memories.”

Decades later, with that time having passed, this tour sees life imitating art.

If you’re a “Seeker” of covers, prepare to be stoked

The words are heavy as so many hearts were upon the loss of the man who originally voiced them.

“No one sings like you anymore.”

That line, as sung by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell on the band’s dusky hit “Black Hole Sun,” takes on added resonance since Cornell’s passing in May.

Soundgarden opened a portion of Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion Tour” back in the day, and the band has been paying tribute to Cornell by performing “Black Hole Sun” of late.

It’s one of eight covers Guns N’ Roses routinely play.

Some of them are staples the band has been airing for decades, such as their well-known takes on Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die.” Others, such as a punchy version of The Who’s “The Seeker,” have been performed regularly in recent years.

But there are also some new additions this go-round, including an instrumental version of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” a Slash-led take on “Speak Softly, Love (Love Theme From The Godfather)” and Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” another nod to a fallen great, Glen Campbell, who popularized the tune.

The final cover tends to alternate between a pair of snarling punk standards: The Misfits’ “Attitude” and The Damned’s “New Rose,” blossoming anew.

Pace yourself

When Guns N’ Roses did a pair of residencies at the Hard Rock Hotel in 2013-14, the shows were rock and roll marathons sans the paper numbers pinned to their chests.

Performing upward of 2½ hours a night, the band paced the shows for the long haul: They’d start strong with a clutch of hard-nosed rippers, slow things down a bit with moodier numbers such as “Estranged” and “There Was a Time,” then came the solos — lots and lots of solos, a buffet of them, as Axl got a breather — some big ballads, a few covers and an explosive conclusion.

Not to be outdone — by themselves — Guns N’ Roses now perform even longer, averaging over 30 songs during shows that sometimes span 3½ hours.

Be prepared to take the scenic route to “Paradise City.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.