Month: May 1991

Guns N’ Roses shoots straight rock ‘n’ roll

Jae-Ha Kim

Guns N’ Roses, kicking off its first-ever headlining tour Friday night at Alpine Valley, negated the oft-repeated and seemingly true tale that today’s musicians have forgotten what rock ‘n’ roll is all about. Three years after its debut LP “Appetite for Destruction” clawed its way to the top of the album charts, the controversial Los Angeles band gave an aggressive, testosterone-laced performance before an almost sold-out crowd of 40,000 fans, showing that while its members’ tumultuous private lives and business idiosyncrasies are the stuff that keeps gossip columnists in business, their music contains all the elements that make rock ‘n’ roll vital.

Guns N’ Roses’ lyrics become secondary to incendiary sound

Jae-Ha Kim

Guns N’ Roses have been hailed and assailed as everything from rock ‘n’ roll’s messiahs to self-indulgent spoiled brats living out a hedonistic fantasy. They are musicians whose musical justification always has packed a stronger punch than the convoluted interviews they don’t readily grant anymore.

Jesus Jones shakes rock to the roots

Jae-Ha Kim

Creating a euphoric version of rock ‘n’ roll that relied on equal parts acid house, hard rock and Beatlesque melodies, Jesus Jones’ performance Saturday night at the Vic Theatre embodied what rock music once was all about. Foregoing the hackneyed formats of its sample-crazed colleagues, Jesus Jones – a five-man band from London – deftly demonstrated that with a little ingenuity, artists can borrow from the past without committing an artistic crime. Jesus Jones is not the savior of contemporary rock ‘n’ roll, but the group has proven that using the musical past is no sin if it’s the way to a better future.