Six months after their remarkable performance that drew the largest crowd ever to Allianz Parque for concerts, Guns N' Roses returned to São Paulo to headline Monsters of Rock 2026 and make their debut at the iconic festival. The band, led by Axl Rose, still has eight more shows scheduled in Brazil this April.
Unlike previous performances, the group made the right decision in reducing the duration of their show to 2 hours and 30 minutes, which is still a marathon, but ended up making the show less tiring and more dynamic. To achieve this, songs like "Patience," "Don't Cry," "Coma," and songs from the album Chinese Democracy (2008), which still divides opinions today as it is considered "a solo work" by Rose, were cut.
In addition to the cathartic start with "Welcome To The Jungle" and the parade of hits like "It's So Easy," "Mr. Brownstone," "Sweet Child O' Mine," "You Could Be Mine," "Civil War," "Paradise City," "November Rain," among others, the band surprised everyone by playing "Bad Apples" for the first time in thirty-four years, a moment that left longtime fans ecstatic.
Seeing the trio Axl, Slash , and Duff McKagan on stage brings back memories of the early 90s and the peak they reached during the Use Your Illusion, which, without exaggeration, earned the group the title of the biggest band of that period. The guitarist impresses with his unique playing style and timeless solos. Also noteworthy is the performance of the new drummer Isaac Carpenter and the excellent veterans Richard Fortus(guitar) and Dizzy Reed (piano).
At 64 years old, Axl isn't the same as before, that's a fact, and despite numerous comparisons of his voice sounding like Mickey Mouse's, he truly sings and doesn't resort to external resources like backing tracks or playback ,and he doesn't stop for a single second. It's precisely at this point that the absence of keyboardist and backing vocalist Melissa Reese was felt, especially since she helped Axl with the higher notes in certain songs during the show.
's "Junior's Eyes Black Sabbath," revealed an interesting tidbit about the choice of song for the Back To The Beginning performance. 's reaction Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne upon learning that his band would play the song in question, from the album Never Say Die (1977), was: "Where did you get that from?"
With their headliner status fully justified and an explosive performance, Guns N' Roses closed the event with a completely packed stadium to see them and prove once again their enormous popularity in Brazil.
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