MIAMI – Axl Rose has been taking his Guns N’ Roses bandmates through a tour of intimate club dates. GnR started the small venue tour during February in New York and now has moved south into Florida.

On March 5th, Guns N’ Roses played to a packed crowd at The Fillmore Miami Beach. Legendary autograph collector and concert goer @TheSigLibrary was in attendance to tweet an interesting story told by Axl that night.

It seems Axl (who has a penchant for partying hard after shows) didn’t touch the booze after the previous night’s Orlando show because he “wanted to save his voice” for the Fillmore. But when Lisa Marie Presley (yeah, Elvis’ daughter) paid a visit to Axl’s tour bus – Rose, told the Fillmore crowd jokingly, “when Elvis’ daughter calls me a pussy for not doing shots with her, I take exception!”

Guns N’ Roses extend their tour of intimate venues in Los Angeles next week before setting off for Europe with shows scheduled in Ireland and England.

In early April, Guns N’ Roses will be inducted into Rock’s Hall Of Fame. This has A LOT of people wondering if Axl will show up in Cleveland and share a stage with his ex-bandmates – most notably Slash who Rose has not spoken to in 15 years.

(HoundsTV – Toronto) The NXNE music and film festival kicked off across Toronto on Wednesday at various opening night venues. HoundsTV decided to take in the Virgin Mobile Opening Night at The Phoenix with the great band Eagles Of Death Metal headlining.

Frontman Jesse Hughes was in top spirits even though the band had suffered a personal crisis this week. EODM bassist Brian O’Connor had been diagnosed with cancer, and was undergoing surgery in Los Angles the same day as the NXNE gig. Dean Fertita from Dead Weather is filling in for O’Connor on the remaining Eagles tour dates.

“The Pigeons Of Shit Metal” – Axl Rose

HoundsTV was reminded of a great rock n’ roll tattoo story at The Phoenix and it involved EODM’s Jesse Hughes and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose. Eagles Of Death Metal were offered the opening slot on Guns N’ Roses brief 2006 World Tour. It seems, EODM were not well received in their first show opening for Gn’R – a large portion of the audience actually booed them. Maybe with a band name that ends in “Death Metal,” the Guns crowd was expecting something different (EODM are not a death-metal band, they are just a great hard rockin’ band formed in the nineties with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age / Them Crooked Vultures.)

Not happy hearing his audience was booing, Axl Rose takes the stage for his Gn’R set and asks, “so what did you all think of The Pigeons of Shit Metal.” ?

Eagles Of Death Metal would not play another show opening for Guns N’ Roses again. The bands would also exchange some not-so-nice words with each other. But Jesse Hughes eventually showed how he felt about the Axl slight when he had a “Pigeons Of Shit Metal” tattoo added to his left arm.

Jesse Hughes “Pigeons Of Shit Metal” tattoo
Bassist Dean Fertita from Dead Weather filled in at NXNE show.
Eagles Of Death Metal crowd at NXNE Virgin Mobile opening night.

(HoundsTV – Toronto) Guitar god Slash was a keynote guest during 2010 Canadian Music Week. He did a lot of press to talk up his upcoming solo record.

And we mean A LOT.

Jane Stevenson, of QMI Agency (or whatever new call letters media consolidation in Canada continues to dream up. I will only continue to think of her as the long-time music reporter “Jane Stevenson from the Toronto Sun“)

Stevenson sat down with Slash and asked him his feelings about Axl Rose’s forever-in-the-making and eventually released Guns N’ Roses record Chinese Democracy:

“I thought it was exactly what I thought it would sound like… It was very indicative of what I thought he would do. So it was absolutely no surprise. ’Cause we had sort of like the Guns N’ Roses sound, which was just a straight-ahead rock band, and along the way Axl started to get very sort of techno, or had a lot of techno influences. And when I say that I mean like synthesizers and a lot of digital influence. And of course we sort of kept an old-school approach, and I think besides everything else musically, we sort of went off in different directions. Axl’s is definitely very digital and very Pro-Tools and very synthesized — whatever sounds are augmented by outside sources.” – SLASH, on Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy record

I’m glad Jane asked Slash how he felt about Chinese Democracy. It’s the question I wanted to ask (and tried) and took some knocks from some feeling it wasn’t a fair question to ask Slash.

(HoundsTV – Toronto) If there is one thing Guns N’ Roses 2010 Canadian tour has confirmed – Axl Rose still lives and loves the rock star lifestyle – relentless touring, late night partying, and lots of pretty ladies.

Axl and his Guns N’ Roses mates have been in eastern Canada the last week finishing up a 13 show trek across Canada to kick off a 2010 world tour in support of Chinese Democracy – Axl’s long awaited, and massively under-appreciated gem of a GN’R album.

The talk among many, many, many of the reviews has been the unpredictable late start to the GN’R shows occurring each night. For the Hamilton, London, and Montreal shows – Axl has been taking the stage around 10:30 and playing 2 1/2 hour sets ending around 1 a.m. We are not quite sure why so many people have been whining about the late starts -

BUT PEOPLE! Its a Guns N’ Fuckin’ Roses concert – not Disney on ice. So what if Axl is taking the stage at 10, 11 or 12?

But up here in Canada, venue officials and police do have concerns about rock concert crowds spilling out into the streets at very late hours. So all Canadian arenas have bylaw curfews (usually 11:59 p.m.) where the music is supposed to end or the concert promoter starts paying heavy penalties. The promoters and management of the GN’R tour surely paid some big penalties that night in Toronto when Rose was still on stage past 2 a.m.

In fact, when Guns N’ Roses took the stage at 11:30 in Toronto, discussions did occur with venue officials and GN’R management about cutting the set significantly shorter – to maybe 1 1/2 hours to help get the ACC crowd out still by about 1 a.m. Rose’s management refused. In the end, one or two songs were cut from the planned set list to try for a 2 a.m. finish. The word through Axl’s people was the GN’R set was minimum 2 1/2 hours and they were giving the fans ONLY a full set – no matter how late or whatever financial penalties they would incur.

So why did Guns N’ Roses take the stage so late in Toronto? It might have something to do with the fact Axl didn’t leave his downtown Toronto hotel till 11:15 p.m. for the show.

RELATED: Axl Rose signs autograph collectors guitar on route to London, Ontario show.

And why wasn’t Rose ready for the Toronto stage? Perhaps it had something to do with a very good time Axl and his GN’R mates had in Montreal the night before (actually, more the morning of..)

Rose made light reference to his previous night of Montreal debauchery kicking off the Toronto set, “Sorry about the time delay. I got carried away jumping off shit last night…I actually don’t remember a thing..”

After GN’R's Montreal show the previous night, the band hit up a private club in old Montreal eventually emerging from the club at 6:30am in quite the high spirits. From there, it was time to head back to Toronto for the Air Canada Centre show that evening. And that evening started with

Rose going from his Toronto hotel room at 11:15 pm – to an awaiting vehicle speeding through traffic the ten minute drive south to the ACC – and joining his GN’R mates on the Air Canada Centre stage with the lights dimming just before 11:30 pm.

And the rush showed in a very uninspired opening of Chinese Democracy where Axl’s voice was clearly a little off. Rose exited halfway through the song to switch mics. The second song of the night, Welcome to the Jungle, was better and the songs familiarity helped to get the crowd going – but it was clear Axl’s voice was still ramping up (and Rose was maybe still waking up?)

By the time Live and Let Die rolled around forty-five minutes into the set – Rose was surely finding his voice and it was sounding strong. Axl and the band did a great version of Catcher in the Rye – in honor of J.D. Salinger who passed away that day (remarked by Rose.)

But its when the GN’R set passed the 1 a.m. mark and Axl delivered You Could Be Mine, Knockin on Heaven’s door, and November Rain you knew you were seeing classic Axl, in almost perfert form – and well worth the wait.

After the ACC show. Axl, his Guns N’ Roses bandmates, Sebastian Bach and many more partied well into the wee morning hours at a King St. Toronto club.

Guns N’ Roses wraps up the 2010 Chinese Democracy Canadian tour with three final dates out east in Quebec City, Moncton, and Halifax this week.

Axl Rose at Copps Coliseum, Hamilton (January 25, 2010) by SteelcityCanada

RELATED: Axl Rose signs autograph collectors guitar on route to London, Ontario show.

(HoundsTV – Toronto) Guns N’ Roses leader Axl Rose made a long awaited return to full-time touring in 2010 beginning in Canada. Rose was staying in Toronto this past weekend while playing Gn’R shows in Hamilton and London on the eastern leg of the Chinese Democracy tour.

Axl has always been considered a very difficult and valued autograph to get by serious collectors. Rose is reclusive, can be moody, and won’t sign in big crowds. So when one of North America’s top autograph collectors knew Axl was quietly staying in Toronto while playing southern Ontario shows – it was time to try and get a guitar signed (considered the best item of all to maximize the value of a rock god signature.)

Just before Rose boarded his tour bus – two twenty-something girls – looking exactly like the type of young hot girls you would expect on an Axl Rose tour bus exited the hotel and boarded.

Axl emerged in his stylish fur coat to a crisp winter evening from a downtown Toronto hotel in good spirits just after 7:00pm beautifully signing the collector’s guitar before boarding his tour bus for the two hour drive to London. Rose, famous for taking the stage late, didn’t disappoint as Guns N’ Roses started their concert that evening just past eleven, rocking the John Labatt Centre to well past 1 am. It was then back to the buses for Axl and the ladies for the long drive east to Montreal.

RELATED: Guns N’ Roses tour across Canada – What time will Axl Rose take the stage?