Guns n’ Roses at Mystic Lake Amphitheater, Shakopee (Minneapolis) MN (2026-08-08)

GUNS N’ ROSES TOUR DATES

AUG 12 East Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium
AUG 16 St. Louis, MO Busch Stadium
AUG 19 Kansas City, MO Morton Amphitheater
AUG 22 Las Vegas, NV Allegiant Stadium
AUG 26 Edmonton, AB Commonwealth Stadium
AUG 29 Vancouver, BC BC Place
SEP 2 San Diego, CA Snapdragon Stadium
SEP 5 Pasadena, CA Rose Bowl Stadium
SEP 9 Arlington, TX Globe Life Field
SEP 12 Ridgedale, MO Thunder Ridge Nature Arena
SEP 16 San Antonio, TX Alamodome
SEP 19 Atlanta, GA Truist Park
NOV 14 Bengaluru, IN Nice Grounds
NOV 17 Guwahati, IN Khanapara Vetinary Ground
NOV 21 Jakarta, ID Madya Stadium GBK
NOV 25 Singapore, SG Singapore National Stadium
NOV 29 Adelaide, Australia bp Adelaide Grand Final
DEC 2 Townsville, Australia Queensland Bank Arena
DEC 5 Brisbane, Australia Suncorp Stadium
DEC 8 Newcastle, Australia McDonald Jones Stadium
DEC 11 Melbourne, Australia Marvel Stadium
DEC 14 Sydney, Australia Engie Stadium
DEC 17 Auckland, New Zealand Eden Park

Minnesota had the ‘appetite’ again,

Returning this time to the new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee, Guns n’ Roses made their first Twin Cities appearance in five years, during a stop on their 2026 World Tour, with the great Public Enemy as opening support.

The result proved to be the opposite of the reputation the band developed in the early ‘90s and into the beginning of the millennium, as Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Dizzy Reed and band were on stage around 7:30p, played a solid three-hour show, and found the now 64-year-old Rose in a reasonably good mood and in good voice, the latter being more in question over recent years.

We had seen the band do an abbreviated set last summer in Birmingham, UK for the Ozzy/Black Sabbath – Back to the Beginning concert, so weren’t too surprised that the antics and temperaments were largely issues of the past, though could still tell Axl was a bit annoyed on this night, due to technical issues late in the set on “November Rain” and “Nightrain”, both of which were resolved in good time.

While we miss the glory years lineup that included guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven ‘Popcorn’ Adler, the current lineup with the three core members and additional players, is musically consistent and probably the best version of the band one could hope for.

With only a cellphone in hand and the enthusiasm in his heart, our fan-in-the-stands was on the spot to unofficially document this, one of the biggest shows of the busy Twin Cities concert summer (especially as most other dates on this tour are in larger stadiums).

As the Bowie intro music faded, the band took to the stage with the (of course) appropriate “Welcome to the Jungle” as the set’s opener, with fans shrieking in response to Rose asking in song, “Do you know where you are?!” Rose was able to maintain his vocal range throughout- from the savage highs to the lower-register vocals on such classics as the verses of “It’s So Easy.”

Their last full studio album was 2008’s long-in-the-making Chinese Democracy, which didn’t exactly match the success of previous records, but the band nevertheless worked in the title track, early-on, as well as incorporated both of their more recent singles (released in December), “Nothin’” and “Atlas,” though neither grabbed too much traction on local radio.

Most surprising, and in the most pleasant way, was the generous handful of cover songs- some expected (“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”; “Live and Let Die”) but it was the unexpected ones, that proved more fresh and welcomed- from a Rose Tattoo cover that most in the crowd were unfamiliar with, to a Velvet Revolver hit (McKagan and Slash were in that band with the late Scott Weiland), to McKagan on lead vocals for a cover from The Damned. Even the 1968 Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb country classic “Wichita Lineman” was given the G n’ R treatment that also still honored the original.

Perhaps the best cover of the night was in tribute to Ozzy Osbourne’s death last year, just a couple weeks after that final Birmingham concert and their version of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, a song they also performed last July at that legendary show.

“Rocket Queen” was stretched and extended to more than twice its studio length with an end instrumental jam and Slash’s signature blues-tinged guitar solo, done during the back part of the set, led into those famous opening guitar chords of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” which got the crowd to take their enthusiasm up to another level.

Rebounding from Rose’s initial mic issues during the start of “Nightrain”, the evening ended strongly, with a full-on chorus of 18,000+ crowd members on the G n’ R classic, “Paradise City.”

When a band plays 29 songs over three hours’ time and you can still say you didn’t hear hits like “Patience”, “Used to Love Her” and “The Garden” among others, you know this is longstanding group with a deep catalog and that could easily play another hour for the diehard fans.

What Guns n’ Roses started on their breakout 1987 major label debut, still has the urgency, relevance, and an appetite, four decades later, and the band is playing live in their best form in years.​​

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