Fans attending Guns N’ Roses’ Fenway Park show in Boston on Tuesday night (August 3) got a special surprise when the veteran hard-rockers uncorked a surprising new song during their 22-track set of mostly greatest hits.
“Some of you might have heard this under another name, but this is… it’s really kind of absurd to try this,” singer Axl Rose joked as drummer Frank Ferrer added in a rimshot. “Wasn’t that funny? And they don’t even know the joke yet. Okay, this is called ‘Absurd.’” Slipped in just after a Duff McKagan vocal on the Stooges cover “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and the epic “Civil War,” the fiery song appears to be a revamped version of the previously unreleased Chinese Democracy-era song “Silkworms.”
“Listen motherf—ers to this song that should be heard/ Dragged down in the gutters/It’s more than you deserve,” Rose bellowed over rampaging drums while Slash added an ominous wash of guitar as a green slime-spitting Medusa floated on the screen behind them. “Screaming f—ing banshee/You know that’s what you are/P–y full of maggots, isn’t that absurd.” The song, then dubbed “Silkworms,” was first performed live in 2001, most recently at a New Year’s Eve concert at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas according to setlist.FM.
GNR are slated to be on the road in North America through an Oct. 3 show at the Hard Rock Live Arena in Hollywood, Florida, before moving on to shows in Mexico, Australia and New Zealand to round out the year.
Watch GNR perform “Absurd” below: