Watch Guns N’ Roses Play ‘Hard Skool’ Live for the First Time
Days after releasing their latest single "Hard Skool," Guns N' Roses tackled the song live for the first time last night (Sept. 26) during their show in Baltimore, Md.
It's been speculated that the band would premiere the song live during this tour for a couple of weeks now. At the start of the run, they debuted "Absurd" live and released it a couple of days later, and then they started rehearsing "Hard Skool" prior to shows throughout September. Slash really sealed the deal when he uploaded a video of some of the members practicing it on his TikTok.
Both of the new tracks were originally outtakes from Chinese Democracy that have since been reworked to feature members from the current lineup — most notably Slash and Duff McKagan. These tracks serve as their first official releases with Axl Rose since their 1994 cover of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil."
According to Setlist.fm, GN'R played "Hard Skool" last night immediately following "Absurd," giving the crowd a double dose of new material. They also played the Chinese Democracy tune "Sorry" for the first time during this tour, and ultimately played a total of 29 full songs.
Check out a fan-filmed video of their live rendition of "Hard Skool" below.
Guns are set to release an EP titled Hard Skool in 2022 which will feature both new songs, as well as two live songs. Additionally, the band have a new merch collection commemorating the EP on their web store, including a 7" vinyl, CD, cassette, a T-shirt, hat and a sticker pack.
The group have three U.S. dates left for this year before heading over to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico in 2022. Their dates in Mexico were originally set to take place this fall, but had to be rescheduled to do COVID-19 restrictions. Check out the full route here.