Guns N’ Roses at Allstate Arena | Concert preview

The anticlimactic shrug that met Guns N’ Roses’ long-delayed Chinese Democracy in 2008 only underscored what had been apparent for years, namely that Axl Rose’s bizarre Frankensteinian approximation of the band had become a surreal distortion of what it once was.

The formerly omnipresent threat of danger has been replaced by a suffocating cloud of indulgence. The scraggly motley crew that made up the group’s classic lineup has been replaced by a hodgepodge of also-rans no doubt chained by stacks of contracts and confidentiality agreements. It’s strange to think that Tommy Stinson has now played bass in the Gunners for longer than he did in the Replacements.

And yet, there’s Axl, ever the wild card, whose presence ensures the possibility of all those things the band as a whole no longer offers. The mercurial Hoosier thrives on the very chaos he creates. Which, of course, can go either way. A gig might blow your do-rag off. A gig might start hours late or end abruptly. Those in the front row: Do not feed the Axl. Do not taunt the Axl.

But if we can gauge Rose’s temper from recent YouTube clips, the prospects are positive. He seems happy (and plump). One video caught the frontman in a South American airport, jovially sharing tales of Slash’s drunken incontinence. Credit the guy this: He’s king of his rarefied world. And he’s not afraid to piss off the people he rules in service of a master plan only he understands.