POP/ROCK - Oct. 12, 1989

Los Angeles hard-rock band Guns N’ Roses played an unannounced, 90-minute show for 400 fans Tuesday at Cathouse, a small Hollywood room that serves as an informal clubhouse for local heavy-metal musicians. The show was both a dress rehearsal for the band’s opening spots with the Rolling Stones at the Coliseum next week and an opportunity for Propaganda Films to shoot footage for an upcoming home video. In the course of several dives off the stage into the audience, lead guitarist Slash temporarily left his pants behind in the crowd. Among those in attendance was actor Sean Penn, whose impassioned defense of the controversial group appeared recently in the letters column of the New York Times’ Arts and Leisure section.