Man oh man! Guns n’ Roses did not disappoint.
Last night, was my 10th (I think) time seeing Guns n Roses, and the first time for my wife. It’s always a treat!
First off, the Pretenders opened the show. I think that the Pretenders at this point is pretty much just Chrissie Hynde and maybe one other original dude. Or not. I don’t know. But they played for about an hour and a half, starting right at 5:30pm. I’m familiar with their radio songs, but not a fan so I couldn’t tell you what they opened with but the 2nd song was Talk of the Town. Now, Chrissie Hynde may look her age (71), sorry Chrissie! But she did not sound it. She can still play guitar, sounds great on vocals, and seems to be having a lot of fun on stage.
They did play the hits, Back on the Chain Gang, I’ll Stand by You, Don’t Get Me Wrong, Brass In Pocket, and Middle of the Road. If you think you don’t know them, look them up. You likely do.
While it was nice to be like “oh! I know this one” on quite a few occasions, I have to say that their guitar player kind of annoyed me. He just made goofy faces and weird body movements as if he was trying to convince us that he can’t play a solo unless he puts his heart and soul (and stupid faces) into every note. Does he just do this because he knows he’s opening for Slash? Or maybe I’m just a judgmental dick. Who knows! But my wife really liked them, and was surprised how many songs she knew. I didn’t love them, but they were fine for an opener. Now onto GNR!
Anyone who knows me knows that I love this band more than any other band. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of money on them over the years (Cassettes, CDs, Vinyl, various merch, box sets, DVDs, and so much more) and contributed to their riches. It’s hard for me to be critical of this band (all iterations), so I’ll start with my only negative observations. During Rocket Queen, it was the first time during the night where I felt Axl’s voice was off. He wasn’t struggling by any means, but it just wasn’t working 100%. The same could be said for This I Love. But beyond that? I smiled ear to ear the whole time. Additionally, I took limited pictures, videos or notes on this show because I was there to just purely enjoy it. And enjoy it I did!
Note – I still took enough photos, videos, and notes. But GNR lives in my head so I took much less than many other shows.
It’s So Easy opened the show. Damn that’s a good tune full of great energy. What a way to warm up the crowd. Axl’s voice was so strong on this song and the sound mix was great. No one instrument or his vocals overpowered anyone else. Bad Obsession was next and they brought out Chrissie Hynde to play harmonica during this one. Chinese Democracy was next (and awesome) and at this point, it started to rain a bit. When they rolled into the next tune Slither it started downpouring. It was fitting since one of the repeated lines is “Yeah, here comes the water.” The downpouring didn’t stop for quite some time.
Axl commented that with all the rain, we had all been washed of our sins…and were now free to go out and commit a bunch of new ones. Challenge accepted! Since it rains in the jungle, Welcome to the Jungle was next. One of their newer releases, Hard Skool was next, followed by Reckless Life (vocals were so good on this one!) and Double Talkin’ Jive. Then it was time to go into the newest stuff (newest being 20 years old, but just polished up and released recently) playing Perhaps (just released a week prior) and Absurd. At this point, it’s all going great. Rocket Queen was next and I thought perhaps he was running out of vocal steam. But…This is a great live song because the band will take the musical part and just jam on it for like 10 minutes. So a 6 min song becomes much longer and gives Axl a little break.
When Rocket Queen was over, Axl proved any doubters wrong by kicking ass on several more songs including my favorite You Could Be Mine, then Estranged, and Live and Let Die. Lead vocals were handed over to Duff for a quick Stooges cover of T.V. Eye and then Axl was back for This I Love. I’m not the biggest fan of this song (can you believe it!?) but it didn’t sound great to me. The rest of the show was nothing short of amazing. Anything Goes, Civil War, Slash’s solo (a staple of any GNR show), Sweet Child O’ Mine (a crowd pleaser, especially the ladies), November Rain (Axl on Piano), Patience (complete with Axl’s whistling), Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Nightrain (my 2nd favorite), and Paradise City to close the show as always. All in all…7:45pm through 10:30pm. 26 songs total. Frigging awesome!
During November Rain, Axl had a new outfit on, complete (at first) with big ole sunglasses. I think this was his homage to Elton John.
It’s worth mentioning that the art and graphics that they show on the screens throughout were awesome, and I love that they do a special T-Shirt for each city the play in. For this one, they did a Boston Celtics inspired logo. Very cool.
If you want your money’s worth at a concert, Guns n’ Roses is not a bad choice. It did eventually stop raining, and as I was finally drying off, it started again. The wife and I were soaked, as was everyone else that stayed for the whole show (which was just about everyone). 10 out 10 my friends! And if my word isn’t enough, as we were walking out a dude said to his friend, “That was the best rock show I’ve ever been to!” Damn right it was buddy! Now, go see a show!
Just in case you didn’t know…Slash kicks ass!
Leave a Reply to SteveCancel reply