Alright,
First it must be stated, Yes, Gunnar is the casino whisperer. He won 750.00 dollars off of like 4 hands of dollar video poker.
With those winnings he treated me and his buddy to a ridiculously expensive but equally delicious Pre GNR show dinner at Gordan Ramsy’s Pub.
Gotta admit I was a little skeptical of eating what seemed to be this oddly spiced/sauced food cause I didn’t want to be in the middle of the concert and have a gut bomb, but I braved forward and holy shit if that wasn’t some of the best food I’ve ever had, and even better, no gut bomb.
So, off to the show… well, sort of. The doors opened at like 8:30 and Alice In Chains went on at 9:30 and played 'til 10:30. We skipped it cause there was Macaroni and cheese with Lobster chunks to eat and beautiful women to deal us black jack and even more beautiful goddess type woman to look at. So, about 10:30 I start getting antsy, worried that GNR would hold to an earlier time slot. So, we headed over to the arena.
There were three merch booths set up outside. Really? Merch outside? HA HA yes but no. 3 merch booths outside and 8 of them inside. Shirts were 40 dollars hoodies were 80. They had an embroidered jacket for $275. They had decent shirts, mostly the bullet logo with a couple of retro designs thrown in. They had the old Coma shirt from when I was in high school and it had the 92 dates on the back. So, I don’t know if they retroed the shirt or if it was left over stock from 25 years ago.
We made our way inside and I picked up a zipper hoodie and a couple shirts and the event poster. We get to our seats and right away Gunnar is making friends. Good people. Couple of nice people from Canada. We wait around for an hour or so for the show to start and right at midnight, like clock work, they hit the stage. Axl comes riding out in this fucked up clam looking thing. I said, “what is this shit? Does he think he’s the Little Mermaid? He needs to be carried out on stage like fuckin’ royalty?” I hadn’t heard about the broken foot. Gunnar says “That’s Dave Grohl’s chair. Axl Broke his foot at the Troubadour.” Oh, ok, now it makes sense. Kinda happy he wasn’t being a 50 something primadona.
They ripped through It’s So Easy and Mr. Brownstone fuckin’ beautifully. Then came Chinese Democracy. I’m not as familiar with that track so I don’t know if Slash changed up the solo or not but it all sounded like what I remember from the CD. They launched into Welcome To The Jungle and again it’s flawless.
As I said, I was expecting the music to be Spot Fucking on and Axl to be the weak link. Not at all. Axl was in full glory. His voice not aged a bit. His voice hitting the high notes with ease, his voice diving to the low notes with the grace of an Olympic Diver. But after Welcome To The Jungle the highlights start to really kick in for me.
Double Talkin Jive gets played and the drums and the bass are just wrecking the audience. I’ve always thought the lyrics were cool and music fucking bad ass, especially for how/why the song was written but the stand out for me on that song has always been Slash playing that classical piece at the end. I love that segue from hard music that gradually gives way into this beautifully light solo at the end… Slash played the Solo at the end of that song like I was listening to the CD, you know, but live.
Then they jumped right into Estranged, I believe the highlight for gunnar. Again, Slash was note for note perfect for everything. Certainly a highlight for me. Once Estranged was done Axl gave us some reggae. Not my favorite GNR cover (at any time through out their career) but it kept the energy going.
They launched into Rocket Queen and even though Duff’s bass has been stomping your head into the curb from the beginning, Rocket queen was like he changed into diamond steel grade boots to continue stomping your head into the curb. You could taste the nasty ass sex in the air from that song. It was just drenched in seedy hotels and paid for orgasms. Rocket Queen went on for quite some time, but when it ended Slash switched out his guitar for his red mockingbird guitar so I knew You could Be Mine was up next. And again, everyone sounded CD perfect.
After YCBM Duff got another introduction and While Duff sang Brand New Rose Axl went of for a wardrobe change. Duff on vocals had never been anything I’ve been really into but ever since he’s cleaned himself up, his vocals are much better, even past tolerable into “decent” territory. I even like his Loaded CD’s and while I’ve never really been a fan of Brand New Rose (Mostly because of Duff’s shitty vocals) This was hands down the best rendition of Brand New Rose. Duff brought his new improved vocals and applied them to the song and made a formerly shitty song sound great.
Alright, the moment I had been hoping would happen and then did once BNR was done. This is definitely the highest highlite for me. Axl is back and they launch into This I Love. Ever since I’d heard the song I’ve had 2 problems with it. Axl whining all the way through the song and that shitty ass solo that is in it. I’m willing to over look the Axl whining bit to hear what Slash would do to this Solo but I didnt have to. Axl ditched whining and sang this song something beautiful and Slash, ha ha ha, He most certainly did NOT disappoint. I have no doubt Slash improvised the shit out of that solo and in that improvised solo it had more feeling, it had more relevance, it had more life than studio version could ever wish to have.
So, I have a recording of it. because who knows if they would ever play it again. So, my phone had like 15% battery left but I had to chance it. So, I waited until it got close to solo time and I kicked on the video recorder and hoped my phone wouldn’t die and that I wasn’t wasting precious battery life (I was writing down the set list on my phone) Holy shit, I’m an apple customer for life. The little 3 minute snippet I got rivals most bootlegs I have for sound. (I wasn’t trying to get video, so I wasn’t one of those douche nozzles that hold their phone up in front of everyone.) I’ll get it up to a private you tube link in a little bit for those that are interested.
So, yeah, you’d think they couldn’t get any better after This I Love, but they went ahead and tried anyway. Axl states they are going to try something tonight, It’s a nice little song about a happy place and they kick into COMA!! I think my face melted and I might’ve came on my self a little bit. My absolute hands down favorite GNR song when I was in High School. (my 15 year old self is so happy- Now my favorite is Locomotive and has been steady for about 20 years-but still) I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They rarely played Coma the first time around and now we’re getting it on day one!?! back to back highlights!! This show is not disappointing. Axl’s pipes are perfect and Slash’s solo’s are flawless. In-fucking-credible!
After Coma ends, “a man who needs no introduction but who will get one anyway, Slash” starts up with the God Father Theme. Nice little slow down from the fury that has been taking place. The God Father bleeds right into Sweet Child. Sweet child is always good, but the only thing I care about is the Iconic Solo, of course, and Slash nails every note, every fucking note that I still can’t play 25 years later!
Alright, the only low lite of the show, Better. Very disappointing. This may be my favorite track on Chinese Democracy and it was unrecognizable at the show. I had no idea what they were playing until Axl started singing. The melody was different, the lead was different, it was just disappointing. Don’t get me wrong whatever it was that was being played was crisp, it just wasn’t the music that I know to be, Better. As I said, it wasn’t bad, just disappointing. Probably because that was one that I was looking forward too.
So, Moving right along. The band begins Civil War and the crowd is giving back just as much as the band is giving. Axl is still in peak voice mode and it’s just a delicious buttery blend of nutritious goodness. I’m sure there were fortified vitamins and Minerals packed into that song too. Axl is wheeled off stage a piano is brought out and the musician’s on stage create the greatest cover of “Wish You Were Here.” All instrumental with Richard Fortus covering the vocal melody on his guitar. The whole song is covered. Axl is wheeled back out and sat at the Piano and another jam ensues with Slash and Duff around the piano and then November Rain starts. It’s November Rain… Does anything else need to be said?
and now the end of the show. They hadn’t left the stage but this may as well be the encore as far as I’m concerned. Knocking On Heaven’s Door had the usual crowd interaction, for which I removed my ear plugs for (and I’m glad I did) the loudest audience interaction I’ve ever heard in my life. Knocking On Heaven’s Door, unless it’s the Ritz version, if you’ve heard one rendition you’ve heard them all.
After KOHD was another “low lite” only because I got the wrong idea. So, KOHD ends and they blare this train whistle and in my mind they are about to play Locomotive and I brace myself for another smiling head spinner but they start Nighttrain instead so disappointment but totally my fault. I like Nighttrain too but it’s no Locomotive. I quickly get on board the Nighttrain and then it’s the end of the show. Bows and they leave.
The crowd refuses to leave, so they’re off stage maybe 90 seconds before they’re back out and playing Patience. Axl hilariously switches up the lyric from “I sit here on the stairs…” to “I sit here IN THIS CHAIR…” the crowd loves it. Axl sends love and advertisements to Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters for use of the chair and then it’s off to Paradise City. It’s always the show closer, they rip through it and they are off for good. Two and a half hours later the show is over. I will go again should the opportunity present itself. and it just might in August when they play San Diego… If they’re not divorced by then again.
