Here Today... Gone To Hell!

So for everyone who was either there or heard the bootlegs, what does everyone think was the best Hammerstein gig? I was only there for the first show, but the setlist was awesome so I'd probably vote that way.

There are alot of ups and downs to each show so it's hard to pick I think.

May 12-First show, band was on FIRE. Axls voice sounded AWESOME. I haven't heard anything but the one poor sounding bootleg so I can only from memory and say the band was pretty tight for the most part. First time they ever played new material including the ONLY performance of There Was A Time.

May 14-They busted out with Rocket Queen but dropped everything new except Better. Plus Axl was having a very hard time vocally from the bootleg I've heard.

May 15-Really solid performance from the band and Axl sounded AMAZING again. Plus, the inclusion of IRS once again. Also, Robin & Richards rendition of Beautiful was awesome IMO.

May 17-I haven't heard any really good sound bites or songs from this show, but the little I've heard suggests that the band was awesome and Axl sounded great again. The obvious plus of Izzy playing on the same stage with Axl in AGES as well as the Kid Rock guest spot.

Thats all the details that spring to mind about the shows. Am I forgetting something? Either way, what does everyone think the best gig was overall?

May 17.

I'd vote May 15th, but I'm biased.  :hihi:

I liked the first the best, 6 new songs out of a 19 song set = almost 33% new material.

That's all that matters to me is new material and how his voice sounds.

The guitar solos they each did, I could really care less about, none of them compared to what Buckethead can do.. they are all good guitar players, but not great enough to deserve solo time in my humble opinion, I'd rather have seen more new songs, than them getting solo time, especially if they are doing solos of stuff that is other artists...

yeah I can see that side of things too. For me though it's cool see Axl showcase these guys in that fashion though. Whatever the GNR fanbase thinks of them at least it shows Axl seems to like and believe in them ya know? But I totally agree that the time would be better spent of more new material. I mean (besides his awesome guitar work in general) what better way was there to get the fans to like Robin than to announce that a song we all pretty much love was brought to the table by him.

I was only at the 12th and 15th.  Tough to really compare the two as I was on the floor for the 12th and in the Mezz for the 15th.  The energy was beyond intense on the 12th, but I think they sounded better on the 15th (minus a few small parts of 1,2 songs where Axl was straining on some hard parts - but still sounded good).

I don't think any of the shows were bad from what I heard. 

id vote for the 15th, but thats bc i was there, the 12 could be up there bc it was their first show back and they played twat, the 17th could be the best too bc of izzy ... but either way i dont think you couldve went wrong

Well, it's obvious Axl believes in them if he has hired them to work on the new material, if he wants to showcase them let them play more new songs, so they can get more into the solos (because it's their own work, they will love playing it)... hearing them do renditions of an C.aguilera song really doesn't do it for me. I just can't wait until we can all be able to fully judge the new guys when we get a setlist that has 10 C.D tracks in it.. and 9 classic gnr tunes... hopefully we'll have that by next fall.. and you know what, I bet the new guys will be even happier when they get to play a setlist like that......

For me it went:

Fri
Wed
Sun
Mon


Friday for the return, the setlist. ?Wednesday for the guests (Izzy and Kid Rock). ?Sunday the band was dead on and we got the debut of the Richard and Robin killer guitar solo :P


All four nights were great, and I got to meet some great people along the way.

I'm hoping that high quality audio appears of the 12th and 17th shows like the 14th and 15th ones that have popped up. I'd really love to hear my show again plus the last gig would be great to have. Out of the two boots I have I think the 15th was WAY better then the 14th.

I completely agree all the way across the board. I don't think these guys hate playing the old stuff but I bet they have some stuff in the can they're just DYING to bust out for us.

The first night was magical, the dreamed night, almost perfect setlist, a memorable performance of ''There Was A Time'' and Axl's voice at it's best.

It's curious: we have lossless recordings of the 2 worst nights, in my opinion, and we have Jazjme mp3 for the best, by far, two night (first and last)

Anyway, all four nights were great, but I think night #1 and #4 were the best, specially the first one

the opener was magical. Everything about that show was PERFECT.

the 17 can be put up there as well because of Izzy

All the shows were excellent but for me the 12th was dead on perfect. from the 3 block long line outside to the microphone chuck....everything was perfect and magical in between.

overall it was a special week for gnr and us the fans. Gnr accomplished a lot with these shows. All thats left is the album. With these past shows they put their own stamp on the gnr name from a touring perspective. It was a coming out party for these members. You can tell by the way they performed that they meant it and were HUNGRY...

drop the album and keep this party going

Totally agree man! Friday's concert was just magical :love: all the excitement of watching them play for the first time in like 3 or 4 years, plus hearing Better! and IRS and TWAT live for the first time ever, that was amazing. And wednesday, well one word, IZZY :smoking:

Kannon.

I'm gonna' have to say Wednesday, narrowly better than Friday.  I thought that on Wednesday, that might've been better than he EVER sounded, even back in the 90's. 

I gotta come up with good audio of that show so I can compare!

I went to 7 UYI shows including the 4 hour marathon in LA and Axl NEVER EVER sounded better than he did on Wed the 17th. Just my opinion.

I was there on the 15th and the 17th, both were great but I think the 17th was the absolute greatest GNR show that i have ever seen and that includes missing Buckethead because AXL was so happy! :D

Holy shit! That's quite an endorsement for the 17th show!!

I hope the audio that surfaces for May 17 ends up showing off how good everyone says this gig was!

Sounds to me that the 17th was quite a show.  I would have loved to see izzy
I was at the show on the 12th, so I am biased...but I can't imagine the environment being more intense than opening night...at any time in the future.  It was insane...plus hearing every leak but CITR was a nice touch

l was only the 12th and l have heard that  the other shows were amazing too, so l dont really know what better copuld be lf axl was there singing amazingly well!!!  ;) l just hope  that either show you were  was the best for you guys :D : ok:

I was thinking about starting a topic like this but then I decided it would be like picking your favorite kid you know? Each show had something special about them

Friday was fucking amazing... and axl's best vocal performance, not to mention twat.
Monday was super as well on par or slightly better than friday
wednesday was intense because of izzy
sunday by far the weakest night, set wise and performance wise on axl's part.

i went to the 12th and 17th.... 17th was amazing.  not just because of izzy.. but the band rocked.

 :peace:
i think the one thing we can all agree on is that every show was better than we had hoped. that week was fucking amazing :yes: :yes: :yes: :love: :beer:
tom

15th axl sounded the best, it had the best set list but the band fucked up some of the new songs. Better and IRS were a mess. The 17th had izzy and the band sounded better. The middle two shows were just ok (going on bootlegs).

I didn't really think about that at first, but boy is that right. Honestly I've been to over 300 concerts in my time and I really think Friday May12 was the single best concert I've ever seen in my life.

I was only at the May 12th show, so I can only give my honest opinion on that one, and I can tell you for a fact it was the best concert Ive ever witnessed and probably ever will witness!

Everything about the band that night was just perfect...from the buildup, to the opening chords of jungle to the very first notes out of Axl's mouth...you just couldn't have asked for anything more of Axl or Gn'R : ok:

I can't fairly judge the 12th on account of spending the evening being shaken to the core by the bass rig, as we were on the floor.  I also wonder how much of my opinion of the 12th is colored simply by excitement, anticipation and expectation.  Also, it may just be me, but I noticed Axl flubbed the IRS lyrics pretty badly on the 12th, although it may have been the 1st time hearing the "new" arrangement that threw me off.

Sitting in Mezz for the other 3 nights enabled me to critique and assess much more accurately.  I'm thinking Sunday was better than Monday for me, despite the shortened setlist.  The band was on fire, and I felt that Axl, despite the throat issues was, for the most part, on his game.  I'm actually quite surprised to see Monday get so much love...The band was great, but for me, something just didn't click.   
I thought Axl's voice came out of the back to back better than I anticipated, but I dunno, maybe it was the jager and haus and the wearing out of my immune system.

Now, obviously for sentimental reasons, Wednesday gets the nod...Not claiming to be objective here.  To be honest, it's not all about Izzy, though.  The band, by this point, were completely solidified, they were playing like they knew it(Brain's mishap notwithstanding), and out of all 4 nights, I got the sense that Ron was beginning to find some semblance of a place amidst the chaos.

Don't you mean Axl sounded the best on the 12th?