November 5 - East Rutherford, NJ @ Continental Airlines Arena

[MR.BROWNSTONE]

Sebastin Bach came on around 8:30p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Bach played a nice set. Bach played Piece Of Me, 18 and Life,  I Remember You, Monkey Business and Youth Gone Wild were just a few of the songs Bach played. Then Papa Roach played from 9:40p.m. to 10:40p.m. Papa Roach was not as bad as I thought they would be. Some songs that Papa Roach played were Scars, Getting Away With Murder, Broken Home and Last Resort. Around 11:20p.m. Someone said they were having technical difficulties with the keyboards and Axl and Guns N? Roses are in the arena.  Guns N? Roses came out around 11:40p.m. The set was,

Welcome To The Jungle
 It's So Easy
 Mr. Browstone
 Live And Let Die
 Knockin' On Heavens Door
 Better
 Robin Solo
 Sweet Child O' Mine
 You Could Be Mine
 Dizzy Reed Piano Solo
 The Blues
 Robin/Richard Solo
 Out Ta Get Me
 November Rain
 Bumblefoot Solo (Don't Cry)
 Rocket Queen
 Used To Love Her
 IRS
 My Michelle (With Bach)
 Patience
 Nightrain
 Encore
 Chinese Democracy
 Paradise City

Right after Mr. Brownstone Axl said, you can?t blame my sorry ass tonight for the delay. After NR Axl said, you guys are great tonight and thank you for it but if a few people don?t stop throwing things on the stage they will go home. After one of the songs Axl said, again you guys are great tonight maybe we might do something diffent and also said, I think we will be staying here awhile.  During My Michelle when Bach came out he said, what do you think NJ want Axl to live here also? Axl said, something like you never know. During Nightrain when Axl was on the right side of the stage he almost got hit be something. I think they may have cut the set one or two songs short because of it. I was on the floor in the VIP section on the right side of the stage in row two by the machine that shots the paper out at the end of Paradise City. Well next up MSG and then Baltimore.

Anthony

[crazycheryl]

Ok. Let hear more reviews from you cats! Sounds like a mixed bag. Hey Sex Kitten - how was your experience?

[jimb0]

Yeah I got excited when Axl said they might do something special.  But they didn't.  Fortus owns on Used to Love Her.

[gmGnR]

well sorry Axl, but it was getting late. they didnt start until after 11:30. the sound wasnt quit right, and i was standing next to the sound guys. next thing i know, who walks in front of me to talk to them....BETA.....as she walks away from the sound guys, im staring at her. she notices me and we stare at each other for like 4 seconds, then she smiles and says hi. i turn to my friend and say wait a second....i think Beta just walked by us to talk to the sound guys and tell them something was up with Axl's mic.

anyway, we left during BF's solo. i have work tomorrow, he had work tomorrow...actually...MANY people were yawning and leaving. note to axl: next time, try to play friday or saturday, but if it must be a sunday, start EARLIER. seriously, i just paid 100 bucks to watch Papa Roach and half of Guns set.

the sound seemed off....but Axl was amazing. no comment on Robin, and ill leave it at that. man, i love robin, but this was an off night. bad notes on the intro to SCOM, nasty solo....im sorry...i love him, but he needs to EQ the guitar and cut the high end at around 5k-12k. way way way way way too tinny-sounding.

Fortus RULED. enough said.

BF didnt sound too good. Better sounded jumbled.


im sorry guys, im just being honest. it was a weird crowd, and i think alot of people were out of it b/c it was a sunday night, and everyone has work, including me....i got home though in like 15 mins up the NJ Turnpike....the traffic out of Continental will be horrific at best....so we left early, and beat it all. im pissed, im sure nightrain or paradise is on now!

but rest assured, axl rose sounded absolutely perfect. he was soooo on! the drummer frank kept playing a beat to make the crowd chant GUNS? ?n? ROSES? ? ?GUNS? ?n? ? ?ROSES? ?....it got played out after like 3 or 4 times though.


over-all, not the best show. 2002 MSG and MAY 2006 were simply amazing.

Note to Robin: sorry about the criticism....my advice: cut the highs a bit, and be mroe careful when strumming all the string for single-note melodies...if u hit wrong strings, it sounds like a mess, which makes the rest of the band sound messy.

Note to Beta: thanks for saying hi after we stared at each other for a few seconds.

FYI, my gf and I stayed till the end, I slept 3hrs and am at work now... for traffic lleaving, i had never seen a parking lot emptying so quickly and the highway towards Manhattan was absolutely empty...

In terms of delay, I don't know if Axl had a problem but the Keyboard on the top left of the stage (looking from the crowd) did have have issues as it was the only area where one guys kep t coming back again anf again before they started the show.
I personally found the sound better than I expected given 1) all the past technical issues and 2) CAA is not known for good acoustic.

The arena was about 1/3 empty. ?The crowd was weak but it's not the first time I notice that at CAA. Frank'S GNR beat was going dead as soon as he stopped doing it. ?GNR performance was pretty good, Axl seems to have a good time as he usually does on this tour. ?Can't really compare to Hammerstein as, IMO, ?these shows in May were unique. We'll see Friday at MSG.

Oh, one point that dramatically improve are the solos/breaks. ?Those were much better than last May. The group jams are way better than the extra solos we had. ?I bitched about those in May but appreciated this time around.

No need to talk about the setlist, everybody knows it. Damn, I love IRS!!! People around did not seem to know any but this was not surprising.

[patcooper]

I really thought the show was good. Sure they had some sound problems. Better was a mess. The crowd was rockin up until that song. People with seats sat down and right after better it's robins solo into sweet child, so the alot of people ?stayed seated i saw. I saw alot of people leaving an hour in. It was 1245 or so and people were hitting the parking lot. The late start really seems to hurt some fans. It didnt bother i'm off from work today. The new songs got NO RESPONSE from the majority of the crowd. I saw a dude laying down in his seat during the blues. I heard alot of people asking each other what song is this, i never heard this before.....I dont mind the solos i think the band plays them really well but for the most part when u have 4 and a bunch of slow songs like paitence and november rain mixed in with songs that the majority hasnt heard the crowd zones out. As far as the throwing shit. That needs to stop. I noticed alot of dudes throwing packets of ketchup and sugar packets at people. yeah its funny for a second but its really not cool. All in all i had a good time, my friend who was with me never saw GNR before and he really liked it, he said that axl sounds alot better when he is standing still compared to when he is running. lol. NO SHIT. Well i'll be msg on friday section 88 so hopefully the crowd there will be better.

[beefeater267]

What time did the show end?  Just curious?

[jarmo]

Had a great evening in Jersey last night

Thanks to everybody who came down o the pre-show! 


/jarmo

[Eclipsed107]

the show ended at 2am beefeater.

[newman]

Not a great review......

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1162879018148240.xml&coll=1

A long, late night with Axl Rose
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
BY BRADLEY BAMBARGER
Star-Ledger Staff
There was a surprise guest at Sunday's Guns N'Roses show at Continental Airlines Arena -- Axl Rose, the cuddly version.

The singer -- whose public tantrums, brawls and brutal dealings with intimates and fans are infamous -- seemed to be in a jolly mood, despite facing a surprising number of empty seats. Rose commented on the day's bright weather, continually thanked the crowd and even joked about the already late show's hour-long delay as not being his fault "this time."

Since he made guitarist Slash and his other original Guns N'Roses mates walk the plank out of the piratical Sunset Strip band, the 44-year-old Rose has become something of a dark clown. The obsessive-compulsive indulgence that has delayed the release of the first G N'R album under his sole leadership is a decade-long joke; many fans would expect to see a unicorn appear before his mooted "Chinese Democracy."

The original Guns N'Roses created one of the iconic rock albums of the late '80s, "Appetite for Destruction." And although the Meadowlands crowd was about 4,000 people shy of capacity, the G N'R brand name still draws -- Friday's Madison Square Garden show is sold-out, and four May shows at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom sold out in minutes.

Rose and his seven-piece backing band opened Sunday's set in style with three "Appetite" signatures -- the sleaze-rock classic "Welcome to the Jungle," "It's So Easy" (blurring sexy/sexist in the "Spinal Tap" tradition) and authentically gritty heroin tale "Mr. Brownstone." Rose's grandiose side took over, though, with his long-standing covers of Paul McCartney's James Bond theme "Live and Let Die" (all the spectacle without the humor) and Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" (grim karaoke).

As for material from "Chinese Democracy," the rocker "Better" was the standout, brimming with brawny hooks. The title track boasted a jaggedly appealing riff, but Rose indulged his inner Andrew Lloyd Webber on an awful ballad, "The Blues."

Whether or not Rose has had plastic surgery as it appears, the years have not been kind to his voice. His vocals were a mannered mix of squeals and growls, which grew more strangulated as the night went on. The stripper's anthem "Sweet Child O'Mine" even brought to mind Adam Sandler's "Saturday Night Live" parody.

Although the semi-acoustic jangle of "Use to Love Her" ("but I had to kill her") sounded like edgy black humor in the '80s, it just sounds ugly now. And anyone enamored of the romance in a real rock band would be disappointed by Rose's group of anonymous hired hands. Now in hit act Velvet Revolver with his fellow G N'R exiles, the charismatic Slash was most missed during the over-the-top power ballad "November Rain," as the climactic guitar solo drizzled rather than stormed.

For a supposed megalomaniac, Rose was unusually generous with the spotlight; in this, he has something in common with Barbra Streisand, oddly. Like her recent use of smarmy vocal quartet Il Divo to cover her costume changes, Rose allowed all three of his guitarists and his piano player to take extended between-song solos. This was obviously to give his vocal cords a break, but these noodling features killed any momentum and bloated the set. The show didn't end until after 2 a.m. (with Rose having gone on at 11:40 p.m. after an hour-long technical glitch delayed his start following openers Sebastian Bach and Papa Roach.)

After a bit of show biz good humor that even he found forced, Rose exhibited self-knowledge that perhaps Streisand wouldn't. He said, "It's like that joke about the key to acting being sincerity. Once you learn to fake sincerity, you've got it made."

[Axl4Prez2004]

Bradley Bambarger's review can suck my balls.  "Used to Love Her just sounds ugly now," what a fucking idiot.  It was definitely on my highlight reel from the night.  Axl's voice was powerful and the song was fun.  Now, after that eloquent start, my review.


Positives:  Axl's voice, Axl's energy, the band was tight as hell, Frank was a hoot, Chinese Democracy's come a long long way from the first time I saw it performed in Boston, December 2, 2002.  Special mention to being able to meeting up with some awesome fans at the show:  Bandita, Dolphin, Jazjme, Younggunner, Ifinglovevr, his friends, tonya ytzerman and Jarmo our European friends!, sex kitten, and some anonymous Jersey skanks who probably have my brother-in-law's digital camera!    Oops, I guess that should be in the negatives.      Let's see, parking was free.  That was cool.  Got there just after 5, and the gates were left open after the Giants game.  My wife was happy I picked up a GNR tee-shirt that didn't have a gun on it so I can wear it out to more places.  Axl jumping up onto the piano with The Blues...never saw it live before, I loved it.  Was it just me or were the guitar solos better at this show than hammerstein may 12th?  I loved the solos...one technically a duet Fortus/Finck Beautiful was awesome...Bumblefoot's fingers moved at warp speed on his solo!  Amazing.  I missed out on Bumblefoot's sprint along the front row high-fiving fans.  I was just a little out of reach unfortunately and didn't want to get tossed out lunging too hard. 


Negatives:  Hands-down the least energetic crowd I've been in.  My history?  Buffalo '92 highest level of Rich Stadium, Boston '02 ten rows from the roof!, and Hammerstein May 12th, '06 in mezz2.  I figured being on the floor for the 1st time would be awesome!  For me it was!  Despite some ugly glares from the security goons, I had a great time jumping and getting into the fun, but alot of folks just stood there with their thumbs up their asses.  only tech difficulty I caught was Bumblefoot's guitar being worked on as he was playing it, he'd play look over his shoulder, a sound guy came out, adjusted something, and this happened 2 or 3 times.

I had a great time and it was a great show.  I'm sure I'll have more to say at some point...probably when I see someone making a bullshit post about the show.