Auditorio Juan Carlos I, May 25 (Madrid, Spain) [DATE CHANGED]

[Cocaine__tongue]

I'm taking the flight to madrid in 1 hour time. 

Nice show for everyone going!!!.

[Ignatius]

I'm in Madrid!!!

Show starts at 10. That's what it says on my ticket...

I've got seat tickets, so I'm just gonna chill for a few hours and will leave around 730 or so...

I've spoken to Christos a few hours ago, he said they'd landed safely and were in the hotel already. We are meeting after the show.

I'll post a review and comments when I get back. It's gonna be a hell of a night.

I'm so fucking thrilled!!!

[Spirit]

I don't have time to go through the whole thread to see if someone's posted this, so I'm just gonna ask:

1) What time does it start?
2) Is anyone going to do the updates?

To answer your first question... check out the post directly above yours... (2200)

[Irish gunner II]

Yes, shows that are at a reasonable time for the european lads. did someone say the show starts at 10pm so thats nine GMT.so they could be on stage by about 10 irish time.Sweet

[Zon]

6 minutes to go!

[Nightfall]

6 minutes to go!

Dream on

[Zon]

plus 1 hour. 

[Zon]

No, I was right, it's now 14 minutes past 22!

[estrangedpaul]

It's now 23:14 spanish time so Axl's a tiny bit late i think

[Ignatius]

I'm just gonna post this here and will move it to the appropiate thread tomorrow.

It's always hard to get started when you have so many things to say, so I'm just gonna give
the facts and then I'll add my personal review. Let me just say the show has blown my mind.

Show Time

The band was scheduled to appear at 10. They didn't show up till 11:59.

People got pissed off. There were already chants agains Axl. It started to get serious when people broke a few chairs and were passing them along towards the front so they could through them at the stage. Security did well and got on the way. Fortunately, some tour manager or assistat announced there had been a techincal failure and that was why the band was late. He apoligised and people calmed down a bit. Then at 12, the band started with Jungle and people when nuts.

Setlist

It's gonna be hard to remember, but this is more or less the order:

Jungle
Easy
Brownstone
LATL
Better
SCOM
KNHD
IRS
YCBM
The Blues
Outta get me
November Rain
TWAT
My Michelle
Patience
Chinese Democracy
Nightrain
Madagascar
Paradise city

---
(the following were perforance throughout the show)

Solos by Dizzy, Richard, Bumblefoot, Robin (two).
Medley. Amazing medley with keyboards...it sounded like jazz music.

 


Crowd

The show sold out but not till 1130 or so. I don't know if the crowd knew Axl was gonna be late or what the hell happened, but it did finally sold out. The crowd reacted differently to every song. While the classics were very well received, the new songs hardly made an impact. There were a few people moshing but not too many. It was a good crowd, it could've been better had the band appeared on time, but reacted well.

Axl

He was in a very good mood. He didn't interact that much with us - I guess the language barrier there is a factor - but he did say a few things. After the first three songs, he said he was very happy to be in Madrid, and that he was our master of ceremonies for the evening. He then said he was "el matador". People didn't really get that. Bullfighter in spanish is torero not matador (that's in mexican spanish I guess).

For the rest of the evening, when he had something to say, he sounded like he was some kinda of announcer in a sports game. I don't know if he was just joking around, taking the piss or what...but he had this same voice you hear in any nba game..."and to my far right, mr. Richard fortus". He also made a comment about how much he heard the word "puta" (he said punta) tonight. Puta means whore and people were chanting "hijo de puta" (son of a bitch) sometimes at him. He was in good spirits though, in great mood.

He danced like I've never seen him danced before. Very smoothed, the snake dance was there, but it's evolved to something sort of slower. He really moved well, way better than in 2002. He still has the moves, definitely. He was wearing jeans and brownish jacket/shirt. Then, he put on the same shirt he wore at the new york shows. His voice sounded "amazing" even better than in 93. He nailed every single song, even better and IRS.

The band

Lot of chemistry there..specially between the 3 guitarists. I really enjoyed Fortus playing and stage presence. This guy rocks. Robin Fink is the true leading guitar here. I had some doubts about him, but this guy really got involved. Bumblefoot is good, skilled. His stage presence is not as powerful as the other two, but good overall. Tommy is number 2 in GNR these days. Axl was constanly talking to him, putting his arm around him...these two have developed a great friendship so it seems. The rest of the band was ok, didn't pay too much attention to Dizzy, Brain or Pittman.


My review:

Well, what can I say? It's been a hell of a show. I didn't really like the two-hour delay, but the band made it all up to us. If you hear negative reviews from this show, it may have to do with the stigma this band has to carry for the rest of their live than really about the performance we saw tonight. The band put everything they had. It was a 2 and 1/2 hour show, all the hits, the new songs, great sound and Axl in a very good mood...what else you want? well, there are still people who miss Slash and live constanly in the past. That's fine with me, but they will never enjoy this band cause they just can't be open about it.

I'm so thrilled about what I saw tonight. I have no doubt that Axl will have the last laugh. On this note, when you see Axl you know the guy is so confident in what he's doing.- It's like he already knows he is gonna have the last laugh. -

I'm going to be now cause it's 524 am and I'm tired. I'm just gonna add that I met Christos and Mean Machine. We couldn't get to do anything cause they were exhausted and had to catch a plane to Lisbon tomorrow

At last, but not least, if you haven't bought any tickets to any of the upcoming concerts, I don't know what are you waiting for. This has been so fucking worth it.

Have fun at the shows people!!!!!!


 

[Mr.Intensity]

Yay for a good review.

[Evolution]

Thanks very much for writing this out 


Glad you had a good time.

[killingvector]

Great review.

I am really disturbed by this initial reaction to the new band. Maybe b/c the presence of a new player is turning people off as well. Bucket was well received in Europe.

Damn that two hour delay.

[mick]

Thanks for the review... glad you enjoyed the show, I know I did on the 12th.

Ya think people would just realize that Axl is always late and plan accordingly. My wife didn't even land in NY on the 12th until 10pm... didn't miss a note of the show 

[BaDoBsEsSiOn418]

Yeah, thanks for the review. ?Pretty much what I expected, as far as the crowd goes. ?Until this band puts out an album, they are going to get the same nostalgic reactions to the old songs and quietness during the new songs.

[Minneapolisnewsman]

This is just as I thought! ?The band is a force, and the writer just had no clue. ?I heard the two boots, and Axl's voice sounded stronger, he had a better tone, and had more control than I have heard on the NY boots. ?My gut tell's me, the newspaper guy in Madrid ran with his ghost story. ?He focused on everything but the music, which struck me as funny--having witnessed the band live at the Hammerstein (mind-boggliing how musically gifted they are)!!

[warrocks]

yes , it's good to hear reviews from fans not from the press but i'm still mad ?

i'm glad you had a great time ?

[ibelieveinaxl]

thanks for the review...very thorough!!!!! muchas gracias!!!!

[Chief]

Thank you very much for the review, i was wondering how it went!!!

[Ignatius]

Great review.

I am really disturbed by this initial reaction to the new band. Maybe b/c the presence of a new player is turning people off as well. Bucket was well received in Europe.

I have a feeling this will happen only in Spain. I'm sure people in Lisbon will react differently.

Then again, will see if the band is 2 hours late in Lisbon too.