July 12th, 2006 Istanbul, Turkey @ Kurucesme Arena

[Slashead]

Great review Eddiesson!
But don't forget that Izzy and Richard Fortus are almost the same age... A son/father relationship is unlikely.

[Baby Chaos]

Thank you for such a heartfelt review. 

Looking at the original members today I find it interesting how different Izzy appears to Axl, Slash and Duff. The other three may have aged, but still look every inch the rock stars they were 15-20 years ago.

Poor Steven fell by the wayside but Izzy now looks like he could blend into the crowd, coming across somewhere between a bus driver and a geography teacher. Perhaps going clean changes your image as well as your mental outlook. Whenever he gets on stage it makes no difference either way. 

[eddiesson]

thanks very much. I really enjoyed how you enjoyed my review (as much as I did while writing it) ! I hope I can make you make imagine how a wonderful concert we watched last night.

and there are a few details I forgot to mention:

the capacity of the concert arena was 17000. I'm not sure if it was full, as I was very close to the front. But I can guarantee you, %75-80 of it was full, at least.
Concertplace was BY THE SEA! so the air was always fresh, the scene was beautiful, lights coming from the coast, boats, evrything. Axl couldn't resist giving a good comment about it during "knocking on Heavens Door" which was too meaningful. I hope someday, you should all visit Istanbul, and contemplate the beauty of Bosphorus.

and Slashead: Izzy and Richard might be of the same age, but with Richard (who has the EXACT same hairstyle and very similar outfit with Izzy '85) looking like Izzy's 20's, and Izzy looking and acting soooo maturated (a la Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan) from a distance, you can easily take them lke father-son. They can change clothes/behaviours, you can take Richard as father, Izzy as son. what I mean is that, it's not the age, but the attitude and visual appearence makes me feel this way. The obvious similarity between them makes this feeling even stronger.

I hope he gives the same suport to Velvet Revolver too.

[gandra]

really great review
Can you tell us how many people were in arena???

[Ana Vader]

Great review!!!
I like many things you said, as about the guitar trio.
Thanks!!!!!!!!!

[TAP]

I hope someday, you should all visit Istanbul, and contemplate the beauty of Bosphorus.

I'll be there (again) in a couple of weeks  Cool review, glad you got Izzy.

[Madagascar88]

Izzy really owned the show. He was godlike. you could feel an aura of energy around him.

what would you describe as the color of this aura?

was it orange?

[odd1]

Thanks for the interview, to bad they didnt play Chinese Democracy

[Krispy Kreme]

Now THAT is a review, nice job, and thanks. Can't wait to see them in the US.

[oneway23]

Great review...And the train kept a' rollin'

[Ganzo]

Picture from Istanbul show...

[MYWIFEMYLIFE]

goin' to to the concert i was passin' in front of the hotel they stayed (i was given this info) i saw a man wearing something like hood like arabs on his head , his face couldn't be seen from my side but i saw a huge beard that reminded me of robin. i told the driver to slow down and then i saw tommy and richard gettin out from a minivan. i jumped from the taxi and ran towards them, as they saw me they were a little bit scared bcuz a crazy lookin 130 kilos man screaming was running to them. robin escaped to the hotel, but richard and tommy saw my "axl for president" t-shirt and started laughing, i came near them and said that i'm a huge fan of them and thanked them for comin' and wished them luck. i was frozen and couldn't speak they waited for me to speak or have a photo (cuz my cellphone was in my hands) but i couldnt do anything. then tommy asked me if i want to ask them something or talk or maybe have a photo with them but i was bummed, richard shook my hand and told me they are in a hurry and was pleased to meet me and tommy said something i don't remember, then i suddenly asked if they knew where axl was , and they both smiled and said "who knows".
We waved our hands to each other and then a bald man came to me and shook my hand and said see ya there, and a fareast dude with a camera (i then saw hin on stage, he's the gnr photographer) and asked me where i got my tshirt, and both bald guy and fareast dude told me axl would really love it,and fareast dude took a photo of me and told me that i will see this photo.

i then hurried to the taxi and headed my way to the concert arena.
my wife and friends kept a place for me in the third row and we began to wait.
first a band called 4lyn came to stage, they still couldnt believe they opened for gnr and they chanted gnr with us all the time. they were allright but not my taste. kinda nu-metal band but with nu turntable and shynth shit. people reacted them good except some fuck numetal shouters.
then we waited like two hours i think and came the opening of welcome to the jungle, and i started to cry and just stood steadily and keeping my eyez on axl. this continued to the nex songs, it's so easy and mr.brownstone. then came lald,ycbm,kohd,scom and some solos between. we opened a banner written "mom don't worry i'm with axl again! '93/'06" referring to the banner opened back in '93. axl loved it very much and got it and opened on stage. we also opened another banner after blues written "never mind the formers, here's guns n' roses" he said something like it's funny but fucked up or something i couldnt hear that.
when izzy came to stage with his old hat, crowd went nuts chanting "izzy" all the time. we're so lucky to see him on both istanbul performances. they played think about you,patience and outta get me together and i must say that this is really a band, axl and other guys always joking around, and even izzy was like a part of the band not a guest appearance. axl and izzy was very close and enjoyin being together all the time. at one point axl asked us if we want izzy to sig a song, we went nuts again and we shouted for "14 years" alltogether. izzy turned to axl and said something like i'm not ready.
axl was very happy to be on stage and the view from the stage was very nice, a full moon,bosphorus and 17,000 gnr maniacs. but we laughed when he called bosphorus a "river" . last song was niterain which was done perfectly. and btw, during bumblefoot's don't cry solo, there was a wi-conn problems but he was soo sweet that noone cared and continued to sing along.
encore was maddy,robin's solo and paradise city.
i cried like in 10 songs and danced with my wife, it was the most beautiful nite of my life.
people were very surprised that axl is not a fat,bald guy with no voice and the band does not suck. cuz press and internet idiots , which we have in here also, always write stuff like this.
axl was perfect and enjoyed the show and joked all the time,he was happy to see so many people dancing,chanting,jumping all the time band members played very well and always were in touch with the audience also.
i saw gnr back in '93 and yesterday and i can assure you that only difference between two rosters is we are not grown up with the new members and we don't love them the way we love slash,duff and steven. this new line up is really gettin the gang spirit gnr once had, and deserve all the best cuz they're now the best performing band on Earth.
and they really care for you and do whatever they can to give the best performance to the gnr fans.
cuz they know we only deserve the best and we always had it.
axl promised us to see us again and I BELIEVE HIM.

and thanks to ganzo, you can see our banner above

[erose]

coll story about you t-shirt man!!! 

nice review too!!

 

i really hope to see chin's photo of you, the other guy was probobly del james btw...

[MYWIFEMYLIFE]

holy fuck!
del james shook my hand? is he fuckin bald?
and fareast dude is chin?

[Gaymo, the Hobbit]

yes, del james is bald

[warrocks]

awww that's so sweet, cool story you have there, unforgetable! cheers to you  I could feel your excitement when reading your story and review.

 

[jazjme]

very awesome and cool review, and I feel your excitement , rock on man! Thats some cool shit!

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Izzy is really a nice surprise. What does the future of GNR hold for him?

[MYWIFEMYLIFE]

He's like part of the band, maybe there're writing songs with Axl

[WARose]

i hope he`ll perform 14 years at one of the next shows.... would be great