my camera battery is dead, I managed to get some pics from the cam before it died, I'm going to go out today and get a battery, hopefully! so sorry there are only a couple pics on here, I have about 100 on the camera! "DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE FUCK YOU AREEEEEEEEE?!?!" Yes I fucking do! I'm celebrating my birthday with Guns N' FUCKING Roses! Ah what an awesome birthday right, two GNR shows at a perfect venue like this!!
Well where to start went over to the Hard Rock around 4:30PM and there wasn't anyone lined up inside, so we walked around and stuff and eventually found out from someone that the line started outside. We went out there and were like 20th in line! Robin Finck walked by, about 45 mins before I got inline, and I saw him shook his hand and stuff, he was talking to another fan.
So we're inline and they decide to take us inside, and lineup by the slot machines and stuff. A guy walks over and asks me if I'm under 21, I say of course and they take me outside. All minors had to lineup outside because of the slots, but we got in first!! It was amazing!
So we get into the venue and I'm 2 feet away from the stage, right in the middle!!! A lady walks around giving a setlist to people and a guy by me asks for one, and she was reluctant but ended up giving it to him. (Theres a picture of the setlist floating around somewhere)
So Phantom Planet comes on and they're not that bad, IMO. The lead singer was so drunk and stoned it was funny. Haha, but I think that they were pretty good. I would have loved to see A7X or Sebastian open for GNR, but these guys worked fine.
Before GNR the usual roadies come out testing everything, the drums, Pittman's synthesizer and all that. They tested the guitars and all that stuff, and I SWEAR TO GOD, one was Izzy's guitar. Maybe he was planned to come and something came up, but I freaking know it was it. I'm going to get a picture tonight if they test it again!
The lights go down and the intro starts up, everyone went fucking nuts. Usual WTTJ/ISE/Brownstone...but it never gets old to me. Before LALD, he said he was visiting cancer patients a couple weeks ago, and then he told the story about Paul McCartney's kids saying "Hey dad, I think it's awesome you cover a GNR song!!!" Axl loved that, he was laughing at it so much.
Robin did his solo, right into SCOM and that tore the house down. All the girls were screaming and EVERYONE was singing along! It was great! During Better and a couple other songs Axl was really pissed off at the sound guy and was motioning for them to turn something down. It was visibly pissing him off but Axl shrugged it off and did his best to work through it.
The most touching part of the night, IMO, was when Axl jumped up on the Piano during "The Blues" he was fucking tearing it up and it was so heavy and emotional. During band intros, he introduces everyone and goes to introduce Bumblefoot, he says "And now..Ron.." and security right by me RIPS this guy out of the crowd, someone said he was throwing stuff. But Axl waited, laughed and said that guy had bad aim.
After Patience, Tommy walks over to Axl and whispers something in his ear, and then Axl goes "MR STINTSON has a request. I'm not too sure they're going to want to hear this Tommy, but we'll see what they think. (Or something similar) Do you guys want to hear Rocket Queen?" THE PLACE WENT NUTS...So they play that and end it with Nightrain.
During the like "break" between Nightrain and the encore, Stintson walks back on stage sneaking around, and goes "SHHH!!" with his finger and everyone by me got a chuckle out of it. Madagascar was the best rendition I've seen, maybe that?s because I was two feet away but I don?t know, it was awesome.
Show ended with PC and during it, Axl was TREMENDOUSLY pissed off and walked off stage during it yelling at Merck and the sound guy. Tommy and all guitarists sung for pretty much the whole time but Axl did end up coming back on stage towards the end of PC. He ripped it up towards the end and it was fucking amazing!
Overall, it was an amazing show, best concert I've been to. Great birthday present! I saw some guys with video cams, so there is footage out there, I guarantee it. One retard had his light on for about 5 minutes, and then he realized that that was a bad idea. I took all my pics with no flash, so I didn't get caught and my ears are still ringing.
**side notes** Axl threw the mic stand and almost took Brain out. It hit Brain's cymbal and Brain and Axl both smiled and laughed...Beta ran on stage during some song (forget which one)!!
But she ran to get the mic stand that Axl chucked and was about to trip over it...Robin tripped during the show, and Axl and him laughed it off and helped each other up...Robin went down right against the barrier, off the stage and was right in front of my face and I touched his guitar, it was amazing...Axl was shaking hands right by me, and I got one!! It was excellent!!
Check
www.newgnr.com/tourpictures.html for some of my pics, I'll upload some more here on the bottom.
AND NOW THE PICS: