Ok, here is my review from what I can recall from last night (or I spose it was really - this morning).
Was in the Gold GA section which was bascially the standing room area right at the very front.? Kinda shoved my way forward with another 4 mates as close as we could.? Finished up about 3 people back from the front, pretty much centre stage.? Probably a good thin I was just back from the rail or I wouldnt have managed any photos or maybe even texts due to the security - but more about that later.
Rose Tattoo were obviously first and I thought they were great I think Angy Andersons voice is still pretty impressive.? The highlight for me was, not surprisingly, when they played Nice Boys.
Ok - Sebastian Bach on next.? ?Now I gotta be honest I have never been a big Bach fan.? In the past I have thought that he was just a loud mouth tool trying to poke his head into Axl's spotlight.? But I will say I was pleasantly surprise.? He puts a huge amount of energy into his performance and he clearly loves being on stage (not that I ever doubted that), but he didn't come accross as arrogant.? The band he is playing with seem to be really tight too which definitely adds to the performance.? I thought he put in a huge effort.? Nice all leather getup he had on too - lol
Bach's set finished about 10:30 and then the setup for GN'R started.? Obviously I began wondering how long I would have to wait.? Its worth pointing out too that Perth is damn backwards when it comes to a lot of things - normally for the Burswood Dome there is a curfew of I think 11:30 (or maybe 12:00 - not exactly sure) due to noise restrictions because of residential areas nearby blah blah blah - I know it's stupid.? Now apparently it had been organised as a one off thing for GN'R to be allowed to play after midnight - but not sure how long after midnight they were allowed to (I had heard only 12:30, which is kinda gay).? So I was expecting that they may be on earlier than the Mexico dates due to all this crap.
11:10PM GN'R hit the stage with the customary opening riffs of Jungle.? As you would expect the crowd erupts (Bach had said during his set that the crowd was 18,000 (I think the Domes capacity is 20,000), they didn't seem to teast us too long with the riff before Axl and the boys come out to a sea of hands and fists pumping the air.?
Now from a personal perspective this was a special moment for me since it was the first time I had seen Guns live.? So to have Axl only a few feet in front of me belting out the opening verse of WTTJ totally rocked!
I won't go thru song by song (the setlist is posted somewhere now anyhow) with descriptions but will just mention a few highlights and things I noticed:
Axl looked fit and his voice sounded strong.? When you are up close watching like that it's amazing, you really get to appreciate how much effort he puts into his performance.
During the first couple of songs I noticed Beta (I assume it was her - it looked like her) over to the side of the stage watching and she also took a few pics.
New Songs:
Better was great,? I really rocked into that song and sang along.? I got a couple of looks from people near me presumably they were wondering how I knew the song and the lyrics.? But I still saw people around me getting into it regardless.? How can you not though, the beat of the song just grinds along and really gets you moving.
Dizzy obviously played a bit of a piano solo including Angie before the Blues.? I'm sure a couple of people around me were thinking he was about to launch into Nov Rain.
IRS - I have never been a big fan of this song and I have to say I struggled a bit to hear Axl's vocals during this one so that probably didn't help.
Axl seemed to be genuienely enjoying himself too.? It was a pretty funny story about the Vodka and the first night in Mexico that he shared - having to go out and throw up between songs - classic.? Good to hear he still gets up to some antics.
KOHD towards the end was good with the singalong happening he seemed to rev the song up a bit at the end, I almost thought he was going to say "gimme some reggae" at one point after he had spun the microphone stand around above his head then thrown it over onto the ground - lol
I was disappointed with the BBF Don't Cry solo - not with music itself but the crowd - hardly anyone was singing - idiots!! BBF motioned to the crowd at one point trying to encourage them but it never really got up.
The rest of the band - Tommy seemed to be really getting into the songs.? He quite often came and stood right at the front and really rocked into it.? I was also pleased to see that he had managed to lose that chequered suit
BBF and Finck to me seemed to be a lot more in the background and Finck a little quiet or subdued.? But it was hard for me to get perspective on this since I was centrestage and they are predominatly on either side of the stage - except for the odd times that they walked around to the middle.? So perhaps this was just more of an observation due to where I was standing.
I was trying to work out what was on BBF's tshirt - I have one pic of it but it's not very good.? Did anyone else there notice this?? The reason being it really looked like part of the design on the shirt had the slash skull with a tophat - a bit like the black death vodka logo mixed in to it?
Finck had his tophat on at one stage too.
Richard just looked cool (as always) and totally at home.
Dizzy seemed the same as always.
Frank was pretty inconspicious behind the drums
Axl had those purple shoes on again
Before he bought Bach out for My Michelle I was hoping he might have been talking about Angry Anderson and that we were going to get a duet of Nice Boys.? But it wasn't to be.? ? I have my fingers crossed that this might happen at one of the two Melbourne concerts that I am going to.
The only song for the encore was Paradise City.? Personally I believe that this was due to the pathetic time restrictions imposed by the local authorities and given that we had Bubbles out playing a song too presumably took up additional time.? After they had done their final bows Axl grabbed a microphone and (I unfortunately can't remember the exact words) but said words to the effect of "I have been critisced recently of being insincere (I think that was the word he used anyhow it was in the context of his performances I think and that its been said he is bascially just going thru the motions), then he said words to the effect that it's not the case at all and that he puts everything he has into the shows etc.? Seeing him upclose in concert I would agree the guy gives it everything on the night - so that was interesting, anyone else at the concert remember exactly what he said?
Show finished about 1:30am (I think).? Yeah I could selfishly say that I would have liked to hear Maddy and other things, but really I don't care.? Whatever he was singing was fine with me, just the fact that he was here singing was good enough for me.
Security were good to act on any dickheads in the crowd quickly.? But I have to say that was the tamest mosh pit (if you can call it that) that I have ever been in.? I was fully expecting to get shoved and crushed all night, but I was pleasantly surprised.? I don't mean that nobody got into it because everyone was definitely rocking but with very little dickhead factor around.
On the other hand the security themselves were dickheads.? They were going nuts over anyone holding up a camera phone and taking photos.? They were leaning over into the crowd pointing fingers and abusing people telling them to delete the photos.? One of them was even climbing up on the rail with a torch and shining it at people to get their attention and tell them to put their phone away.? I doubt this would have been a direction from the band.? I mean they were probably told to stop people with video cameras or a massive normal professional camera which is understandable.? But I think they (security) then took it upon themselves to take things to a ridiculous level. - sigh - it's a standard reaction though, give someone a tiny bit of authority and it goes to their head.
So here are the photos - due to the "lameass security" they aren't as good a quality as I hoped coz i had to be very discrete and quick.? For pics of Rose Tattoo and Bach look in the update thread, they are already posted there.
But to sum it up, I had an awesome night as did all my mates (including a couple that are just more casual fans).? I wouldn't have missed it for anything.? Bring on next Fri and Sat night in Melbourne!!!!
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