First of all, thank you to the person who organised this and made this happen - you know who you are. Thank you very much, it's something I will never forget.
The ShowI was a few metres from the front. Was front row for Melbourne so was happy to hang back a bit so I could hear the vocals better. Totally honest opinion of the show..
Axl's voice sounded so much better than Melbourne. In Melbourne I thought the rasp was there when he wanted to use it and it was a bit here and there. However Brisbane Show 2, his voice was possibly the best I've heard it in this new era.. his voice was raspy and STRONG the entire show each song. I was really pleased with this! Axl and the band were in good spirits tonight, obviously having put the night before behind them. At the end of November Rain the guys were doing an extended outro and Frank kept drumming.. Axl looked at him and smiled and was laughing.. then he got up and started playing the piano from one end to the other as Frank was hitting the drums, with his foot!
The crowd seemed to be very much a 'greatest hits' crowd. They mainly knew and got going for songs like SCOM. Same for Melbourne. This really backs up the whole stop complaining about the setlist point.
I will say however, that the one thing I thought was that the show lacked momentum. It was a little too stop start. The crowd enjoyed the solos and there wasnt as many as I've seen in previous shows on boots etc. I just thought that the problem was that they would do a rocker, then slow it down for something like The Blues etc. (none of the crowd knew the new songs) and therefore, as I have read, the crowd I thought were a little tame. That's just my opinion. I thought that it would have helped to do OTGM and Nightrain together for example to get the show really going during the middle of the set. But slowing it down and giving Axl the break might also help his voice, and on the flip side, his voice that night was just perfect.
It was funny during the show he said "most people when they do 2 shows in a city, party the second night, not me, I'm a fucking idiot and have to do it after the 1st show".. he was laughing.. then he said that "before we did Jungle I just wanted a big fucking truck to come and run over my fucking head".. earlier he had said and I am fairly sure he used these words that "wasnt such a good night last night.. like an idiot I drowned my sorrows after last night till 8am" or something like that.
Meet and Greet the band (minus Axl)So I had my after-show pass and went to the backstage area for the meet and greet. There were around I'd say 20ish fans in the room that would have been invited during the show to come back and meet the band (and Sebastian's band). I think it's fantastic that the band do this. Credit to them.
After a little waiting, Sebastian's band came in (minus Baz) and a little later Frank, BBF, Chris and Richard came in. Robin followed and hung around for a little while and Dizzy a little later than that. Tommy came in and had a quick walk around then left. Sebastian came in mid way through as well.
I have to say though, that BBF is a class above everyone. The way he talks to you, is just so sincere and personal. You can tell the guy is really taking the time out to zone out of everything else around him and talk to you, and if you said anything complimentary his thank you would be so sincere and he'd comment on what you said. I asked him about joining the band so close to the NY shows and asked him if it was literally like 3 weeks before the shows, he said 'yeah, 3 maybe 2 weeks before'. He said that he was loving Australia. I can't really remember everything but I talked to BBF for a long time, was really cool.
Frank was also really cool. I was chatting to him and midway through he turned around and started talking to this girl, later he came back to me and remembered my name from when we introduced each other and said "I'm really sorry Sam but she was just more fine than you!" and laughed and he started talking again. We talked about how different some of the drumming in IRS was with a couple of changes they have made to the song. He said that IRS was his fave new song to play live and YCBM is his fave old song to play live.
Chris was funny.. He commented on how much fun they were having here. I asked if GNR would come back and if they would do another similar lap around the world once the album is out, he said that there are just too many countries they have to visit even after the album is out still tho. He said how much of a ball they are having here and joked that it beats spending a month touring around Canada ?
?.. actually he said that kinda serious ?
?He said that they are so many obscure places that they wanna do shows at.
I met Richard too, he was cool, he seemed a little tired or something.. he was nice and as with all the others, very happy to take a photo etc. Dizzy came in later and signed stuff and took photos. I already met Robin in Melbourne walking down the street so I didn't really bother too much cos he had so many to meet.
They all took so much time to stop, meet everyone, introduced themselves and find out who they were meeting.. even remembered and used peoples names whilst talking to them. Full credit to the band ?
They all commented on how much the previous night there sucked.
Then.. after.. Axl!The meet and greet ended and everyone from the band drifted off down the end of the corridor towards the dressing rooms into a dark room which would turn out to be Axl and the bands private party. Half a dozen people or so ppl were invited back there by members of the band for the bands private party. Vanessa recognised my friend and so I was introduced and invited in.. she was really nice and welcoming.. thank you again!?
The room was totally black, all the walls had been covered with black, with dim lights throughout the room. The room had roses in all the corners and was just like I had heard Axl's backstage area to be like through all these years. For me this was insane, I knew Axl didn't do the meet and greets which we were at previously and so I never in my dreams thought I would meet the guy I've idolised all my life and is the one person on the earth I would want to meet the most. It was unreal when I was sitting on one of the couches in this room with the band, a few other fans, Del was there also, Sebastian and his band.. we were listening to Sebastian's ipod on the speaker dock and then Axl walked in! He got a drink and was signing an autograph.. so I thought that this is a once in a lifetime chance.. so I went up and introduced myself and asked him to sign my ticket. Without hesitation he took the ticket and took his time to sign it properly. No problems at all he was happy to sign. Talked to him breifly and said thanks.. then he turned to shake my hand, smiled and nodded as if to say no probs my pleasure.. I was a happy GNR fan.
It all ended at 6am. Throughout the night Axl spoke openly and comfortably in front of everyone. As it was his own little private party he obviously had trust to speak so comfortably in front of everyone and amongst gatherings of people about private stuff.. so out of respect for that I won't post stuff he was talking about. Him and Baz were playing songs off his ipod.. cant remember the songs Axl chose, I remember he picked one obscure Queen song and he said that it was his fave way more than Bohemian and stuff.. what was insane however was when I was standing to the side enjoying a drink and I hear this high pitched squeel next to me, I turned and Axl has his eyes shut and is signing to himself this song that was playing.. in the high pitched voice! I looked at my friend and both said to each other 'fuck yes'! He was enjoying dancing around the room.. it was insane to be next to Axl and he is dancing like he does on stage right next to you. Very cool.
Don't believe anything you hear, they were total class throughout the entire night! My many thanks again for the guy that organised this.. your story to tell will be worth the wait ?
NEXT STOP SYDNEY!
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