March 18th - Montevideo, Uruguay @ Estadio Centenario [ UPDATES +DICUSSIONS]

[Tatiana]

Wasn't about 60,000 tickets sold?

I don't remember. But I think between 40000 and 60000. A lot!!

[Ulises]

Maybe the promoter did a GOOD deal with this. I think there was more people than expected!

I read that the promoter didn't expect to have profits, they just wanted to proof that Uruguay is a country that can have these kind of shows.  Most of the times the great bands goes to Argentina directly because Buenos Aires is very close from Montevideo and do not care about Uruguay. I'm from Argentina but I'm very proud for our "brother country"!

[Insider]

now Santiago!!!!

[warrocks]

awesome! I'm so glad they played this I love and whole lotta rosie....hope they play those songs here too.

 I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SHOW TOMORROW HERE IN CHILE  


I'm telling my students about it hehehe, they've got a cool teacher  

[Ulises]

awesome! I'm so glad they played this I love and whole lotta rosie....hope they play those songs here too.

 I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SHOW TOMORROW HERE IN CHILE  


I'm telling my students about it hehehe, they've got a cool teacher  

The thing is maybe your students listen to Tokyo Hotel and all this kind of crap  . That's the current music.

Good to see that Guns N' Roses brought some true rock n' roll to the scene again!

I tihnk this is important. An uruguayan guy posted: "I'm a slashlite but all of them, specially DJ, made me not miss slash at the whole concert!" . Is time to face reality for some people. This kind of things are so cool...

[bolton]

I think 40000 is great success

[Tatiana]

I think 40000 is great success

Yeah, It's something for 

[Ulises]

Cool video here: http://www.teledoce.com/noticia/6896_Quedan-entradas-para-los-Guns-N%C2%B4Roses-y-no-se-suspende-por-lluvia/
 

[LordRazZ]

A big thanks to all the South American GnR fans who've fought against everything from tornados to language barriers to bring us updates...lol

If it were the other way around, I'd be running down every spanish word I knew from my son watching Dora the Explorer...which isn't much

Thanks again guys...can't wait for the next show

[willow]

Cool video here: http://www.teledoce.com/noticia/6896_Quedan-entradas-para-los-Guns-N%C2%B4Roses-y-no-se-suspende-por-lluvia/
 

that was cute! I think she was flirting just a little.

[Boromir]

Did you know Uruguay?

I don't understand

 

Did you know Uruguay?

[Will]

Some cool pics from the show (thanks to El Pais):

[estebanf]

Sound is awful!!!!! The first opening act are having some sound problems.

In fact, the first opening band couldn't finish their first song because of difficulties.

When ''Vendetta'' entered the stage, people were not too happy, baceuse it was too late for opening acts, and because they were ''girls in a hard rock concert''

Vendetta was a nice band, with a very charismatic singer. They had terrible sound problems when they first started their show. The voice couldnt be heard at all, and the instruments were sounding extremey bad. And not only that: the usual background music to entertain the masses while they wait for the bands was PLAYING while these girls were trying to perform. They didnt even finish their first song, because their bassist just left the stage, super-angry, leaving her bass on a speaker with a lot of madness in her face. After a few minutes, technics solved these problems and the girls were out again, now sounding as they should. The singer was very nice, with a good voice and she also was the lead (and only  ) guitarist.

She made fun of Axl, and made the crowd nervous, with comments like ''Dont think about Axl, he`s not even here, forget about him''

Don't know what happened with updates  .

Sorry for any inconveniences. We'll try to do it better in Argentina.

I stopped making updates for 2 reasons:

1) I was sending messages to an allegedly number from Bonzo. Never got a reply from him.

2) I was spending too much time in ''other things'' than watching the concert carefully (pics, for example, walking from one side of the premium area to the other, to catch the boys from very near)

My review is coming, hold on there! 

[Tatiana]

Beautiful!!!!

[jamesdm]

I just back from Montevideo the shows was from 1.25 am to 4.00 am was a great show but with some sound problems how all people add before, the two screen video on the side barely visible, i don't saw police on the stadium that is in not conditions for this kind of thinkgs.
PD: Esteban do you know why Axl was very still like upset about something in the final part of Sorry? maybe for this technical things?

[warrocks]

awesome! I'm so glad they played this I love and whole lotta rosie....hope they play those songs here too.

 I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SHOW TOMORROW HERE IN CHILE  


I'm telling my students about it hehehe, they've got a cool teacher  

The thing is maybe your students listen to Tokyo Hotel and all this kind of crap  . That's the current music.

Good to see that Guns N' Roses brought some true rock n' roll to the scene again!

I tihnk this is important. An uruguayan guy posted: "I'm a slashlite but all of them, specially DJ, made me not miss slash at the whole concert!" . Is time to face reality for some people. This kind of things are so cool...

actually most of my students are more into metal haha so when it's about guns I let them know how great this band is hehe

[estebanf]

The arrival:

I was one of a group of argentine guys who met at a Ferry station in Buenos Aires. We had to go from Buenos Aires to the uruguayian city of Colonia, by water (1 hour, approximately) and then a bus trip from Colonia to Uruguay?s capital Montevideo (2 hours and 1/2). At the Ferry station we were: estebanf, Omega, Jimmy and Andr?s (my adventure and concert partner). We met other argentine guys and gals traveling to Uruguay, but we four knew each other from THE spanish-speaking forum in the web, www.GNRLA.com

We didnt know our faces. We just started asking the people with GNR t-shirts: ''hey, are you from GNRLA?'' and that's how the little group was made. We did the trip, and immediatly after we got into Montevideo, we just found some other argentine / uruguayan fans from GNRLA.com: they were Pitufresas (ARG), Nico (ARG) Gonza N Ketchup (URU, the guy who made this dream possible, our uruguayian saviour, because he bought the tickets for all of us, asking for nothing in return. The tickets for Montevideo couldnt be bought via internet, so Gonza just saved us all. He's gonna be in Buenos Aires the 22nd. He's the greatest and funniest guy I`ve ever met in a loooong time, and he`s an outstanding photographer [you're gonna see some of his pics soon I think]. Gonza, huge Ketchup lover, was our guide there in Montevideo) Siegfrieds and Antofagunner, from Chile, 2 EXCELLENT guys, very nice persons who stayed with us all the long waiting before entering the stadium and some couple of moments after the show. I happen to know Antofagunner for a long time but just virtually, and it was a placer to me to meet him personally; same for Siegfrieds! Then it was Gabi, an argetine girl who loves Axl and the band from day zero, who had a real fucking blast at the show, a show she was waiting for a long time, and damn! she had what he deserved! Very nice girl, so do her friend who was with her!

The loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong waiting to enter the show:

After we left the Montevideo station, we want to a restaurant to load some energy for the show. There we were me, Omega, Gonza, and Andres. We had some milanesas with french fries (poor Gonza, he just could even finish half of his portion ). We met there, who was sitting near us, the first of several Axl Rose clones. This was the only Axl clone dressed and looked as the current Axl. Then we took a taxi to the Centenario Stadium, got the very first places in the waiting line (fatal error... we were phisically devasteted when the doors opened), and the looooooooooooooong waiting started. We got there at 4 PM, and the doors opened 8:40...

While waiting, something really bad occured. Apparently, a drunk dude throwed an empty glass bottle of beer to the mass of people and just injured someone in the head, making him bleed a lot. The logistic organization of the show was poor overall. Its comprehensible: this was the biggest rock act ni Uruguay history, and they just were doing ''what they could''. Security people were just doing nothing, and they even recognized they knew nothing of what was happening inside the stadium and the real reason why they were not allowing people to access the stadium. What started being a 10 meters line, then it became a funny and astronomically long line, that you could not even see where it ended. Door opened 4 hours and 30 minutes after we got there, and security was letting people enter in groups of ten. They did a very quick search of bags at the door, and that was it.

Inside the stadium, first impressions:

We entered the stadium, and we got asked by security which sector we had. ''Campo A'', we said, and they put us a light blue wristband / bracelet. When we discovered  our locations, we got in shock: we were EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY near the stage. The view was superb, from any place of the sector, who i think it could handle no more than 1000 people. We were living a fucking dream. Went to the bathroom, got a hamburger, a Red Bull, and came back to our sector.

The opening acts:

When ''Vendetta'' entered the stage, people were not too happy, baceuse it was too late for opening acts, and because they were ''girls in a hard rock concert''. Vendetta was a nice band, with a very charismatic singer. They had terrible sound problems when they first started their show. The voice couldnt be heard at all, and the instruments were sounding extremey bad. And not only that: the usual background music to entertain the masses while they wait for the bands was PLAYING while these girls were trying to perform. They didnt even finish their first song, because their bassist just left the stage, super-angry, leaving her bass on a speaker with a lot of madness in her face. After a few minutes, technics solved these problems and the girls were out again, now sounding as they should. The singer was very nice, with a good voice and she also was the lead (and only) guitarist. She made fun of Axl, and made the crowd nervous, with comments like ''Dont think about Axl, he`s not even here, forget about him''

Then it was ''Rey Toro'' moment. Completely different music style than Vendetta: Rey Toro is just a raw and in your face heavy metal band with a very powerful and energetic frontman. They rocked. I must admit I liked Vendetta a little more, but Rey Toro was a more proper band to open for GNR IMHO. Intense headbanging all the show. People reacted better to Rey Toro than how they reacted to Vendetta.

Finally, Baztime. I saw him at Belo Horizonte, and it was as powerful and energetic as it was there. He did a VERY long set, which worried us, because we were speculating that Baz was doing a super-long show to make time for Axl to arrive to the venue. He played all the 3 Angel Down songs where Axl participated. His lead guitarist, Johnny Chromatic, rocked so hard and at the end of the GNR show he was in the crowd, and then took pictures with some fans. He was very nice. Nick Sterling rocks too. Baz spoke a lot of spanGLish

[estebanf]

Guns:

Baz ended, and 30/40 minutes later, the classic intro from 2006 popped up. The first sounds of (1) Chinese Democracy started and we were fucking nuts and emotionally moved at that point. Incredibly, all body pains from the waiting were over. Even with the lights down, Bumblefoot was stood up with his guitar. Then (still with the lights down) Richard, Frank and Dizzy appeard and took their places. Then DJ appeared in that red dark light, at the top of the stage, and the riff from CD just sounded. Again. Again. Then the pyro and the fire and a demoniac Axl Rose appears onstage singing his ass off, moving like a fish in water and absolutely owning the stage and all the attention. CD was just brilliant: no problems of discoordination this time.

(2) Welcome To The Jungle followed, and the overall vibe was so much intense. Axl nailed all the screams, and at the end he screamed ''youre in the jungle uruguay''  (not at the starting, though). His voice, even with these throat problems some people like Bumble or Beta mentioned, was in top form.

(3) Its So Easy and (4) Mr. Brownstone followed. They rocked so much, and our tired bodies were at their limit. We (at least WE the argentine fans, cant talk for the rest of the fans there) never stopped jumping for one second.

(5) Sorry. Sorry was one of the most dramatic moments of the show. No, im lying: it was BY FAR the most dramatic moment of the night. Almost at half of the song, we dont know what but something happend to Axl. He left the stage, leaving the song with no vocals (Tommy didnt sing, as he did in some other moments like in KOHD where Axl was not in the stage) for a long lapse. By the other hand, the rest of the musicians, who realised that Axl was not there, started playing with a hell lot of more passion and aggressiveness, specially Richard, who was just playing like he was possesed by some devils, attacking his chords with fierce and playing with a lot of feeling. Tommy's face said it all: he was as worried as us. Then Axl came back, very serious, with a new shirt, and just stood up singing without his characteristic fury. He sang with his two hand in his back, with the microphone in the mic stand. We were just freaked out. Axl had a ''im finishing this song and im fucking going home'' face. Immediatly after the song ended, Axl announced (6) Richard's guitar solo. We and Andres looked each other and said: ''this is it man, we're fucked up, this show's gonna end very soon''. We were so fucking wrong. We still dont know what happened to Axl. Like it happened when I attened the Belo Horizonte show, Richard's James Bond Theme was the best guitar solo of the three, and the one who got the best reception from the crowd. Richard fucking rules.

(6) Live And Let Die started and a whole completely different Axl appeared onstage. I dont know if anyone talked to him, but his attitude was the best again. He destroyed his vocal chords all over the song, giving the crowd one of the most powerful moments of the show, full of fire and pyro. Talking about the fire, DJ Ashba's guitar set in fire during YCBM!! (if im not wrong).

(7) If The World: This is the ultimate test for Axl's voice, and he got, again, an ''A'' in it. If The World is one of these songs that they sound even better live than on the studio album. Its not one of my favourite in CD, but its definitely one of the highlights of every GNR live show. As I said in my Belo horizonte review, If The World is Bumblefoot's showtime. What a player...

( 8 ) Better:to me, the best song of the show. Its 5 minutes of pure adrenaline. The crowd responded very well to this song, and it seems all 3 guitarist enjoy a lot playing this song, so do Axl singing it. Axl's devilish voice was out of this world. The n?-metal instrumental part made me jump as high as i could, like a dangerous psycho, at the point some people were looking at me like saying ''who's this freak?'' Both Bumblefoot and DJ nailed their solos. Bumblefoot seems like he could play just anything, no matter how hard or complex the solo could be. He closes his eyes and just plays it. At some points, Bumblefoot makes his playing sound like a playback. He's an extraordinary guitar player, a real virtuoso.

(9) Rocket Queen: flawless performance of the AFD classic. The crowd loved it and the singalong was very very loud. I remember telling Andres, at the final part, ''he sounds exactly like in live era''.

[estebanf]

(10) Ziggy Stardust Solo / Street Of Dreams: this one was a dream come true to me. I told Andres how many times I imagined myself hearing Dizzy playing ''Ziggy'' live, a song it was not performed in Belo Horizonte (because some brazilian thing was played in its place). It was very sweet, emotional, and soft. Really loved it, so do the crowd. Then it started Street Of Dreams, a song we can  already put in the ''bag of the classics'', along with November Rain or Patience. The singalong was loud, and a lot of people knew the whole lyrics. Dj rocked at the guitar solo (even though i must admit i was just imagining Robin there...)

(11) The Ballad Of Death / SCOM: Even though, like someone said, the overall vibe was ''old gnr'' in the crowd (something that ABSOLUTELY changed after the ending of the show, i witnessed that), there was nobody asking for Slash, thinking about Slash, talking about Slash. That was good, because I was scared for DJ Ashba at his solo moment. He was very well received by the crowd, and we all liked his ''Ballad Of Death'' solo. Immediatly after he finished it, he started SCOM and the crowd was just a frenzy. I saw DJ playing the first half of the main solo at 1,5 mts of distance, approximately. I could even see the colour of his eyes, his tattooes with all detailes. We were really close to the musicians.

(12) You Could Be Mine: Paraphrasing Pantera, YCBM is GNR best vulgar display of power. YCBM ends and you feel like an atomic bomb just exploded inside your head. The intensity and the adrenaline you feel at this song is just overwhelming. What an ass I was, asking GNR to erase this song from the set!!!! YCBM must me a must forever in the set!! DJ set his guitar in fire here, but he didnt show himself too much worried, because he just put the fire off using his jeans!!!

(13) Another Brick In The Wall: Come the fuck on uncle Axl!! Just play ABITW (part 2) completely and sing it! His voice generates the exact atmosphere than in the PF  / RW shows! And the crowd loves it!

(14) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road / Someone Saved My Life Tonight / November Rain: Nice piano intro, as always, and a placer to watch Axl playing the complete piano intro to November Rain again. Axl's voice was a lot better in NR than in all the bootlegs I have from 2001 to 2007. The guitar solos were incredible, specially Richard's, who always was the one who it didnt convince me completely. The outro is just phenomenal: DJ and Richard playing next to Frank, Axl singing with passion and playing the piano, and Bumblefoot doing his job in front of the stage, playing with his heart in his sleeve.

(15) Bumblefoot Guitar Solo (Pink Panther): People loved it. Bumble walked up to the center of the stage, and asked for some applause. The crowd responded, and then it was another of the ''Bumble's showtime'', doing impossible things with his double-necked guitar, using the fretless neck a lot. DJ was also very active playing rhythms, and also cheering the people up. The Pink Panther Theme is always a fun and nice moment at the show.

(16) Shackler's Revenge: now, this was the most emotional and intense moment of the show to me and my partner Andres (not for the rest of the crowd, though). The thing is me and Andres couldnt believe Shackler's was being played. We both love this song, and we were definitely hoping it to appear but not really expecting it. When it started, we started jumping like mad, singing it very loud, but the crazy thing is... it was only Andres and me! The immense majority of the people in my sector was just stood up, not knowing the song, and that's why people next to us were looking us like thinking ''these two guys must be nuts... why are they jumping like psychos?''. The funny and emotional thing for us was that Axl Rose himself noticed this: Axl noticed that only Andres and me were jumping, and not only that: we were jumping like two fucking crazy nuts! So Axl looked directly to us for some seconds and smiled, which made our day! Shacklers was just perfect. Shame on the rest of the people who showed almost no interest in it, probaly because there was a lot of casual attendants (uruguay has no big acts like guns, so every rock fan in Montevideo was there. The majority of the people there were not exactly hardcore GNR fans like us...)

(17) Patience: one of the weakest moments of the show, if not the weakest. The crowed liked it, but i'm kinda sick of it. GNR seems to play it just because its a must classic, but Axl clearly shows not too much interest in it. It was a good performance, though, and watching the 3 guitar player playing together at 3 meters of distance from you its always nice.

(18) Nightrain: another of the powerful moments of the night. This lineup gives a lesson on how the AFD tracks must be played. At some point during the final instrumental jam, i ask Andres ''where the fuck is DJ, he's nowhere'', and he was stood up in the grass, and we were unable to see him because he was at the opposite side of us. DJ, as I said in Belo Horizonte, looks like he is the happiest man in the venue. Richard was so intense all over the show too.

(19) Madagascar: The first half of it was just brilliant, with Axl's voice being as sepctacular as in the studio album. Madagascar is my 2? favourite song in CD after TWAT (which is my all-time favourite GNR song), so this was a moment I was really looking forward, specially because it wasnt played at the other show I attended in this leg of the tour (BH). I just got in trance in the instrumental/quotes part. I though i was being prisoner of GNRs music. But the last part of the song didnt go well, because the pre-recorded Axl's backing vocals were too loud and Axl's real voice was too low and that outro got fucked up.

What was a real surprise, a real unexpected song was (20) Whole Lotta Rosie, which is a real kick in the teeth!!! Axl's voice is just outstanding here. Axl's the only man alive who can cover Brian Johnson and be BETTER than him. Most singers would just embarras theirselves doing that, but Axl truly rocks! Bumblefoot was running from one side to the other, with a smile from ear to ear. His solo was electryfing! Constant jumping here!

Me and Andres were the 2 most happy men alive, and then Axl asked for the piano, again. Wow... (21) This I Love and after a couple of seconds i found myself with my whole body with goosebumps. I just felt freezed for a second. Me and Andres were like ''man, he cant sing better, he's singing better than on the album'' and that was true, trust me. A funny moment was when DJ appeard stood up in hanging speaker, and Axl came and started jumping like he was trying to catch him from below. DJ kinda fucked the first part of the solo up, then he jumped from that speaker to the stage, and continued soloing the more aggresive part. He also played some of the solo while walking. DJ just adapted that solo to his style, which sounds awesome but its not a copy of Robin's. Great moment of the show.

(22) Paradise City started next. Gabi's friend told me after the show something very true: Paradise City gives you mixed emotions, something bittersweet. The good thing is the song is a fucking blast, the bad thing is you know the show is ending. My body was just devastated: i was feeling pain EVERYWHERE: my feet, my neck, my back, my spine, my legs, and my brain was at 100000 revolutions per minute, and a very nice girl (i talked to her after the show, really cool gal) asked me ''can you lift me up on your shoulders'', which i said immediatly (inconciously too ) ''yes, come on!'' and i lifted her. I was so fucking excited, that i was trying to jump and jump even with her on my shoulders!!! I held her half of the song (she seemed to be living a dream, like she dreamed all her life to be in the highs while watching GNR playing PC live), then she told me to put her on the ground and thanked me. Immediatly after i was free of any extra weight, i started jumping like in no other moment of the night, even more than in Shackler's, where i (and Andres) were pretty much nuts! The confetti appeared, then the silver serpentines (i have some confetti and one serpentine in my PC desk right now, like a war trophy), and the show ended. Andres almost grabs a pick from Ron, and we were pretty close from Frank when he was throwing his drumsticks. The best fucking rock night of my life just had ended.

[estebanf]

The after:

While still being inside the stadium, with the show already over, me and andres went to find the other argentine / uruguay / chilean friends from GNRLA.com. There we saw Omega and Nico, who were in Campo B, and gave them a hug. Then we went to Gonza's, gabi's and gabi's friend location, and we saluted them with a very harm hug. Gonza and Gabi were living the same dream than me and Andres. They couldn't be any happier. Pitufresas was shocked too.

Went out from the stadium in a state very close to dehydration, and physically terminated. Bought some drinks, and started walking to start our trips back home. The chilean guys and Pitufresas went together, Gabi took her road, and me, Andres, Gonza, Omega and Gabi's friend went together to gabi's friend hotel to grab the bags we left there.

When we arrived to the bus station, we had some Big Macs, fries and coke at McDonalds, and then went to the bus (which took off with some delay). 2 hours and a half traveling back from Montevideo to Colonia; took the Ferry there, and 2 more hours from Colonia to Buenos Aires. Then we all got different ways, in my case, another 2 hours trip to my city.

Came home, and this is the first thing im doing: reviewing TODAY'S show ( )

Hope you like this review, and forgive my english. I know there might be some terrible grammar and ortographic errores!

Damn it, how I fucking love this band!