Chinese Democracy Starts Now 10 Year Anniversary!!

[Chief]

Ahhhh the HOB show!  what amazing memories.. I wrote a super long review which probably has a bit of hyperbole in it looking back, but I was so excited and happy seeing them.  It was my first show and the anticipation and not knowing what to expect was insane!!!  I also was going crazy when the tickets went on sale knowing I HAD to get them!
I remember waiting in line for around 8 hours.. didn?t know they would go on past 3 am!!  I went with my cousin and listened to all the albums on the drive to vegas and it was surreal.  I remember playing pool the day before with my cousin and meeting up with several people from the GNR Dust n? Bones list and sharing a room with some of them (including a dude from Germany!).  We discussed what we thought would happen the night before, before going to sleep.  Electricity was in the air.  I don?t even really remember the countdown too much since we were waiting in a long line.  I remember a girl asking me if I wanted to sell my ticket.. hell no of course, she didn?t realize how many years I had waited for that moment!!!
The storm surge in the crowd when Jungle started was pretty heavy and almost disarming!!!   I remember while waiting, some of us were yelling at a dude who brought in a camera because we were afraid that something bad might happen!
I still recall how much I loved the Blues that night even though some of the songs were kind of hard to recall after hearing them for the first time.  November Rain was so awesome live!  The setlist in my review is wrong, at the time we thought one of the songs was - it was difficult to pick out the lyrics.  The stage set up was unlike any before or since then.. I really liked what they did with all the effects and the TVs on stage, and the animated video intro which was such a trip!  It was so strange to see Pitman up there since we had no idea he was in the band and also to see Paul for the first time.  Buckethead blew me away!!  I was pretty happy to hear that he ended up still being on the album after he left Guns.

This was definitely one of the best shows of all time for me!!!!  Also, afterward my legs hurt more than they ever have before and we ended up staying up for 24 hours by that point.  I think eating at a crappy diner/casino and collapsing followed the show.  Who knew at that time how long the album would take to come out and what would happen with the lineup changes, drama, etc.. it?s been a hell of a ride!  Hoping for a kickass 2011!!!

If anyone is interested here is a link to my long review I wrote after the show in 01 in PDF format:
http://qfg2.info/misc/gnrhob010101.pdf

[Voodoochild]

Just read your review, it was great. Thanks for sharing it!

[sweetbreakdown]

Nice review!

[sweetbreakdown]

My Top 10 memories from Rock in Rio III:

-   The sick intro followed by Jungle ? Robin?s riffs at the beginning n? Axl?s incredible scream just put 200.000 people literally on their knees!
-   Oh My God, Chinese Democracy n? Think About You ? the first 2 ones were so insane live n? hearing Think About You was something we wouldn?t even dare to dream inside our dreams in the past (I knew it was played in Vegas but when it started there?GOD!).
-   Hearing Madagascar for the first time was a religious experience to me. It was very special, intense ? well, that gig still is ? for me, for thousands of fans n? probably to Axl too, the most emotional gig so far.
-   Meeting Axl n? have the knowledge of how cool n? special he is!
-   Bucket?s electric eyes turned on at the end of November Rain (insane!)
-   See how much love n? respect the crowd still have for Axl ? when he started to talk about the old band n? etc I was afraid that people would start getting pissed off because 1) The show started almost at 2am so people were dying there! lol 2) He was clearly against the former members.
But more than 200.000 listened n? waited patiently n? enjoyed what they heard. Also, putting all this amazing crowd together after 7 years of silence, no singles, no videos, no album, just 1 original member?that showed to the whole world the power Guns N? Roses still have!
-   Meeting all the new members (but Brain) n? Dizzy ? Bucket was a little bit anti-social n? he was going to pass through us without saying a word but then he saw my Buckethead CDs n? came back. He was SO COOL!!!!!!!
-   Being able to meet people like Beta, Del, Robert John, Marc Canter (I didn?t knew Marc Canter back then n? Robert introduced me to him!) n? even Earl  ? all those people were inside our worlds for so long n? it was so cool do meet them all!
-   Being awake from  the 11th till the end of 15th almost without sleeping. My friend n? I would have like 10 to 20 minutes of sleeping each while sitting at some couch of the hotel ? one would rest a little while the other one was awake waiting for the band!? that was out of this world! I went there driving with a friend from Sao Paulo to Rio (+ - 5 hours) n? then came back at the 15th because I needed to work at the 16th!!! Still trying to figure out how I made it!
-   Being able to thank Axl in person for all the good things he brought to my life through lyrics n? interviews ? I gave him the 92 Rolling Stone magazine to be signed n? he started looking at the magazine ? he said there was a long time since he didn?t see it n? was amazed by how new it was lol!

That was my particular beginning of the CHINESE DEMOCRACY ERA! !!! And it's not over yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chief]

You're welcome, glad you guys enjoyed it!!

btw i also now recall meeting Del before the HOB show and he commented on my old GNR Coma tshirt, and also said that we were in for a hell of a show (little did we know how crazy it would be!!)
Also met Robert John for a little bit.. they both were cool.