A New Day Has ComeAllstate Arena - Rosemont, IL - Tue, Nov 15, 2011
and I'm NOT talking about Celine Dion. Axl has *definitely* transformed. The best way I can describe it is by quoting him during one of his speeches in between sets:
"I ran into this old lady at the supermarket the other day and asked her 'Do you know Guns N' Roses?' She said 'Yeah, I heard that Axl Rose is always late, you never know if he's going to show up, and he's usually in some sort of fight!' She's my new best friend."
In case that doesn't make sense for sh!t, he meant he has changed..and it was VERY apparent by his performance. Now, don't get me wrong, he still took until 11:30 to come on for a supposed 9pm start, and he DID chuck the microphone stand multiple times onto the stage (God love him), and he DID hit old school sh!t like Rocket Queen and It's So Easy - HARD. He rocked out and didn't sell himself short with his new image. The one thing I WOULD say is that his vocals were either extremely AMPed or piped-in for his new sh!t, Chinese Democracy, of which he did a LOT of. It's not that bad, actually, but definitely NOT on par with the GNR of the old days..which did, in fact, get a LOT of airtime. He did some difficult songs too, like Estranged, and did them WELL.
A word on his accompanying band... in a word - TALENT. All of them had solos with more than enough chance to showcase their stuff. They all seemed to have their own personalities, and seemed secure in themselves. The band definitely had a good on-stage presence and chemistry going on...
There's this one guitar dude with a long beard that has a real bluesy feel about him. You could tell he could stand well enough on his own, given his talent. Oh, and did I mention the pyrotechnics???
Bottom line - SOLID performance. They played for 3+ hours and didn't dick around. I didn't count the songs and couldn't even name them all.. but it was definitely worth the Wedenesday morning (and afternoon...and EVENING) hang over.
THANK YOU AXL. THANK YOU G N F'ing R !!!!!
Favorite moment: Estranged - FULL VERSION
Setlist: Are you kidding me - go see the damned show man - why would I give away the best part?
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