July 9th, 2018, Chorzow, Poland

Apologies for the delay – here’s my review!

Obviously the gig was fantastic – the best musically of the NITL shows I’ve seen. Axl seemed particularly on form, and I honestly couldn’t possibly fault the vocals. I’m sure there are those that could scrutinise crappy phone footage and tell me otherwise, but that’s of no concern to me. To my ears it sounded incredible. The band seem tighter now than they’ve perhaps ever been – Fortus seems to compliment Slash perfectly. In any other band jaws would be dropping at Fortus’s playing – he’s that good now.

In terms of energy, the show was also off the scale. What’s noticeable though is how much the energy levels ramp up on the ‘new’ material. (By ‘new’ I mean CD tracks, Shadow and recent covers). It’s like the band ignites. To my ears It’s So Easy and Brownstone could be played in their sleep by their band…but the focus on intensity on the other stuff is something else. Madagascar was truly remarkable – probably the best time I’ve seen that played since the shows with Buckethead. Axl seems to be making Slither his own now, and to these ears The Seeker, disliked as it is by many, still seems to be a perfect fit for the band, delivered with a lot of passion.

The downside was the crowd – I was surrounded by people who barely moved for the whole show, and I was at the front, standing. It was fairly off putting, until I realized that it didn’t matter, and went off into a world of my own. I feel sorry for people really – the way they grab their camera phones and stand behind them anytime a riff they recognise is played – they seem so un-engaged with everything. I’d hate to be like that, and just feel lucky that I feel what I feel during concerts.

What concerned me however, and this is not really the fault of the band, is the relentlessly nostalgic attitude of the crowd. EVERYONE is decked out in AFD shirts, or shit reprints of old tour shirts. They are all dressed like 1988 – bandannas are everywhere. These people don’t dress like this in everyday life; it’s as if they are attending a mass-participation themed evening. There’s no acknowledgement that times have moved on – they want it to be that year, and the band to look like they did back then. I find it very peculiar. It also feeds into what they want to hear – AFD tracks in the most part. I was shocked at how no one seemed to know even Illusion material, let alone CD stuff or any of the covers.

With this in mind, it really struck me how, outside of forums, there is so little demand for new material. In fact – it’s the reverse. The people that attend want and demand nothing but AFD material, and would probably feel short changed if the band were to perform new material, as absurd as that sounds to people like me. Given the money associated with touring, one does wonder why any band of a certain age would invest time, effort and money into creating something that no one is asking for……
It’s to the bands credit that they don’t especially cater to these people (there are actually LESS AFD songs in the set than earlier in the NITL tour) and continue to tackle the likes of Coma, despite the muted reception it receives. It would be easier, and better received, for the band to do 90 minutes, play AFD and leave. I feel that by not doing that GNR are still fighting being a nostalgia act – despite the fact the crowd wants them to be.

Really though – this is all background. Performance wise, this is flawless stuff. It’s better than it has any right to possibly be. The crappy crowds, the life-suckers feeding on nostalgia, the bores who want this band to be something they never were, and those that want to use them as an accessory to their bizarre need for self-validation. None of them matter – they come and go. When the next bands in town, they’ll alter their t-shirts and dress sense accordingly. That hearing a searing, aggressive version of Shadow doesn’t move them to even applaud is irrelevant to those that can lose themselves so fully in the beauty of something like Estranged (which gave me the same goosebumps as it did all those years ago as a nerdy kid in his bedroom).

I honestly hope every single person that finds their way to this forum gets the same amount of enjoyment out of a show as me. I really do. It’s like a dose of energy that keeps you going for weeks.

This band means so much to me (far more than it probably should, if I’m honest) and I felt as excited, thrilled, elated, moved and touched by this concert as I’ve ever felt with GNR. They’re still the reason I’m the person I am. They’re still the reason you want to be in a band. Still the widely and wildly misunderstood master songwriters. That I got one more chance to see them perform this way is something I’m hugely grateful for. And fucking hell do they still keep some serious ass on that stage!