I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that after all these years I FINALLY got to see one of my all time favourite bands live with three out of five members of the classic lineup on stage. I was in Hartwall Areena, Helsinki 2006 and at Helsinki Live festival 2010, but missed Hämeenlinna last year, because it was at the same time as Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, which has been kind of an annual tradition for me since 2000.
The Tallinn concert absolutely blew away any of my previous GNR live experiences. Three hour setlist of absolute perfection, every song that I had dreamed of hearing them play, was played. I was so moved by seeing Slash, Duff and Axl on the same stage for the first time ever in my 40 years of existing on this earth, that I actually cried at least a couple of times. I don't even care that the first five songs I had to watch from the beer queue on the right side of the stage, you could still see and hear perfectly from there. Pro tip though: Sell beer in 0,5l cans instead of tap beer in plastic mugs, maybe the lines wouldn't move so slowly.
Finally, by the middle of Better I was back from the beer queue with a four beer holder in each hand and the rest of the show went fine with those.
Mostly I was just in awe of Slash's eargasmic playing and the overall tightness of the band. Axl's voice held up very well for the duration of the show, sure he's saving the rasp for specific parts of the show, but that's inevitable in order not to have to cancel shows because of throat issues. One definite highlight was Rocket Queen with the extended soloing parts.
As a venue, this was my first time seeing a rock concert at the Tallinn song stage (first time ever going abroad for a concert, in fact) and the venue was pretty awesome, large out door amphitheater, park-like setting, kind of a picnic with 70 000 GNR fans. I'll have to go there again, if some good act plays there.
Got back to Finland from Tallinn yesterday, my legs are still sore from the 4km zombie walk back to the hotel (the band's motorcade passed us by on the Narva highway
), voice is still gone but dammit it was worth it! One more thing to cross over from my bucket list, I've finally seen Axl, Slash and Duff on the same stage and Slash and Duff live for the first time ever. Goes directly to my top five concerts.
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