May 31st, 2006 Budapest, Hungary (including pictures)

[IRS]

Yes, Merck is a good guy. He could've threw a couple of bones at us in 04 and 05 though...

there's only so much he can say without being held accountable when plans change for whatever reason. regardless, he handles this band in the best possible way and i look forward to seeing him handle things in the future, when the chinese democracy era really starts!

[russtcb]

When did Merck comment on the show?

I don't remember what page it's on but someone posted an email from his in this thread. Do a search for it and it should come up.

[kockstar999]

Ill bet i can guess what the setlist will be at the next show and what Axl will be wearing!!!!

[Minneapolisnewsman]

So what's the word on this show?  I know it's in Easter Europe, but one would think that we would have some more information regarding the show? 

[Lucky]

I was at the show.
nothing like that happened.
it's bullshit.
the closest thing to an incident was richard swinging his guitar and almost kicking axl by accident.





 ( http://www.chinesedemocracy.com/viewtopic.php?t=14455&start=0 )

OK, here's a part of the review, rest at the thread on cd.com)


I got at the gate at noonish, there was a few people there waiting, and till 4 pm, there was 5-10 people in front of the gate. Till 6 o clock, the crowd already gathered around, and at about 6.30 the security was already at the gate, but they were not letting people in yet(and the gate should have opened at 6).
I was 2nd in line at the gate, and the official cameraman came by and did a interview with me. he asked me all the usaul stuff, how long have I been a fan, where I'm from,...
and I asked him what was this for and he said, "For the DVD". and I asked him when the DVD will be released, and he said "about end of summer".

after that we were let in the arena, and once again we had to wait...
finally the last gate of the arena opened, I managed to catch the fence, center. and then another wait started....


the opening act started (some shitty hungarian band).
after they were finally done, we had to wait again.
and some fat guy comes on stage, and says "due to techincal problems, the show will be 20 minutes late".

1 h after that, some people leave the arena...
1 h after that, the damn intro finally starts....
20 minutes after the intro started the WTTJ FINALLY STARTS!!!!


Setlist:
WTTJ
Its so easy
Mr Brownstone
Better
LALD
SCOM
YCBM
Blues
Out ta get me
KOHD
My Michelle
November Rain
Madagascar
Nigtrain
Paradise City

(I forgot when the solos happened) but there was a bunch of them (bumblefoot, fortus, finck, dizzy)
the band also did some random jam at one point.

The show was avesome. I dont know if the whole arena experience enhanced the pleasure, but I felt something that's so good I cant describe it.
there were a couple of mistakes here and there, by some band members, but nothing much



Some interesting details....

guess what... axl did a rant... he did it.... guess when... you guessed it. ... just before the band played "Better". what did he say? .... you guessed it...
there's this think called "computers"... bla bla bla


at the start of the show, Finck got pissed off by his guitar for some reason, and he threw it on the floor, and got another one...
I tought it's a part of the performance or something, but after that, during better(after the "all that I wanted was... ",-after the bubles effect behind the middle part of the song), he really got mad, smashed the guitar on the floor, took his sun glases and threw them also, walked of stage, and stayed there till the end of the song.
They DIDNT play the solo at the end of the song, and Bumblefoot had to perform the outro of the songs, and he kinda messed it up, and didn't know egzactly how many times the part should be repeated.


another interesting thing...
a friend of mine got to see the setlist on one of the monitors before the show started. and they had patience, rocket queen and a couple of other songs listed there that the band chose not to play...
dont know why.



not many stage interaction, at the end, finck walked by the people in the front row, and his and my friends head kinda collided when fincked walked down.

bumblefoot also walked buy, letting people touch his guitar, he walked infront of me, and instead of just touching it, I grabed onta it, and wouldnt let it go, at least till I got my camera out of my pocket  I kinda held him in that place for a couple of seconds, squeezing the neck of it:)


Axl's ecuse for being late 3 hours was:
Sorry I was/got pretty fucked up.



Axl's voice was great, the band members are really tight, the performance of the band was 9/10, but because of the band being late for so long, I'd give them 7/10 because it really fucks up the experience when you are tiered, dehidrated, and waiting for hours. at one point I wanted to walk out, I was so fucking tired I couldnt wait no more.
The organizers did a lousy job with the opening act, there were no signs in English, only hungarian, none of the personell at the arena knew a word of english, and there were busses from all around europe over there.
People from outside of hungary didnt give a fuck about the opening act because they were nobodys for us, and we didnt understand a word of their songs. after all, a great number of people was from other countries.
I met loads of fans from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Germany, Austria, Italy, and they were all pissed because of the crappy organization.

The security was crappy also, they refused to give us water, and we were dehidrated. the whole front row was dry.
damn pricks. They started to give out water only after I threw up in front of the stage...


another thing they fucked up... they sold more tickets that arena is allowed to recieve, the show was sold out + they sold 1000-2000 tickets more.

I heared there were problems because they fucked up the seating arangements, and there sometimes 2-3 people got the same fucking seat.




so... conclusion, GREAT GNR SHOW, GREAT PERFORMANCE, only few new GNR songs played, but I didnt notice, cus the band was so good I didnt care even when they played the cristina aguilera theme, the organizers fucked it up with the opening act, the signs/anouncements and selling 2000 tickets more than allowed.
Axl further fucked up, the what could have been a perfect experience by showing up 3 hours late.
The band was tight, and finck is definitely in charge of the stage, has carizma and stage presence. he was all over the place.

I have some photos/recordings, and gonna upload them soon.
I'm sorry I didnt send any mails from the arena, but the whole "waiting" thing got me pretty much exhausted, and I didnt give a fuck about anything after a certain point, and I just wanted to fucking go to sleep.

[Minneapolisnewsman]

Here is the review from a Hungarian newspaper--not too kind!

http://www.pestiside.hu/archives/chilly_reception_iii_axel_roses_big_fu002381.php

Chilly reception (III) Axl's big FU

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Guns N' Roses's frontman Axel Rose. Less than two weeks after getting publicly punched out by preppy fashion prince Tommy Hilfiger in a New York club, he had to drag his ass to Budapest. Or perhaps we should say a show this morning in Budapest, because Rose was apparently so uninterested in playing that he didn't manage to make it onto the stage of the Budapest Sportarena until right around midnight, two-and-a-half hours after opening act Sex Action had left the stage. According to a report earlier today on index.hu, the police were called in to monitor the crowd, which was told at around 10:00 p.m. that the show had been delayed because of an unspecified "technical problem." But according to our own well-placed source, the "technical problem" was that Rose was coked out of his already gak-addled mind.

Another problem was that the band apparently didn't even leave for Budapest from Milan until 7:00 p.m., and thus did not arrive at the arena until well after it was already packed with fans. While many fans were killing time waiting in long lines for beer - or to get refunds - Rose and his crew were killing time backstage, getting massages and otherwise fucking around.

As for the show, it was apparently pretty good, though the reception from the audience was noticeably subdued - "like a film premiere," as our source put it. "There wasn't much moshing." That said, there were few boos from the crowd, which included champion skanky politician Tam?s Deutsch. And even if anyone was pissed off enough to take Hilfiger-style retribution on Rose, they wouldn't have had much of a chance: barely an hour after leaving the stage, the band was already back on their jet.

[pilferk]

Here is the review from a Hungarian newspaper--not too kind!

http://www.pestiside.hu/archives/chilly_reception_iii_axel_roses_big_fu002381.php

Chilly reception (III) Axl's big FU

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Guns N' Roses's frontman Axel Rose. Less than two weeks after getting publicly punched out by preppy fashion prince Tommy Hilfiger in a New York club, he had to drag his ass to Budapest. Or perhaps we should say a show this morning in Budapest, because Rose was apparently so uninterested in playing that he didn't manage to make it onto the stage of the Budapest Sportarena until right around midnight, two-and-a-half hours after opening act Sex Action had left the stage. According to a report earlier today on index.hu, the police were called in to monitor the crowd, which was told at around 10:00 p.m. that the show had been delayed because of an unspecified "technical problem." But according to our own well-placed source, the "technical problem" was that Rose was coked out of his already gak-addled mind.

Another problem was that the band apparently didn't even leave for Budapest from Milan until 7:00 p.m., and thus did not arrive at the arena until well after it was already packed with fans. While many fans were killing time waiting in long lines for beer - or to get refunds - Rose and his crew were killing time backstage, getting massages and otherwise fucking around.

As for the show, it was apparently pretty good, though the reception from the audience was noticeably subdued - "like a film premiere," as our source put it. "There wasn't much moshing." That said, there were few boos from the crowd, which included champion skanky politician Tam?s Deutsch. And even if anyone was pissed off enough to take Hilfiger-style retribution on Rose, they wouldn't have had much of a chance: barely an hour after leaving the stage, the band was already back on their jet.

Sounds like not much of a review of the show, and more a diatribe about Axl being late (which, honestly, should be news to exactly nobody).

And didn't we see actual PICTURES of all the band except Axl in Budapest earlier in the day?? Maybe AXL didn't leave Milan til 7 PM, but I think the rest of the band was there earlier....

It actually says the show was pretty good...

[Neemo]

man...the media sure has it in for Axl... seriously looks like Axl is fucked if he does and fucked if he don't

[ARC]

... so Axl makes the fans wait a few hours whilst he snorts up the white stuff...?

this is the Axl that I missed... 

[TWT]

... so Axl makes the fans wait a few hours whilst he snorts up the white stuff...?

this is the Axl that I missed...?

Really? Have you ever been left waiting hours at a show? If he does it at Wembley I won't be thinking it's cool.

[Origen]

Axl's ecuse for being late 3 hours was:
Sorry I was/got pretty fucked up.

That's a pretty piss poor excuse to use, when he's keeping his own fans wait for nearly 2 and a half hours.

[estranged.1098]

... so Axl makes the fans wait a few hours whilst he snorts up the white stuff...?

this is the Axl that I missed... 

Really? Have you ever been left waiting hours at a show? If he does it at Wembley I won't be thinking it's cool.

You mean, "have you seen Guns N' Roses before"?

[Thorazine Shuffle]

But according to our own well-placed source, the "technical problem" was that Rose was coked out of his already gak-addled mind.

Unfortunately, this probably isn't too far from the truth. 

Years of past experience makes me spot a candy lover from a mile away.

[gnr2006]

You can report all you want. You're one who'll end up getting kicked out because you're annoying.

We don't care if you miss the old band, we really don't. Stop whining, go listen to your old bootlegs and cds.


Some of you are never happy. For years you were happy because Axl wasn't doing anything and you could point it out for the rest of us. Now that Axl is actually out there doing stuff, you still find things to whine about. Even stupid things like his clothes.

If you're only here to remind us of the past, fuck off. We know about the past and we have moved on.

I'm getting annoyed be a few "trolls" dragging every thread into shit about how you miss the old band and saying the ones who enjoy this new band aren't "real" fans. Go start your own forum, write a blog or something if you feel like you have to repeat those things over and over again..... 




/jarmo

you echo the sentiments of many 

[A Private Eye]

He's going to have to show up more on time than he is doing presently or this tour is headed in only 1 direction. The coke snorting thing I highly doubt, it could be true but I think it's unlikely. There's only so many times he can show 2 hours late and get away with it ?

[A Private Eye]

But according to our own well-placed source, the "technical problem" was that Rose was coked out of his already gak-addled mind.

Unfortunately, this probably isn't too far from the truth.?

Years of past experience makes me spot a candy lover from a mile away.

You think Axl's back on coke then?

[gnr2006]

You mean like in 91-93 when he showed up 2 hours late almost every night?

this is GUNS N' ROSES

wear comfy shoes and shut the fuck up

did they at least bring back the tittie show?

[Thorazine Shuffle]

But according to our own well-placed source, the "technical problem" was that Rose was coked out of his already gak-addled mind.

Unfortunately, this probably isn't too far from the truth.?

Years of past experience makes me spot a candy lover from a mile away.

You think Axl's back on coke then?

Sure do, if he ever did quit.

Coke is as popular as cigarettes with musicians, especially musicians that party every night till 7am.  It's (Coke) not my thing, but coke is not as bad as the US government would like you to believe.  But it's VERY easy to get out of hand.

[mr_yoshimaroka]

Here is the review from a Hungarian newspaper--not too kind!

http://www.pestiside.hu/archives/chilly_reception_iii_axel_roses_big_fu002381.php

Chilly reception (III) Axl's big FU

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Guns N' Roses's frontman Axel Rose. Less than two weeks after getting publicly punched out by preppy fashion prince Tommy Hilfiger in a New York club, he had to drag his ass to Budapest. Or perhaps we should say a show this morning in Budapest, because Rose was apparently so uninterested in playing that he didn't manage to make it onto the stage of the Budapest Sportarena until right around midnight, two-and-a-half hours after opening act Sex Action had left the stage. According to a report earlier today on index.hu, the police were called in to monitor the crowd, which was told at around 10:00 p.m. that the show had been delayed because of an unspecified "technical problem." But according to our own well-placed source, the "technical problem" was that Rose was coked out of his already gak-addled mind.

Another problem was that the band apparently didn't even leave for Budapest from Milan until 7:00 p.m., and thus did not arrive at the arena until well after it was already packed with fans. While many fans were killing time waiting in long lines for beer - or to get refunds - Rose and his crew were killing time backstage, getting massages and otherwise fucking around.

As for the show, it was apparently pretty good, though the reception from the audience was noticeably subdued - "like a film premiere," as our source put it. "There wasn't much moshing." That said, there were few boos from the crowd, which included champion skanky politician Tam?s Deutsch. And even if anyone was pissed off enough to take Hilfiger-style retribution on Rose, they wouldn't have had much of a chance: barely an hour after leaving the stage, the band was already back on their jet.

Sounds like not much of a review of the show, and more a diatribe about Axl being late (which, honestly, should be news to exactly nobody).

What I don't get is why the fuck don't they push the opening time of the show up to a later time if the dude's always late? I'm sure casual concert goer has no idea Axl does this everytime.

[ppbebe]

You think Axl's back on coke then?

I don't think so.

I dont know if the whole arena experience enhanced the pleasure, but I felt something that's so good I cant describe it. ..........The band was tight, and finck is definitely in charge of the stage, has carizma and stage presence. he was all over the place.

Lucky-Luciano Thanks for the detailed review.

As for the show, it was apparently pretty good,

good but apparently? The writer didn't even see the show.