04/09/2016 - Las Vegas - T-Mobile Arena

[Saltzy]

Almost a week later and I'm still kinda in awe at what I experienced and saw.  I've been to a fuckload of shows in my life and I have rank these 2 at the very, very best I've ever seen all things considered.

Outside of seeing Pearl Jam at MSG which honestly does something to me that nothing else can, these were probably the best arena shows I've ever seen.  I think the only shows in general that could even compete would be the 4th Hammerstein show in 2006 when Izzy played and the final Billy Joel show at Shea Stadium in 2008 when like everyone ever including Paul freaking McCartney played.

From the pit the visuals were just awe inspiring are surreal.  I didn't they they were too much at all.  The contrast of the black stage and the high density spotlights made these guys look like they were 3D to me at times.

I think my most prevalent thought watching the shows, once when I was fucked up sideways and once when I was stone cold sober was 'Where the fuck have these guys been the last quarter fucking century!??'  

They may have their personal differences, but they are magic when you get them on the same stage.

[caretaker]

Hey guys for those who may not know:

ya can use VLC on iPhone , simply drag and drop on iTunes/phone/apps/vlc ???

Cool shows also !

Peace✌?️

[gnr estranged]

Just saw this article on huffington post about a fans experience in Vegas - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-solomon/48-hours-in-vegas-for-guns-n-roses_b_9684780.html

[magnum13]

 

I am not sure this is the right place, since this clip is from Troubadour, but it is the only PRO video I've seen of the show, and I haven't seen anyone post it.

Edited April 14, 2016 by magnum13
insert video

[Black Sabbath]

1 minute ago, magnum13 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlbWVdqpmoc

I am not sure this is the right place, since this clip is from Troubadour, but it is the only PRO video I've seen of the show, and I haven't seen anyone post it.

Gn'R officially uploaded that but still cool to see.

[Tom-Ass]

On 4/12/2016 at 3:41 AM, Hollywood Zombie said:

Why not get brain back or Josh freese. Oh wait it's not adler. No fucking way adler could pull off half these songs. 

He couldn't be any worse than Franky

[Tom-Ass]

On 4/12/2016 at 8:53 AM, tsinindy said:

Axl singing during the intro bothers me more than anything.  That's the part where Slash should have the spotlight with the riff and his singing muddles it all up and sounds like shit.

Not a fan of that part either.. I think he did that with NuGuns too

[Tom-Ass]

On 4/13/2016 at 11:16 PM, Black Sabbath said:

I will say, I could hardly hear the talkbox solo during Rocket Queen. Not sure how it was throughout the arena but I couldn't hear it front the front row.

Rocket Queen was a mess.. Frank was trying to do a drum solo or something during Slash talk box solo and Fortus seems to be up higher in the mix than Slash a lot. 

Edited April 14, 2016 by Tom-Ass

[Tom-Ass]

On 4/13/2016 at 0:29 AM, RussTCB said:

I think Slash's mix was a problem a whole. If you listen to my recording he sounds crystal clear on some songs, then he's buried in others.

For now, I'm gonna chalk it up to a sound guy who might not have been sure who was playing lead where. 

It has been like this for 3 shows now.. If you go back and watch It's So Easy from the Troubador same thing.. Richard's guitar is louder than Slash's... Hopefully this is something they resolve.. There is some video out there from one of these shows where Slash was signaling to turn his shit up.. He was pretty animated about it too.

[Tom-Ass]

On 4/13/2016 at 7:43 AM, Fitha_whiskey said:

 There were times when Axl talked to the crowd I couldn't hear what he said. 

I was in the same boat Friday.. I couldn't hear anything Axl was saying in between songs.

[CAFC Nick]

So...finally back from LV!

What an absolute honour it was to see so many GN'R fans take over a city, never seen anything like it before! I didn't do any of the forum meet ups and I barely had phone signal at all, but was just so cool to see that many fans hanging out all weekend.

I heard about Axl breaking his foot while waiting in line for the merch tent at around 5pm on the Friday, couldn't quite believe it! Knew something had to go wrong before the big show!

Anyway, to stop this being a TL;DR, especially now we are almost a week out from Vegas, just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the shows and seeing so many Guns fans in one place! Slash's first November Rain solo (to my knowledge) in 23 years was a real moment to remember and I really dug his take on the Chinese Democracy stuff. 

Trip of a lifetime! (and pretty happy to update my sig )

[Tom-Ass]

13 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

In the recent Vegas video he sounds similar to 2010 on 3:58-4:20 but 2010 video is so effortless. I thought Axl was incredible in Vegas his voice was excellent but I won't say he has his voice back until he can do what he did in 2010...I mean it's hard to find a bad vocal in 2010 from Axl. 

Again, I'm not trying to be negative but as great as these shows were I still think there's plenty for Axl to go get in the vocal department. And I can't wait to see people's faces when he gets there. 

I agree. I really didn't think Axl's voice was all that good on Friday. It didn't affect the show one way or the other though as almost every mother fucker in the building was singing along with him. Watching the videos from Saturday he definitely sounded a lot better but I wouldn't go as far as to say he got his voice back. I don't think he will ever really get it back.  The guy sang like a possessed demon back in the day. But if he can stay consistent with what he did on Saturday, he will be ok.  It sounds better in person then when you go back and actually listen to the audio.  There were still glimpses of excellence and he sounded great on songs like It's So Easy and Don't Cry... He will always have a hard time with singing in that higher voice for prolonged periods of time.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Tom-Ass

[CAFC Nick]

1 minute ago, Tom-Ass said:

I agree. I really didn't think Axl's voice was all that good on Friday. It didn't affect the show one way or the other though as almost every mother fucker in the building was singing along with him. Watching the videos from Saturday he definitely sounded a lot better but I wouldn't go as far as to say he got his voice back. I don't think he will ever really get it back.  The guy sand like a possessed demon back in the day. But if he can stay consistent with what he did on Saturday, he will be ok.  It sounds better in person then when you go back and actually listen to the audio.  There were still glimpses of excellence and he sounded great on songs like It's So Easy and Don't Cry... He will always have a hard time with singing in that higher voice for prolonged periods of time.

Yeah he definitely sounded better on Saturday. As for the people saying he was back to 2010 levels, they are definitely over-reacting. That said, when you are in the live setting and everything is so loud including all the fans, I'm not overly critical of how he sounds because of the experience and adrenaline of being there.

[Gold top 78]

31 minutes ago, Tom-Ass said:

It has been like this for 3 shows now.. If you go back and watch It's So Easy from the Troubador same thing.. Richard's guitar is louder than Slash's... Hopefully this is something they resolve.. There is some video out there from one of these shows where Slash was signaling to turn his shit up.. He was pretty animated about it too.

It wasn't till I went and watched Wish You Were Here for the first time since watching the stream that I noticed the volume on Fortus guitar. I couldn't hear slash playing as much as I heard Fortus. I wasn't sure if it was because of where it was filmed. I think there was similar discussions about Slash's guitar at the start of his WOF tour as well 

[Pedrolg]

It's weird how the press in general and most people outside of this forum are extremely impressed with what Axl is still able to do, yet it is among his fans where he will always find criticism. In the AC/DC forum, for instance, everybody is absolutely blown away by the saturday performance.

He is really a victim of how high he set the bar himself.

[Walapino]

He (axl) sound way better on Saturday! I was at both shows! Slash played better on friday IMO.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Walapino

[IncitingChaos]

The thing with 2010 is it was the build up from great vocal work that started in 04,05? I mean at some point after 02 Axl had to decide that he needed to move away from his falsetto and go into a raspier deeper voice that would have more depth. I've heard he worked with a couple vocal coaches to achieve it but he didn't like the way it made him feel. Regardless whatever he did managed to get stronger until Rio 11...at this point I'm not sure he could build that gradual gain in vocal power like he did from 06-10, but he can get better as this tour advances, I just don't think his voice will ever be as full as it was in 2010

[MrSoftie]

I'm okay with that, I much prefer this to 2010. There's more dynamics to his voice, I like that he can do cleanish stuff ala 06 and then really go all out with some serious thick rasp.

[IncitingChaos]

12 minutes ago, Pedrolg said:

It's weird how the press in general and most people outside of this forum are extremely impressed with what Axl is still able to do, yet it is among his fans where he will always find criticism. In the AC/DC forum, for instance, everybody is absolutely blown away by the saturday performance.

He is really a victim of how high he set the bar himself.

I'm more bothered that nobody recognizes his amazing vocals from 06-10 outside this forum. They remember 02VMA's and 11Rio and think that's how he sounded for 10 years...the guy has an incredible voice that has in my opinion lasted but in different forms 

[AlexC]

32 minutes ago, Pedrolg said:

It's weird how the press in general and most people outside of this forum are extremely impressed with what Axl is still able to do, yet it is among his fans where he will always find criticism. In the AC/DC forum, for instance, everybody is absolutely blown away by the saturday performance.

He is really a victim of how high he set the bar himself.

I was thinking of how to explain this with out ramblin' on too much, but you just worded that well. I totally agree, real fans know what he is capable of, but even Axl at half of his capabilities is way better than anything most casual rock fans have heard. 

Edited April 14, 2016 by AlexC

[Original]

Wonder what GnR's sales were?   Just heard that the Lakers sold $1.2mill in Kobe merchandise last night.  Breaking the previous 1 night merchandise sales record held by Led Zep at the O2.   

[RussTCB]

3 minutes ago, Original said:

Wonder what GnR's sales were?   Just heard that the Lakers sold $1.2mill in Kobe merchandise last night.  Breaking the previous 1 night merchandise sales record held by Led Zep at the O2.   

I'd be curious too. I didn't land until early Saturday morning, but I saw a shit ton of GN'R Vegas shirts all around town on Saturday. Then on Sunday I saw as many or more. When we were walking up to the show on Saturday night, the merch line was WAY too long for me to consider standing in. I said "I'll just grab something inside, I'm sure the lines will be much shorter there", then we got inside and the lines were just as long at the merch areas I passed. I ended up running up to grab a shirt & a beer during Rocket Queen and I still had like 10 people in front of me in line.

[GNRfan2008]

1 hour ago, Pedrolg said:

It's weird how the press in general and most people outside of this forum are extremely impressed with what Axl is still able to do, yet it is among his fans where he will always find criticism. In the AC/DC forum, for instance, everybody is absolutely blown away by the saturday performance.

He is really a victim of how high he set the bar himself.

 

It is what it is. Prime Axl was the greatest singer and frontman in hard rock history. That is an impossible standard to live up to for a person who is now 54 years old. And I think the diehard fans would rather hear Axl's voice totally shot with rasp like in 1991 than the Mickey Mouse voice, whereas casual listeners would probably lean more in favor of Mickey than too much rasp.

[tsinindy]

19 minutes ago, Original said:

Wonder what GnR's sales were?   Just heard that the Lakers sold $1.2mill in Kobe merchandise last night.  Breaking the previous 1 night merchandise sales record held by Led Zep at the O2.   

It's got to be up there...over the course of two nights?  The line for the merch stand outside was long all day from what I Heard and people were buying 4-5 shirts at a time.

I got in pretty early Friday night (was about 15th in my line waiting on the doors to open for 45 minutes).  When I got in , I went straight to the merch stand inside, I was 3rd in my line.  One peson bought 8 shirts and some other stuff, another bought 5, another 3, another 2 and a poster, etc.....No one was buying just one shirt.  

Then I took a couple laps around the arena and every time you could barely make it past the merch stand line it was so deep.

Edited April 14, 2016 by tsinindy

[IncitingChaos]

Merchandise line was ridiculous! It was constant too...they had to be close to $1 mil in 24 hours.