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Philly 2002 Riot Footage


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Cool to see the footage!

I wasnt able to follow the band closely in that era and am very intrigued by it.  Is there a conclusive explanation for the cancelation?  Is this the watching basketball and/or negotiating with promotor incident?  I think Ive heard that Axl is said to have sought meant health in treatment around then too?  Is that known?  

And, yeah, a somewhat tame riot.  I saw Weiland cause a larger stir when the concert was happening... twice actually!

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1 hour ago, Original said:

I've seen worse riots. Still not sure what world Axl was in but musta been some weird ass drugs.   

Well, this was Axl during his "homey" phase. It's hard to say whether '02 Axl was crazier than UYI Axl but I'm leaning towards the former. Whenever I see interviews/footage of him from that time, I tend to cringe more often. 

Edited by RONIN
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I remember this well, I had tickets to the next show scheduled in Washington, DC. I woke up to the news it was being cancelled. I was more upset about what the cancellations were doing to Axl and the band though than I was that i wasn't finally going to get to see them. I also had tickets in 2006 to the Fresno show which also was cancelled. So after being a fan nearly 30 years now, I am still waiting to see them. Hopefully one day. ?

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I was there...about 15 rows from the stage, on the floor....with what would end up becoming my girlfriend after that night and two other friends (that were also girls) that I was actually going to also hook up with that night.  Long story short, ended up hooking up with just the one and we dated for a few years after.

As far as the riot went, wasn't too crazy....inside, on the floor, it was mostly chairs flying, being thrown towards the stage....and of course tons of beer cups, etc....we got out in one piece.  :lol:

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This video doesn't show a tenth of the damage that was done that night.

This was the last of the six shows I had tickets for that year.  Took the train from NYC (saw the MSG show the night before, or maybe it was two nights previous) and barely made it to the arena by 10:30pm.  I was right besides the stage in the lower bowl section.

From my recollection things got pretty ugly.  I figured the show wasn't going to happen prior to the announcement when crew members started removing the pyro machines on stage.  Soon after the announcement chairs from the floor were being thrown onto the stage, with beers and other garbage raining down from the upper sections.  

Then some people on the floor took their chairs and began demolishing the soundboard and equipment in the middle of the floor.  I believe I read somewhere that the mixing board being used for that tour was extremely rare, worth millions of dollars, and was utterly destroyed.  One of my last memories from my perch underneath a lower bowl entrance was seeing some girl on the other side of the venue get smoked over the head by some nut wielding a chair (her friends helped her up and then started fighting her attacker).   It was at that point that I figured I had seen enough and thought it best for me to leave.  What surprised me most was the lack of police presence, but I learned once leaving the arena that additional police reinforcements had gone to the neighbouring venue by mistake, hence it took a little longer than it should have.

Definitely a wild night.

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i went to the 2002 toronto show, fucking flew there from vancouver after axl no showed 

lets just say it was a huge upset and absolute downfall from axl to which he is still recovering from believe it or not as the NITL is the first step in his ultimate redemption to which only the originals can truly ignite the superstardom that GNR once was 

up until now it's just been a bit of a half ass hipster fest 

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7 hours ago, soon said:

Cool to see the footage!

I wasnt able to follow the band closely in that era and am very intrigued by it.  Is there a conclusive explanation for the cancelation?  Is this the watching basketball and/or negotiating with promotor incident?  I think Ive heard that Axl is said to have sought meant health in treatment around then too?  Is that known?  

And, yeah, a somewhat tame riot.  I saw Weiland cause a larger stir when the concert was happening... twice actually!

 

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4 minutes ago, jamillos said:

He did do an interview in 2002/03 where he was talking via phone on a plain (maybe with Kurt Loder), explaining it, iirc.

are you sure? I have a couple of interviews from 2002, but all of them happened before the Philly riot. 

some interview seems to be related to Vancouver riot that happened a couple of weeks before Philly riot.

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1 hour ago, zombux said:

are you sure? I have a couple of interviews from 2002, but all of them happened before the Philly riot. 

some interview seems to be related to Vancouver riot that happened a couple of weeks before Philly riot.

Not sure (might have been a different year then), but I definitely remember Axl explaining why he was a no-show.

Edit: 
I remember Axl saying the promoter was super nervous (given their reputation) and having found out Axl is not there yet, he cancelled the whole thing, with Axl still being on the plane. 

Edited by jamillos
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What a disappointment after seeing that Riot footage. Especially after the awesome shows the band put on for Pittsburgh, Boston, MSG and Toronto. I know many will disagree and call me out on this, but as far as the NuGnr era is concerned, this was my favorite version of the band and this band had so much potential. I really wanted this to work out for Axl and company and in my opinion, if this tour would of went on and was completed, I honestly feel that Chinese Democracy would of been released soon after. 

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11 hours ago, Hollywood Gunner said:

just seeing that dude smoking in the arena at the beginning reminds me of how much of a pussy everyones become nowadays

Yes because being a smoker automatically makes you a bad motherfucker.  

I'll always remember my Vancouver riot. Still to this day i will roll my eyes at the ass clowns who defend Axl by saying he was on his way to the show and cancelling the show was a bullshit move by the venue security when reality is Axl wasn't even in fucking Canada an hour after the doors were to open let alone on his way to Vancouver.  He was NEVER coming to that show period. 

Edited by Bono
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1 hour ago, Oldest Goat said:

Forgive me if I'm mistaken but aren't you one of the ones who said they won tickets to the Apollo?

 

Indeed. It's like Christmas morning right now. Hopping on a train in about 6 hours. 

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