Guns n’ Roses live at Gofferpark Nijmegen – username reviews!

[username]

Guns n’ Roses live at Gofferpark Nijmegen – username reviews!

Pre show

A short run through of the day. My mate and I woke up at about 10:00, hung over as fuck because we were busy drinking a shitload of beer until about 4:00 last night. Got in the car at 12:00 (luckily my mate was driving) and we arrived at Goffertpark at about 15:00. It was really hot with a bright sun and by the time we got there we were already sweating like pigs. Gates weren’t open yet, so we waited a while. I figured I should play some music so I cranked up SCOM and NR on my phone getting some nice reactions from the other people around. I read on a sign that camera’s weren’t allowed so I took off my shirt and wrapped my camera in it. The gates finally opened at about 15:40. Holding the shirt/camera package in my hand I got past security. We first rushed to the merchandise stand for a tour shirt and on to the drink stand since we were dried out. After that we went into the first section right in front of the stage after that to lie down in the sun a bit.

The opening acts

At about 16:50 the first opening went on. Blood Simple. Not really my thing. It was pretty in your face metal. The bass player had the most amazing dreadlocks I had ever seen though. What was cool was how they already asked the crowd how they felt about the other three bands. Naturally gnr got the best response. After half an hour they went off again. Next up was Stone Sour at about 17:50. Now.. I got to give Corey Taylor some credit for playing the audience a bit. The music still isn’t my thing. I had the feeling most of the crowd agreed with me on both these acts though. After about 45 minutes they went off again and about half an hour after that at 19:00 Alice In Chains went on. At first they experienced some technical difficulties. It was really annoying for both them and the crowd. After a few songs they got it right though. The songs were good and they got nice reactions. Personally I do feel the new singer his voice didn’t have that bang. It lacked a bit of power. Still, not too bad. At about 20:00 they went off. During all this the sun was incredibly hot and the crowd very thirsty. My compliments to all these bands for giving the dedicated shows they did in this heat. My mate and I took turns getting beer or water, whatever we felt like.

The wait

As soon as Alice went off the stage was prepared for gnr. Curtains pulled up, drum kits set up, camera’s… you know how it is. At about 20:30 the stage was set and “the wait” could begin. At the end of every song that was played on the radio the crowd started a “Guns n’ Roses” chant that died out with some “awww’s” as soon as the next song hit. It was cool though! The crowd seemed to be really up for seeing this band and spirits seemed high! Aside from that everybody was thirsty and tired though. Me personally…metal does NOT help when you have a huge hangover! I absolutely felt like shit. My back and legs hurt from all the standing. But hey, this is Guns n’ Roses you’re talking about. So I was relatively ok with the incredible surreal idea of the band taking the stage very soon.

The show!

At 21:30 after an hour of waiting I finally managed to to spot Robin and Chris at the back of the stage gearing up and I knew it was time! By then I was in front of the center of the stage, just a little to the right, about 6 to 8 meters from the front of the stage. The crowd noticed the music being gone and a huge “Guns n’ Roses” chant was started again. First few notes of Jungle hit and the crowd just blew up! Axl marched up the stage and it just hit. That was such a surreal moment for me personally. Just…wow. Couldn’t believe it and I’m not even sure I can now. The crowd was very receptive and sang their lungs out on Jungle with Axl. Jungle was followed by It’s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone and Live And Let Die. The last one with incredible fireworks and explosions! Again the crowd sang everything along and the band seemed to be in a really good mood. During the show there were a lot of moments where band members (including Axl) were joking, giving each other pats on the back and even hugging. It was great to see this as it really added to the “band-feeling” that I personally didn’t spot much in the 2001/2002 bootlegs. First great improvement. At one point Axl and Tommy seemed to even have he giggles a bit in between songs joking around. Also a compliment to Frank, the stand in drummer. I’m not a drum expert, but I thought he played very well and I didn’t spot any mistakes.

The band went on to play Better, which got a pretty good reaction from the crowd, SCOM (with a short Finck solo before that) and KOHD. The later was absolutely amazing! To me a personal highlight. The song wasn’t as dominated by synthesiser effects as it appeared to be on the Rio bootleg. The moment where Axl got the crowd to sing along was pure magic. With the first time (of 4) you could see Axl being surprised by the incredible volume a bit. The amazement on his face quickly turned into a sort of intrigued smile and the second and third time hit even harder. After the instrumental part after that Axl said there was one more time to go. He went on to say his hotel was a while down the street, and he was sure how the people there could hear us. Excited by that compliment the loud crowd threw out a fourth “knock knock knocking on heavens door” and the band went into overdrive. I think the song isn’t as close to the original as it was in 2001/2002. A better bridge between that version and the 90’s version I suppose. Great performance! On Better Axl couldn’t help but mention that without a doubt many of us fuckers had downloaded this song already. But the man did it with a proud smile so it seemed. Loved that! He also introduced Better as “this is a song put together by Mr. Robin Finck”.

Next up were a piano solo followed by The Blues (again very well received), a kick ass loud You Could Be Mine, the solo’s by Richard and Robin (Beautiful) and Out Ta Get Me. Axl talked about the incident in Sweden saying something like “"The guy said to me: You're going to go to prison. I said: You're a fucking asshole”. Also during Out Ta Get Me Axl sang “so you can BITE me” instead of suck me. Amazing stuff! Axl’s voice was just fucking ace throughout the show. The man had it all. Even though he had performed in Zurich less than 24 hours ago he hit every note. Not the high pitched stuff but something very close to the 1993 Axl. Just…WOW! The magical rasp that made me and probably a lot of others fall in love with this band was at its best. What also needs to be said…Dizzy’s piano playing, especially on The Blues, simply amazing! I loved it!

After this the band went on to play November Rain, Ron’s Don’t Cry solo and My Michelle. November Rain was just perfect for me. I read some negative stuff about it for other shows and this one, but I very much disagree. First off Robin and Ron just NAILED those solo’s. Slash might be Slash, but objectively they were nothing short of Slash’s version. I love how Ron just walked up and absolutely owned that stage on the closing solo. A funny moment was in between the two parts of the song where Ron walked on stage waving a Dutch flag with “GnR = magic” written on it. The crowd was sort of lost on Ron’s Don’t Cry solo though. They seemed to want to sing along but got lost in the lyrics, which was a real shame. Regardless the solo itself was pretty cool.

After My Michelle Axl introduced the band, each band member getting a very good reaction. This definitely wasn’t that kind of crowd that expected the old band. Very receptive during the entire show. And I also think Axl and the band noticed this and liked it very much. After the introductions Axl suddenly said “Now I’d like to introduce an old friend of mine *short pause* Mr. Izzy Stradlin!!” Now… people say “the crowd went nuts” a lot. Maybe even too much sometimes. This time it would be the understatement of the year. Izzy walked and everybody including yours truly just screamed their lungs out. The band wasted no time and kicked in to Think About You with Izzy doing an awesome solo on it. As soon as the song ended a huge “Izzy! Izzy! Izzy!” chant started. Now…Izzy was NOT supposed (or anyway not announced) to be there from what I had read. Couldn’t be happier that he was as it was just absolutely amazing! A real surprise for me personally and the crowd in general. After that the band (with Izzy) went on to play Patience. During Patience Axl pointed out a guy in the crowd who was apparently waving a Slash t-shirt commenting “You’re a fucking idiot! Yeah, you!”. The only non-accepting event of the evening as far as the new band goes I suppose. Oh well, there’s always one isn’t there? Regardless the song went on and was quickly followed by Nightrain. This one featuring some very magical moments such as Izzy, Richard, Robin and Ron solo’ing together on the center of the stage or Axl and Izzy standing back to back at the center of the stage up front playing and singing their heart out! Absolutely amazing to see the roots of Guns n’ Roses together like this after all this time. Just amazing! As nightrain ended the lights went off and so did the band. A big “Guns n’ Roses chant started right away

Robin came back on stage to play a solo. I personally hoped he’d kick into Chinese Democracy or IRS, but sadly he didn’t. That was the only real downside to this show for me. Only two new songs. I’d have really loved to hear more. And I wasn’t the only one as a lot of screams came from the crowd asking for Madagascar as well. Can’t win them all though I suppose! Another slight downside were some fuckers in the crowd who decided to start moshing. At some point I got pulled in and the fuckers almost wrecked my camera. Not to mention my already in bandages elbow. I got out alive though and they quickly understood most people didn’t want this so they stopped. Anyway, Robin kicked in Paradise City and the band (still including Izzy) went into an all-out frenzy. So did the crowd by the way! The confetti, the lights, the raging solo’s… Words do not do this moment justice. They really don’t. After Paradise City the show ended with Axl throwing the mic into the crowd and the people just going insane. He again thanked the crowd and the entire band took their bows arm in arm before leaving the stage at about 23:45, thus ending what I would probably consider the most surreal night of my life.

After the show: a personal retrospective

After the show we rushed to the drink stands as we hadn’t drunk anything since about 20:00. The crowd seemed very pleased, worn out and incredibly positive and excited. After some drinks my mate and I went to the car, sour throats, broken backs and aching feet and feeling just simply incredible. We drove home for little over 2 hours and arrived at about 3:00. I, still to excited and high on adrenaline (not to mention shaking), got on msn and started telling some people about how great it was. Just… wow. I went to sleep at about 4:30. I purposely didn’t write a review until now because I wanted to let this sink in a bit. I’ve used the word surreal a lot of times in this, but it’s the only word I can think of to describe this experience. I went to this gig with pretty high expectations. In 2001/2002 I was very sceptical and at some points very negative about this band. Now it seemed to have improved and so I expected a lot. My expectations were greatly exceeded. Seeing the band and especially Axl and Izzy like this was just unreal. Can’t describe it. This band had an amazing chemistry, very good musicians, and a singer that still has the same charisma, feel and even voice that made me fall in love with the music from the late 80’s and early 90’s. But most importantly I saw a band instead of Axl Rose and some other guys. And…this is all still sinking in, still surreal, still unreal! I’ve been very sceptical about this band over the years. On July 2nd 2006 at the Goffertpark in Nijmegen these guys just simply blew me away. A show and a band more than worthy of the name Guns n’ Roses!

Axl, thank you man!

Rock on!

ps.

For who wants to download the pictures I took, look here.

Just....wow

Edited July 5, 2006 by username

[GET OFF AXLS BACK]

Awsome review, glad you had fun

[New Rose90]

Wow awesome review!!! Thanks alot for sharing your GNR experience. rock1

[rocketking]

Awesome review, Ron!! B)

[Axls_Disillusion]

great review brotha. very cool to see you enjoyed yourself.

Seeing bloodsimple open up for GNR would be my dream

[-Sephiroth-]

Very long review Congrats

[Poepsnoet]

Great review man, I feel the same way about almost everything you said

[Rose_Garden]

Great review man, I feel the same way about almost everything you said

ME TOO!! it was f*ckin great!!

[dally]

Best review i`v read so far ...... great shit man.

[Bromle]

Great reveiw. I know what you mean about surreal. I felt the same way in oslo. The opening to jungle is just mindblowing. Especially after waiting in 2 hours

To bad you didn't get to hear so many new songs. In oslo they played Better, Irs, madagascar and the blues. But no Izzy. So you got one good part and I another. Can't have it all.

[The Sandman]

Thanks for the Ron, good review

[Tyler Drama]

Did Baz Sing On My Michelle?

[Roy79]

You nailed the review just as good as they nailed the show. Best night of my life!!!!! Thanks for the great review!

[thefriendlyfiend]

You nailed the review just as good as they nailed the show. Best night of my life!!!!! Thanks for the great review!

Everbody's positive! (Me too)

Are there people who didn't like it?

[silverarrow]

Great review , i was there and you expressed my sentiments about that night . I had a 9 1/2 hours flight just to get there and see the band , arrived the same day and afraight they wouldn't show up . Arrived at the park about 9 got some beer , saw the stage empty but , out of nowhere Ron started the Welcome to the jungle ...

Just fucking Amazing