Benfolds4980

2 minutes ago, mikeman5150 said:

I think we might of been the guys behind you rocking out. We were the only people in the area that knew the Chinese songs. Thought it was awesome!

Ha!  Did a guy get escorted out from your row for almost passing out?  You would have been in row 32 I guess.  And there was a pretty cool dude and his daughters I guess in the row between us.  If so, then yeah that was you guys haha.  Nice to meet you both.

18 hours ago, metalms said:

Just tried to upgrade thru ticketmaster and was told all that was available are GA tix for a cost... I am seated in the 100's level. interesting to see what the attendance will be like.

Same response that I got. I am in section 116 and the upgrades to the floor were still at $100 more per ticket.  May try back tomorrow to see if that comes down.

Anyone know if Wolfmother is still opening or if this context on WMMR to select an opener is legit?

1. Estranged

2. Nightrain

3. November Rain

4. Paradise City

5. There Was A Time

6. It's So Easy

7. Better

8. Chinese democracy

I had high hopes for 2012, looks like it's just gonna be another year of nothing

Interesting. If a year where the band tours all the time, are inducted into HOF, do live streams, launches a new website, and does lots of interview while talking about hitting the studio is "nothing", then I need to ask: what do you call all the years were _literally_ nothing happened?

This is a good year. A very good year. Too bad people haven't been around long enough, or are too dense, to realize that.

Seriously, i dont know what some of the people on this forum are complaining about. GNR is not a normal band, period. That has been the case since 1995. If you dont like it, find some other band. But this whole entire thread is so ridiculously stupid, with the lone exception of Bumblefoot's health. That is a legitimate concern. But for people to come on and scrutinize a 50 year old man for gaining a little weight, when he sings his a$$ off during shows and runs and dances around, and is actually TOURING, is ludicrous. If anyone posting things in a negative fashion is 50 or older, then you must be extremely fit. If anyone posting negative comments is significantly younger than 50, then just chill out. Sorry, this band isnt like Bruce Springsteen who comes out with an albumn every 3 years or so. Deal with it.

At least Bruce isn't gasping for air every 2 minutes and respects himself. Don't turn this into him being scrutinised for being "fat". I never said he was "fat". I simply was stating if he were in better shape, we'd have better performances from him. That's the truth. That was the whole reason for this thread, his health. This thread isn't a personal attack on him. I'm genuinely worried, and if a fan can't speak up what's the point in being a fan. It's bad enough the guy has low blood pressure and low sugar.

You are right about Bruce - and dont get me wrong i have a lot of respect for Bruce. He was just the example I used because he just came out with a new album. Would you say Bruce and Axl are equally as mobile on stage? I've only seen Bruce twice and maybe my biased opinion is that Axl moves around a little more, but my wife ( big Bruce fan ) says that at this point its about even. Its a serious question, not trying to sound like a jerk or anything.

I think my issue is, people dont seem to be concerned about his health for HIM. They are concerned about his health and how its affecting YOUR show..... which are two different topics all together. Bumblefoot - we are concerned for his health and that is a serious issue. No question there. But for Axl - people are concerned that he randomly gains weight and he's out of shape and sometimes out of breath, and that it affects their enjoyment of him putting on a show for us. There arent a ton of 50 year old guys who could dance and sing for 3 hours. Obviously the argument to that is, hey, he's a professional artist and he should take care of himself. But in a lot of opinions he still puts on a really good show and gaining 10-15 lbs at that age isnt really a crime.

I had high hopes for 2012, looks like it's just gonna be another year of nothing

Interesting. If a year where the band tours all the time, are inducted into HOF, do live streams, launches a new website, and does lots of interview while talking about hitting the studio is "nothing", then I need to ask: what do you call all the years were _literally_ nothing happened?

This is a good year. A very good year. Too bad people haven't been around long enough, or are too dense, to realize that.

Seriously, i dont know what some of the people on this forum are complaining about. GNR is not a normal band, period. That has been the case since 1995. If you dont like it, find some other band. But this whole entire thread is so ridiculously stupid, with the lone exception of Bumblefoot's health. That is a legitimate concern. But for people to come on and scrutinize a 50 year old man for gaining a little weight, when he sings his a$$ off during shows and runs and dances around, and is actually TOURING, is ludicrous. If anyone posting things in a negative fashion is 50 or older, then you must be extremely fit. If anyone posting negative comments is significantly younger than 50, then just chill out. Sorry, this band isnt like Bruce Springsteen who comes out with an albumn every 3 years or so. Deal with it.

Ok, so obviously I dont post much but I'm a constant reader and wanted to give my review / experience. Been a huge fan since roughly 1993 ( i was 14 ), but had never seen them live until attempting to see them in Philly in 2002, then finally seeing them at MSG in 2006. Went to Scranton and Camden shows in 2011, both of which were pretty good with Camden being significantly better. Had always read on HTGTH but the light clicked for me when watching RIR 2011 when all the honest posts kept getting deleted, and that was when I started reading this board. Anyway...

Myself and 4 other friends got to the EF around 9:35, and the place was not extremely crowded. We went straight up to the balcony on the side and were in the 2nd row. Had we wanted to stay down on the floor, we probably would have been in the 10th row at worst at that point. We did talk to the guys at the box office and they said that they had sold out, but we assumed many went to scalpers. Our seats were great, 2nd row balcony on the right side, very close to Philly Guns ( who i met but up to that point had never posted so giving him my username was pointless haha ). By the time the opening act finished, the floor had completely filled up and the balcony was multiple rows deep. The opening act was not terrible but not great. They were entertaining - the lead singer had a lot of charisma and the music was decent. Tough for them to win over the crowd when no one really was there to see them, but i did see a couple people singing a lot, etc. They went off stage literally almost exactly at 11. I was telling all my friends that it'll be midnight or later, most likely, especially since 1) they always seem to take 1 hour or so after the opener is done, and 2) the last couple shows i believe were closer to midnight. Around 11:25, the change over was completely done, and i figured we had a 30 minute wait. We all took Over / Under bets.... and.... i lost haha.... becuase at 11:35 the lights went down and the place gave a "surprised erruption". Maybe he was trying to make up for 2002, but a 35 minute change over for GNR was amazing to me. They intro was not Dexter, it was the other new one ( i forget what its from ).

The crowd was into it from the get go. Hard to compare to the Camden crowd because this was much more intimate, but it definitely seemed like a more intense crowd than the previous show in this area. I wasnt at Atlantic City so cant compare to that, which i heard was a good crowd. CD rocked as usual, and immediately i said to my friend that Axl sounded perfect in the audio mix. My previous live experiences, and from some youtube clips, it seemed like the combo of the crowd noise and the mix being not perfect for the first song resulted in his vocals being hard to hear on CD, but he sounded great and very clear. Jungle / ISE / Brownstone were fantastic as usual. Axl's scream to kick off Jungle seemed more intense than usual. During these songs it became apparent that he was having a good night vocally. My one buddy was there in 2002, and isnt a hard core fan, so he sometimes like to bust on my obsession, etc etc, but he just turned to me and said " dude he sounds really, really good. I cant believe he's 50 and sounds like that". And thats not coming from a biased fan. I think we should all keep that in perspective. Sorry got the typical response - no thunderous applause but a decent amount of people singing and responding positively. You're Crazy, Estranged & Rocket Queen were crowd favorites, as usual. You're Crazy particularly went over better than I thought it would, since it wasnt a mainstsay. His vocals on Rocket Queen were far better than Camden, and much better than how he normally sounds on Youtube ( i know, it never does justice anyway ). Live and Let Die was very good - his scream was more intense than the 2 previous shows i saw. This I Love was great - one comment is that i think it takes him some time to recover from the LALD screaming and the first verse of TIL seemed tough for him. He was fine by the 2nd verse.

It was about this time, somewhere towards the end of TIL or the beginning of Used To Love Her that people started realizing that Bumble was not on stage. Being on the right side, we could see to the far side / back of the stage, and all of a sudden we noticed this pair of legs sticking out from between two amps, with a guitar resting on them and the guy's head learning up against the amp. Obviously, took two seconds to realize it was Ron, and that he was having serious issues. For a few minutes he flat out didnt move and if we didnt know any better about his injury, you would have thought maybe he was passed out. At some point they took his guitar from him, i think during Motivation. He would alternate between depressingly leaning / laying back against the amp and then sitting forward with his head in his hands. I started wondering if other players could play his parts, etc etc. Right before Street of Dreams, they handed him his guitar back but he didnt get up, or even look like he was comfortable moving. As SOD started, he strummed the opening power chord and I honestly didnt expect him to last past that one song. He basically stayed there, playing with his guitar on his lap, all the way through SOD, YCBM, DJ's Solo, and the first half of SCOM. As DJ started the first half of the SCOM solo, Ron slowly stood up ( looked very tough for him to do ) and walked slowly over to his spot and took over the 2nd half of the solo. The crows on the left hand side of the stage, who obviously noticed his absence and could probably only see his legs sticking out from the amps and nothing else ( which must have looked ominous ), gave him a huge ovation as he walked out to play the solo. I could not believe he was out there plalying, especially when he had to wear the double necked guitar. He went back to sit down for November Rain, only coming back out to the front of the stage for the outro lead. By the way, all of the songs i mentioned in this section were fantastic. I'm not a big SOD guy, so honestly during that whole song i was concentrating on Ron anyway. November Rain was epic - no forgotten lyrics or cut off endings. I did miss the pyro though.

So, after November Rain, Axl looked over at Ron and basically said " How you feeling, Bumble? " ( oh, and previously i think during Sweet Child, Axl was walking across stage and sort of put his hand on Bumble's shoulders and held it there for a while, looking at him, seemingly saying " you ok man?". Bumble appeared to appreciate it ) He went on to say to the crowd " Bumble's vertebrate is not feeling as good as Bumble is tonight. I know that HE's feeling good, but his vertrebrate is saying " fuck you, Bumble! ". It was at least a nice gesture to address the issue, and to let the crowd know why he was off to the side. Still no idea if the idea of him not playing the rest of the show was talked about between the band, im sure it was obviously. So Ron did his solo, and Dont Cry, and i saw him joke around with the other guys a few times, like hitting them on the back and smiling, etc. Multiple times Richard had gone over to him to check on him to see if he was ok.

This is a long review, sorry. Civil War was an absolute highlight of the night. My buddy ( same guy i referenced above ) said it was his favorite moment of the night. The crowd was really into it. Shacklers Revenge, while still not received as well as an old song, is killer live in my opinion. KOHD was what it always is - if you ask me, its a fun song and Axl seems to really enjoy singing it, but.... i could do without it i think. I still cant get "Tracy and Roberta" out of my head when that song is played..... Nightrain was ridiculously good, and it sort of gave the crowd a 2nd wind. Nightrain was played around 2 AM, so some of the crowd was just getting tired. Still loving the show and responding well, but just losing some energy. So, Nightrain brought them back. Unfortunately, Madagascar didnt do anything to keep that energy going. It's one of my favorite songs on CD, but my personal opinion is it would fit better earlier in the set. I know Axl really likes the song, so, i get it why he's featuring it. But at 2:10 AM, the crowd doesnt respond much at all. Still sounded great. Better got a "better" response, and i still am looking forward to the song being well known enough where the crowd joins in with Axl when he does his jump-stomp during the guitar bridge. I was going nuts up on the balcony and almost took a guy out doing it. Patience was good, and of course Paradise was fantastic. I'd never been that close to the confetti, it was blinding and awesome.

All in all, probably my best GNR show i've personally been to ( i know, small sample size ). Oh, i forgot about the huge topic of him mentioning 2002. I posted the transcript earlier last night during the show, so, go read that haha. My impressions are 1) The crowd thought it was awesome that he was bringing it up, 2) I dont think the crowd bought his explanation at all, as it sort of sounded like BS, even though i do believe him that he probably tried to cancel it at 6 AM the day of because i remember hearing rumors that almost immediately after the NYC show the night before, he wasnt up to / in the mood / healthy enough to play Philly that night. But 3) They literally didnt care if his explanation sounded like BS, because as soon as he said " but I love Philly " they errupted and it sort of seemed like, at that moment, all was forgiven. At the very end of the night, after the bow when he was saying " drive home safe", etc, he also said " and again... my apologies for yester years ".

And, im done

Setlist:

01-Chinese Democracy

02-Welcome to the Jungle

03-It's so Easy

04-Mr. Brownstone

05-Sorry

06-You're Crazy

07-Estranged

08-Rocket Queen

19-Richard Fortus Guitar Solo [James Bond Theme]

10-Live and Let Die

11-This I Love

12-Used To Love Her

13-Motivation [Tommy on vocals]

14-Dizzy Reed Piano Solo [baba O'Riley]

15-Street of Dreams

16-You Could Be Mine

17-DJ Ashba Guitar Solo [The Ballad of Death]

18-Sweet Child O' Mine

19-November Rain

20-Bumblefoot Guitar Solo [Pink Panther Theme]

21-Don't Cry

22-Civil War

23-Knockin' On Heaven's Door

24-Nightrain

ENCORE

25-Madagascar

26-Better

27-Patience

28-Paradise City

Important Events:

-Bumblefoot was hurting his back during the show.

-Axl talked about the Philadelphia's riot in 02: "The true story is we tried to cancel the show that morning. My manager told me he cancelled it, but he lied. Then, we tried to cancel it again but Clear Channel wanted the tour to fail so they didn't let me cancel it. They wanted me to just not show and cause a riot. But the truth is, I was sick. It didn't have anything to do with fur coats, or basketball games".

They played six songs from Chinese Democracy, seven from Appetite For Destruction, three from Use Your Illusion I, four from Use Your Illusion II, three from Lies & one cover.

________________

Show was only about 2.5 hours long. Likely cut out a few songs for Ron's sake.

FYI, they played Shacklers Revenge, i believe after Dont Cry. I also thought Civil War was earlier in the set. No biggie on Civil War, but wanted to call our Shacklers so no one flips out.

Real quick, not sure why people are saying the show got cut short. They went onstage at 11:32 and finished at 2:34 - 3 hours and 2 minutes. As far as i know, they didnt cut out any songs from the usual set list.

I'll post a review later. Trying to function at work and failing.

Facebook page has the show starting from 23:35 up to 02:00. Looks like SR was left out and WLR/RR.

You are right about Whole Lotta Rosie / Riff Raff - that was not played. But Shacklers Revenge WAS played towards the end of the pre-encore set, which I was happy about because i love that song live. The 2:00 AM time stamp is definitely wrong. I looked at my watch immediately when they went off stage and it was 2:35 AM.

Real quick, not sure why people are saying the show got cut short. They went onstage at 11:32 and finished at 2:34 - 3 hours and 2 minutes. As far as i know, they didnt cut out any songs from the usual set list.

I'll post a review later. Trying to function at work and failing.

Major props to Bumble. I've always liked him but tonight goes beyond the call of duty. After NR, Axl asked "Bumble, how you feeling?". Then said " Bumble's vertebrate aren't feeling to good right now. Not as good as HE's feeling. Because HE's feeling good (probably alluding to pain killers ), but his vertebrate is saying 'FUCK YOU Bumble!' " Hahaha. Then he did his whole solo, then the Don't Cry intro and currently playing Don't Cry now. He is seriously gutting it out hard core.

Oh shit, he's talking about 2002!!! Holy F

Full report please, lol.

I'll post a transcript later

Was it told in a joking manner or what? How did the crowd react? Kinda ballsy of him to bring it up, esp if he just kinda blew that show off as the rumors always suggested.

Ok here's my quick transcript during DJ's solo. " So.... Its been a while since we were here"... Crowd goes wild. "Something like 10 years??". Everyone is like ohhhhh man he's bringing it up. "At the time I couldn't really say much about it due to a ton of legal shit. I would have gotten my ass sued off (paraphrasing there). But the true story is we tried to cancel the show that morning at 6 AM. My manager told me he cancelled it, but he lied. Then, we tried to cancel it again but Clear Channel wanted the tour to fail so they didn't let me cancel it. They wanted me to just not show and cause a riot (paraphrasing). But the truth is, I was sick. It didn't have anything to do with fur coats, or basketball games". Crowd goes crazy. " But really, I love Philadelphia". Crowd goes wild. He may have ended with something else but that was the gist.

Oh shit, he's talking about 2002!!! Holy F

Full report please, lol.

I'll post a transcript later

Oh shit, he's talking about 2002!!! Holy F

They just handed him his guitar and he leaned forward and strummed the power chord in the intro to Street of Dreams. Looks like he's going to try playing from a seated position.

I'm really concerned about Ron. He looks to be in severe, severe pain.

Yeah, he was just leaning back with his hands over his face. A couple people are talking to him now. A blonde chick and potentially Beta. Can't tell.

Bumblefoot is borderline slumped over between amps on the side. He is not playing at all. They are playing Used To Love Her. I'm flat out really worried about him. Let's see if he comes back when really needed.

Agreed. Even Rocket Queen had rasp. Standard set list so far - similar to the other theater shows. Good crowd. Live & Let Die now.

Live and Let Die scream is ridiculous this show. Better than normal.

Turnout is good. Box office said they sold out but prob a decent amount went to scalpers. But the whole floor is full and the balcony is packed. Not at capacity but it looks full.

Guys, Axl sounds f'n amazing tonight. He is perfect in the mix.

Philly Guns - I was the one who stopped you on the balcony and commented on the shirts and said he never posts lol. Have a great show everyone.