RollingGuns

I was at the show on Thursday night, and it was a tremendous performance!  I fulfilled my dream of seeing these guys together, and couldn't have been more impressed.  Please note that I am a DIE-HARD Guns fan who has been a part of this forum in some capacity since 2002; I used to post under a different Username and have read the threads almost religiously for many years.  So I'll tailor my review to address some of the things that people always want to know about.

CONS

1.  The drums were a little too loud, and I think Slash's guitar should've been a little louder as well.

2.  Frank's drumming on some songs was, to be completely blunt, distracting to the quality of the music.  I try my hardest to pretend the drums aren't a big deal, but his extra fills on certain songs are quite annoying.  I wish he would simplify things on certain songs (i.e. Estranged, Sweet Child, PC).  I also think they played a bit too fast at times, but this seems to be by design and did not affect my enjoyment of the show at all.

3.  Axl, as I completely expected, sang in his cleaner, less powerful voice probably 1/3 of the time.  I don't want to call it "Mickey", because it didn't sound bad, but I could hardly hear him when he sang in his non-raspy voice.  Civil War, the first two verses and choruses of YCBM, and all of SCOM are some notable songs in which he didn't use much rasp.

PROS

1.  The show, as a whole, blew me and everyone in the crowd away!

2.  Axl's voice (most of the time) was NOTICEABLY strong, and the crowd would erupt in applause when he reached back and delivered the early 1990's rasp.  The LALD screams were legendary.  The YCBM "rapping" and final choruses were the best I've heard him sing those in a long time.  He nailed WTTJ, ISE (which was a great opener, and was performed impeccably), Nightrain, Out Ta Get Me (another song that frequently showcases his rasp very well), Mr. Brownstone, LALD, most of Don't Cry, DTJ, most of Coma, most of Estranged, CD, TIL, Better, and Seeker.  I thought the second half of Rocket Queen was tremendous (great rasp!), while the first half was somewhat clean but still sounded good.  PC included a nice mixture of clean and rasp, although the clean was (as expected) drowned out mostly by the band.  Overall an A- on vocals for Axl.

3.  Axl's stage presence, look, and overall performance was at least an A, maybe an A+.  I cannot express in words how important it was for him to come out wearing just a t-shirt with no hat or sunglasses.  First, it truly looked like the early 1990's Axl, minus shorter hair and a few extra pounds.  Second, the frequent smiles, pointing at people in the crowd, using the whole stage, and, get this, STAYING ON STAGE during most of the instrumental parts indicated that he is NOT mailing it in, but is truly enjoying himself more than I've seen in a long, long, long time.  The crowd really ate up his positive attitude and loved it when he twice (maybe three times?) rested his arm on Slash's shoulder and held that pose for 4-5 seconds.  I got a little emotional when I saw that to be honest.  I had a smile on my face the entire show, but when he did that, it was extra satisfying as a concertgoer and huge fan of this band.

4.  The setlist was long, diverse, and had very few dull moments.  I'm personally bored as hell of KOHD, especially the drawn out version, but I understand they won't cut that out of the setlist.  Other than that, I enjoyed every song.

5.  Raw Power!  That may be my favorite Spaghetti song, and to witness Guns playing that for the first time ever was quite special.  I was hopeful Axl would come up for the duet, but Duff handled it like a champ as always.

6.  Slash and Duff!  I've talked about Axl a ton, because he is the straw that stirs the drink regardless of who is in the band.  He's also the most unpredictable.  Slash and Duff are very predictable, but that is what makes them so great.  I've now seen Slash ten times (4 in VR, 5 with Myles, 1 in Guns) and Duff five times (4 VR, 1 Guns), and I've never left a show of theirs feeling letdown.  They bring it every night, whether it's at Ford Field or the 1,000 capacity Intersection or Orbit Room in Grand Rapids.  Seeing these two together for the first time since the VR Fillmore show in 2008 was great, and to see them performing alongside Uncle Axl was like watching a movie; it was that surreal.  Both guys were very into the music.  Duff was running around the stage, providing his unique backing vocals (you cannot replace his ISE singing or the WTTJ "So!"), banging his head, and otherwise looking like the boss that he is.  Slash was rocking out, running around stage, and putting his all into the music.  Did I mention his playing was impeccable?  He was on fire, nailing every solo and also adding a great touch to the CD songs (and seemingly enjoying those tunes as well).

7.  The rest of the band was overall solid.  I'll be honest when I saw I paid very little attention to Richard, but I've always liked him and think he's a very good second guitarist alongside Slash.  I have no complaints about him whatsoever.  Melissa's backing vocals and other instrumentals (end of Rocket Queen?), when I noticed them, were solid.  Dizzy is Dizzy....he lies in the weeds, doesn't have a huge role, but has been part of the Guns fabric for a long time and I have no complaints.  Frank, as I mentioned earlier, was driving me nuts on a few of the tunes, but he also has a lot of positive attributes.  He is clearly having a lot of fun.  On certain parts, his swing-style drumming is fantastic and reminds me of Popcorn.  He also played RQ the best I've ever heard him; I'll say that the overall RQ performance was the best I've seen since the old Guns in 1992.  He did quite well on the fast-paced songs as well.  He is quite a skilled drummer and I like the guy on a good chunk of the material, but I just wish he would cut out the extra fills on the songs I mentioned above.  I also would like the sound people to lower the volume a bit as well and I'm not a huge fan of some of the hard hat hits (does that make sense?  I'm not a drum expert).  That said, he did a good enough job when taking everything into consideration.

Overall, an awesome show and I don't regret the money and time I spent seeing this musical collaboration that seemed literally impossible just a few short years ago.  Rock on Gunners!

I haven't posted here in at least 7 years and I am now using a different username than previously.  I've been following the updates and everything else at an unhealthy level for the past several weeks, and I finally figured I might as well re-join and post here.

The footage I've watched, the reviews I've heard, and the overall positive vibes coming from GN'R these days are things I never ever thought would happen again.  It's almost like it's not real; I am seeing them at Ford Field on their first stop of the US Tour, and maybe only then will I realize that this is actually happening and is not some sort of dream.  These guys are absolutely on fire, and they're only three shows into the reunion.  Axl is clearly putting in 110 percent effort, unlike the past few years where it was plainly obvious to me (and probably most other people) that he was phoning in performances and was generally uninspired with the band.  That's not a knock against the "old" GN'R (which was "New" GN'R until this reunion); I saw them twice, 2006 and 2011, and they put on a great show and Axl was very good each time.  But at the end of the day the magic of this band was created with the Big Three (plus Izzy and Adler, but Fortus/Ferrer have no complaints from me) and can only be re-created with those guys at the helm.  You can literally see the glean in Axl's eye and smiles we haven't seen in decades.  Slash was absolutely rocking out last night like it was 1992.  Duff is an inspiration to us all, at 52, with the type of shape he's in and the way he's turned his life around after near death.  He is more into the music than I've seen since the old days.  Slash and Duff were fantastic in Velvet Revolver, having seen them 4 times in their short existence, but this in on a whole different level.

I've been smiling from start to finish with these amazing clips of these old friends back together, and I am hopeful for not only a great tour but new music as well.  I don't think anything could top that!