08/12/16 - Seattle, WA - Centurylink Field

[BadApples87]

Songs from Chinese Democracy aren't putting butts in the seats for this tour.  Trust me. 

Yes, Slash has helped turn average songs like Better and This I Love into decent (meaning now palatable songs), but don't think that most fans (99%) are going to be cool with yet another CD song replacing the greats.

[Gordon Comstock]

 

[AxlCole]

1 hour ago, BadApples87 said:

No, just...NO

With the exception of There Was a Time, the other songs mentioned in the last sentence stink.  Catcher stinks also.

I don't understand all the hate I'm seeing for "Catchers".  As far as I'm concerned, the versions they're doing live now with Slash and Duff sound like something that could have come right off of one of the Illusions records.

 

[grenouille78]

Alright, I know you guys don't know me because I've been primarily a lurker here for years, but I'll post my little review. When the NITL tour started, I watched the streams of the first couple shows and then caught videos here and there, but leading up to this show, I had purposely stayed away from it all because I didn't want to be sitting there all night comparing this show to all the previous ones. I mean, it's not baseball, we don't need stats. I wanted this show to live as its own entity in my mind and memory. So, I don't know how Axl sounded in Houston and I'm ok with that. I do know what he sounded like pre-2016 and I can say that, without a doubt, Axl put Mickey well to rest. Also, I was just amazed at his energy. The man never stops moving (except during NR, of course). Fine, he's got his middle-aged man belly, but he basically just did 2 hours of cardio, WHILE belting the crap out of those songs and not getting winded; I think we can cut him some slack.

The show started at 8:55, for those who wanted to know (and ended at 11:35). I had read a review from SF where the guy was out wandering around the venue and then vaguely wondered why they were playing recorded GNR music right before the show when he realized that they had started early, so we made sure we were in our seats well before time! We weren't in the best seats in the house, but they were pretty good -- about halfway down the field in the front row of the upper deck -- so really, closer to the stage than about half the people on the floor. I always thought ISE was kind of a weird choice to open the show with, but seeing it live changed my mind. Like, there's no easing into it, you're just flung headfirst into the show. Some kind of runaway train. The sound was great and I felt like the mix was good. Sometimes I had to stop myself watching the screens because it started to feel kind of unreal, like I was just watching TV -- watching all the guys moving around on the stage together cured that. Highlights for me were Estranged (it's my hands-down favorite). With all due respect to BBF, it has needed Slash and it was just beautiful. Coma was awesome. Duff's bass just kills me on that one and he owns it live. Personally, I think Axl had one of his strongest endings, too, and the crowd's energy just escalated through it, like we were propelling Axl to a victorious finish and he was pulling us along in a fury. Jungle was strong; OTGM was so fun. I'll probably get skewered for this, but YCBM is one of my least favorite tracks, however, much to my surprise, it comes off much better live, especially now that Axl has rediscovered his voice (there were some truly painful renditions in recent years).

My section was pretty tame. I rocked out as much as I could without getting obnoxious.  The guys next to me were among those "teary-eyed middle age white guys" somebody else mentioned. They were loving it, even if they weren't going to get up and dance. When SCOM started, a girl a few seats down from me stood up respectfully like it was the national anthem; didn't move at all, just stood there and quietly sat down when it was over. haha I guess we all have our own way to enjoy GNR. I sang along to everything (yes, even The Seeker, so sue me) except CITR because... I didn't even recognize it. lol Not until almost the very end of it at which point I was kinda like, "Huh. Weird." The CD songs are kind of take-it-or-leave-it for me, especially the ones they choose to play. Of the four, I'd say TIL is my favorite. I liked Duff's backing vocals on CD, though. And seeing Duff get back to his Seattle punk rock roots on Attitude was fun!

Other thoughts/memories:
- The traffic cop between Safeco and CenturyLink was telling everybody to have a good time; I thought it was cool and wondered if he secretly wished he could go, too
- Axl introduced Melissa (wearing a Sonics shirt) as "Another one of your own" which elicited a few more feeble courtesy cheers. I kinda felt bad for her, but I suppose she's used to getting less applause than the other guys.
- Hearing Axl say, "Slash" without anything else following it is kind of surreal and I'm not even a Slash fan.
- And, not being a Slash fan, he has my mad respect. It was something else when the cameras would zoom in on his fingers. My thought was, it'll be a sad world if he ever gets arthritis.
- The Slash-Richard guitar duel/duet was cool. I know some people get bored during the solos and instrumental stuff (additional thought: very glad there's no drum solo), but this was neat
- I realized that Axl and Slash's copious amount of bracelets is more than just looks -- those suckers are freaking rain gutters! The amount of sweat flying off of them is impressive in its own right. Duff does away with pretense and just wears sweat bands, but Duff has got to be the epitome of rocker cool so he elevates those sweat bands to a whole new level. Now I want to wear sweatbands.
- The show, the whole production, is just fantastic. It's tight, it's well done, just an overall awesome experience.

I've got some pictures and small video clips, thanks to my husband, that I can post with the caveat that 1) we weren't close and 2) he's not a hardcore Guns fan so he chose some odd moments to record.

Edited August 16, 2016 by grenouille78
Changed the show times because gimmiefuel pointed out that I was wrong, wrong, so very wrong.

[Gordon Comstock]

5 minutes ago, AxlCole said:

I don't understand all the hate I'm seeing for "Catchers".  As far as I'm concerned, the versions they're doing live now with Slash and Duff sound like something that could have come right off of one of the Illusions records.

 

 

The demo version of the song is fantastic, but the sound quality isn't that good. The album version is just messy. But at it's core it's one the the best songs Axl's written IMO. With Slash and Duff playing it, it almost sounds like an Illusions outtake, or something they would've put on a follow-up or something. I can't wait until they do Street Of Dreams since it's probably the most UYI-sounding song on Chinese.

[AxlCole]

1 minute ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

The demo version of the song is fantastic, but the sound quality isn't that good. The album version is just messy. But at it's core it's one the the best songs Axl's written IMO. With Slash and Duff playing it, it almost sounds like an Illusions outtake, or something they would've put on a follow-up or something. I can't wait until they do Street Of Dreams since it's probably the most UYI-sounding song on Chinese.

I completely agree.  I have the demo version somewhere, which made me all the more disappointment once I heard the 'official' version.

[grenouille78]

Me and my husband -- he's wearing a "Duff McKagan for President" shirt. Now you have an idea of our view.

Edited August 15, 2016 by grenouille78
resize photo

[grenouille78]

I'm going to get the page count up on this all by myself.

@Gordon Comstock We got #111!

[Gordon Comstock]

3 minutes ago, grenouille78 said:

I'm going to get the page count up on this all by myself.

@Gordon Comstock We got #111!

Awesome!

[grenouille78]

ETA maybe I don't have enough posts to put up videos yet? Sorry, guys.

WTTJ.mp4

Beginning of Jungle

 

Estranged.mp4

Middle of Estranged

Sweet Child.mp4

End-ish of SCOM

Paradise City end.mp4

End of PC. I like the little pause Axl does with the mic, like you do when you're playing fetch with a dog.

Edited August 15, 2016 by grenouille78

[gimmiefuel]

1 hour ago, grenouille78 said:

Alright, I know you guys don't know me because I've been primarily a lurker here for years, but I'll post my little review. When the NITL tour started, I watched the streams of the first couple shows and then caught videos here and there, but leading up to this show, I had purposely stayed away from it all because I didn't want to be sitting there all night comparing this show to all the previous ones. I mean, it's not baseball, we don't need stats. I wanted this show to live as its own entity in my mind and memory. So, I don't know how Axl sounded in Houston and I'm ok with that. I do know what he sounded like pre-2016 and I can say that, without a doubt, Axl put Mickey well to rest. Also, I was just amazed at his energy. The man never stops moving (except during NR, of course). Fine, he's got his middle-aged man belly, but he basically just did 2 hours of cardio, WHILE belting the crap out of those songs and not getting winded; I think we can cut him some slack.

The show started at 9:10, for those who wanted to know (and ended at 11:50). I had read a review from SF where the guy was out wandering around the venue and then vaguely wondered why they were playing recorded GNR music right before the show when he realized that they had started early, so we made sure we were in our seats well before time! We weren't in the best seats in the house, but they were pretty good -- about halfway down the field in the front row of the upper deck -- so really, closer to the stage than about half the people on the floor. I always thought ISE was kind of a weird choice to open the show with, but seeing it live changed my mind. Like, there's no easing into it, you're just flung headfirst into the show. Some kind of runaway train. The sound was great and I felt like the mix was good. Sometimes I had to stop myself watching the screens because it started to feel kind of unreal, like I was just watching TV -- watching all the guys moving around on the stage together cured that. Highlights for me were Estranged (it's my hands-down favorite). With all due respect to BBF, it has needed Slash and it was just beautiful. Coma was awesome. Duff's bass just kills me on that one and he owns it live. Personally, I think Axl had one of his strongest endings, too, and the crowd's energy just escalated through it, like we were propelling Axl to a victorious finish and he was pulling us along in a fury. Jungle was strong; OTGM was so fun. I'll probably get skewered for this, but YCBM is one of my least favorite tracks, however, much to my surprise, it comes off much better live, especially now that Axl has rediscovered his voice (there were some truly painful renditions in recent years).

My section was pretty tame. I rocked out as much as I could without getting obnoxious.  The guys next to me were among those "teary-eyed middle age white guys" somebody else mentioned. They were loving it, even if they weren't going to get up and dance. When SCOM started, a girl a few seats down from me stood up respectfully like it was the national anthem; didn't move at all, just stood there and quietly sat down when it was over. haha I guess we all have our own way to enjoy GNR. I sang along to everything (yes, even The Seeker, so sue me) except CITR because... I didn't even recognize it. lol Not until almost the very end of it at which point I was kinda like, "Huh. Weird." The CD songs are kind of take-it-or-leave-it for me, especially the ones they choose to play. Of the four, I'd say TIL is my favorite. I liked Duff's backing vocals on CD, though. And seeing Duff get back to his Seattle punk rock roots on Attitude was fun!

Other thoughts/memories:
- The traffic cop between Safeco and CenturyLink was telling everybody to have a good time; I thought it was cool and wondered if he secretly wished he could go, too
- Axl introduced Melissa (wearing a Sonics shirt) as "Another one of your own" which elicited a few more feeble courtesy cheers. I kinda felt bad for her, but I suppose she's used to getting less applause than the other guys.
- Hearing Axl say, "Slash" without anything else following it is kind of surreal and I'm not even a Slash fan.
- And, not being a Slash fan, he has my mad respect. It was something else when the cameras would zoom in on his fingers. My thought was, it'll be a sad world if he ever gets arthritis.
- The Slash-Richard guitar duel/duet was cool. I know some people get bored during the solos and instrumental stuff (additional thought: very glad there's no drum solo), but this was neat
- I realized that Axl and Slash's copious amount of bracelets is more than just looks -- those suckers are freaking rain gutters! The amount of sweat flying off of them is impressive in its own right. Duff does away with pretense and just wears sweat bands, but Duff has got to be the epitome of rocker cool so he elevates those sweat bands to a whole new level. Now I want to wear sweatbands.
- The show, the whole production, is just fantastic. It's tight, it's well done, just an overall awesome experience.

I've got some pictures and small video clips, thanks to my husband, that I can post with the caveat that 1) we weren't close and 2) he's not a hardcore Guns fan so he chose some odd moments to record.

Great review!   I will correct one thing though ... You might be on "bar time", show started at 8:55pm and ended at 11:35 pm...if it matters. 

[grenouille78]

Just now, gimmiefuel said:

Great review!   I will correct one thing though ... You might be on "bar time", show started at 8:55pm and ended at 11:35 pm...if it matters. 

ha! All I had was water. I'm pretty sure it was right after 9:00 when they started, but no, it doesn't really matter. (But that's the one thing you got out of my whole long post? lol) "Early" -- can we agree on that?

[Gordon Comstock]

 

 

 

 

[BadApples87]

My wife and I are just sitting here, looking at the clips, checking out all pictures.  We are still in amazement of the great time we had in the Pit! 

For all who were at Seattle, Rock On!  Hope you all had an awesome time!

[ironmt]

16 minutes ago, BadApples87 said:

My wife and I are just sitting here, looking at the clips, checking out all pictures.  We are still in amazement of the great time we had in the Pit! 

For all who were at Seattle, Rock On!  Hope you all had an awesome time!

Glad you had a great time and I mean that sincerely. The feeling of seeing them live cannot be described In words. I seen them for the first time In 1992 In Pittsburgh(Three Rivers Stadium) followed by a show In 2001(Mellon arena) 2011(Wilkes Barre) 2011(Youngstown Oh) 2014(Las Vegas-No Trickery) 2016(Las Vegas) and tomorrow In Phoenix. Seven times Is just not enough. If I had the time and funds I would be at as many shows as humanly possible as I'm sure many of you would also. It Is also pretty cool that your wife Is  Involved In your GNR addiction. I am fortunate In that aspect also.

Edited August 15, 2016 by ironmt

[Ota]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reclamation Project]

Not sure if these have been posted...

 

 

[Słash]

@grenouille78 Great review and thanks for sharing the pics!

[Słash]

15 hours ago, BadApples87 said:

My wife and I are just sitting here, looking at the clips, checking out all pictures.  We are still in amazement of the great time we had in the Pit! 

For all who were at Seattle, Rock On!  Hope you all had an awesome time!

Great to hear that you went to the show man, hope you had an amazing time.

One day I hope I get a wife like yours who would rock in the pit with me.

[Powderfinger]

My only beef with the show is I didn't buy a lithograph!! 

[grenouille78]

23 hours ago, gimmiefuel said:

Great review!   I will correct one thing though ... You might be on "bar time", show started at 8:55pm and ended at 11:35 pm...if it matters. 

You were right! We went back and looked at the timestamp on the pics. I know I looked at my watch at 9:10, so now I wonder what it was that caught my attention then...?? And I guess I was overly generous with the ending time -- that was when we were actually leaving our seats after staying to watch Duff distribute all his picks and show off his Seahawks cap one more time. I edited my original post to prevent any more confusion.

[Gordon Comstock]

11 hours ago, Ota said:

 

 

I don't know if I'm just biased because I was there, but I think that was the best TIL solo Slash has done yet. It sounds fantastic.

[onetimer]

11 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

I don't know if I'm just biased because I was there, but I think that was the best TIL solo Slash has done yet. It sounds fantastic.

... could be cause of your personal experience or your taste but I like Slash's solo in this one much better     ->

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by onetimer

[TrixAreForKids]

On 8/14/2016 at 5:23 PM, Gordon Comstock said:

 

Where did you get the frame dude? Looks awesome! Can you tell me the size of the poster?

[TrixAreForKids]

I'm always focusing on the show and never really have time to take quality pictures. I did tho manage to score this one: