Waiting for Guns to Get on Stage, Personal Stories

[MillionsOfSpiders]

Waiting for Axl in Manchester 2012 was a pain. People started booing and chanting by 10:30pm and by the time it got past 11pm lots of people started leaving the arena. Axl and friends showed up at about 11:20pm not long after that the arena closed all of their bars - the band played until past 2am but there was hardly any of us left by then, it did mean I could walk all the way to the front no trouble at all though. 

Then after the show someone told us Axl might come out and sign autographs. I waited a little bit but thought I’d been told a load of shit and it was starting to get light -  I missed him by 20 minutes 

[Slasxl]

i just drank beer. it never bothered me when he / they were late. i had nowhere to be the next day so i could care less just as long as he / they showed up lol

[Len Cnut]

Buckethead was fuckin’ cool and the nunchucks were sick, I see Axls reasoning there, only way to follow the caricaturey iconography of real Guns is to just go over blown with it, theres a touch of the Bootsy Collins Funkadelic type thing to it...plus he can play his fuckin’ bollocks off, behind Slash Buckethead was the next best guitarist they had, I have a great affection for fuckin’ mentalness in bands and Buckethead is proper mental, as unique a character as you can imagine.

[PirateRadio]

2012 Palladium. Not much to report as far as pre show, but I remember looking at my phone when they went on.. 12:30 am and I remembering looking at the time when it was over 3:33 am ... on a weeknight I believe. That’s pretty late. 

[Gunner55]

December 2006. Insane wait. I was 16,dad was getting impatient. Too young to drink. 

2010, Axl was earlier. I think around 11 or so. I had some woman next to me who said she was in from south dakota to see them. "This is the first time they've ever come close enough for me to see them." I told her they were her in Winnipeg 4 years prior while she called me a liar. Uh, okay. Then she offered me a literal American dollar bill as a tip to go get her son a sprite from a consession stand. Woman was mental. 

2011 in Minneapolis. Remember them putting out axls mic stand and mic indicating it was almost show time at 1030. Mind was blown by how early it was. Now wife was with me and for some reason didn't dump me in the spot for spotting and explaining to her who Fernando and Beta are. Me and ankther guy tried getting a DUFF chant going. Didn't go anywhere. 

2017 Winnipeg. Wife did her usual bullshit of deciding right before a show starts that she wants a drink. Got up to concourse, knew the band was doing 830 sharp, checked watch, saw 825. Bailed and went back to seat. 

[lame ass security]

1 hour ago, Gunner55 said:

December 2006. Insane wait. I was 16,dad was getting impatient. Too young to drink. 

2010, Axl was earlier. I think around 11 or so. I had some woman next to me who said she was in from south dakota to see them. "This is the first time they've ever come close enough for me to see them." I told her they were her in Winnipeg 4 years prior while she called me a liar. Uh, okay. Then she offered me a literal American dollar bill as a tip to go get her son a sprite from a consession stand. Woman was mental. 

2011 in Minneapolis. Remember them putting out axls mic stand and mic indicating it was almost show time at 1030. Mind was blown by how early it was. Now wife was with me and for some reason didn't dump me in the spot for spotting and explaining to her who Fernando and Beta are. Me and ankther guy tried getting a DUFF chant going. Didn't go anywhere. 

2017 Winnipeg. Wife did her usual bullshit of deciding right before a show starts that she wants a drink. Got up to concourse, knew the band was doing 830 sharp, checked watch, saw 825. Bailed and went back to seat. 

Did you take the dollar?  You should've taken it then rolled it up and told her where she could stick it.😄

[CAFC Nick]

Most of my stories involve waiting around and shooting the shit, but one that stands out to me...:

 

2016 - Vegas, night 1 - a woman slapping me on the leg telling me to wake up as I was dosing a bit waiting for Guns to hit the stage. I had flown in from London the night before and GN'R hit the stage around midnight which was the equivalent of watching Guns play at 8am! I opened my eyes pretty quick once they started playing looney tunes!

[BangoSkank]

I never got why they didn't just bill the show as starting later. Doors at 9, opener at 10, Guns at 11. 

You'd have trouble booking it and it'd be expensive, but no more expensive or difficult than showing up three hours late.

Edited March 21, 2019 by BangoSkank

[Asdiz]

From the ages of 22-25 I dated a girl in NYC and I lived in Boston.  I used to drive every other weekend from Boston to NYC and would listen to Estranged on repeat the entire drive.  Approximately 6 times and hour on a 3.5-4 hour drive would give me.  That would be 21-24 Estrangeds and the drive would go by in a flash.  

[DieselDaisy]

23 minutes ago, BangoSkank said:

I never got why they didn't just bill the show as starting later. Doors at 9, opener at 10, Guns at 11. 

You'd have trouble booking it and it'd be expensive, but no more expensive or difficult than showing up three hours late.

Rose would merely turn up at three in the morning.

[TheGeneral]

On Monday, March 18, 2019 at 10:19 AM, SAU3R said:

My only story is from my first GNR show in Hannover 2017... A festival near Hannover was being cancelled for that day because of the storm warning, but GNR played.. Then the storm came, they went off the stage for 1,5 hours, and nobody knew if or when they would come back.. When they came back on many of the people thought they'd cut the set short, but they delivered a full set and even brought Angus out for two songs.. Great show! 

Before the concert I thought it would be smart to park my car outside of Hannover city and then take the tram to the expo plaza.. Well however when the concert finished at around 1am, there were no trams anymore until 4am and all the taxis seemed to be booked out... So I had the choice between waiting three hours in Hannover or walking about 8 kilometers.. I decided for the waiting and sat down in McDonald's. When I could finally take a tram at around 4am, I was up for 20 hours, had to do a 3,5 hour drive home, and had to work at 8.30 am.. So I reached my car at 4.30, and drove home without falling asleep thanks to Red Bull and a disgusting coffee from a petrol station.. 

I arrived home at 7.30, had one hour left to prepare for work, went to work from 8.30 - 2 pm.. At that time I was up for around 30 hours straight.. When I finished work I fell into bed and was sick for the next two weeks 

I was there too lol.

I remember that the show stopped after Chinese Democracy and I was sitting behind a wall waiting, not looking at the stage. The first thing I heard was Axl screaming the intro to Jungle, don't think I ever got up so quickly lol

[BangoSkank]

My most interesting story of waiting for Guns is perfectly relayed here:

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/guns-n-roses-cancel-philadelphia-angry-fans-riot/

[BlueJean Baby]

5 minutes ago, BangoSkank said:

My most interesting story of waiting for Guns is perfectly relayed here:

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/guns-n-roses-cancel-philadelphia-angry-fans-riot/

The tour was cancelled by Clear Channel, Brain confirmed it in his recent podcast interview with Brando, the band was not a no show, they were informed the promoter cancelled the tour. People have blamed them for years for this.....incorrectly. 🙄

[BangoSkank]

2 minutes ago, BlueJean Baby said:

The tour was cancelled by Clear Channel, Brain confirmed it in his recent podcast interview with Brando, the band was not a no show, they were informed the promoter cancelled the tour. People have blamed them for years for this.....incorrectly. 🙄

Ignore the classic BlabberMouth controversy-courting headline and read the quote from the fan at the bottom - that was the point of my post.

[Ericstacey]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 9:46 AM, RussTCB said:

Worst experience I've had waiting for them was Detroit, 2002. Mixmaster Mike was terrible / stupid. The cky got booed off the stage. Then the sound guy played the Audioslave album on repeat (SERIOUSLY!) until GN'R finally came out. The worst part about it was watching a 3/4 full Palace, slowly filter down to about 1/2 full by the time GN'R finally decided to take the stage.

Best experience I've had waiting for them, hands down was the first Hammerstein show in 2006. The room was electric through the whole wait. GN'R could've pulled a Vegas NYE stunt and came out at 4am if they wanted to that night. The energy in the room was off the charts. 

I was at the Detroit concert in 2002 lol-I remember this is when they messed up Patience, and Axl just threw his mike up and walked off, the lights came on after that, or soon after. I honestly wondered if Axl was going to pull the plug on GNR after that. I came back in 2011, it seemed like they came on just as late. Bumble was standing on the stage for what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes with his guitar. I think that concert finished at 2:20 a.m.

[Ericstacey]

I was at the Eagles of Death Metal show in Cleveland in 2006. Sebastian Bach came on, and after he finished, a lot of people assumed Guns were next. We sat through EODM and Suicide Girls. You could just feel the crowd groan. Some people left, a few were saying "never again" as far as going to another GNR concert. One lady was taken out on a stretcher, not sure why.  We left the arena between 2 :30 and 3 am, I wasn't sure we would get a cab home. Funny enough, I went to the Ford Field NITL tour kickoff, AIC finished, not long after the lights went down-people were going "no fucking way". You could see people running to their seats not expecting Guns to go on so early. I think I did see Del James walking around on the floor for the 2002 Detroit show before the band came on.

[6lake sa66ath]

Brisbane 2007, band were a few hours late, when they finally emerged and Axl sang the first few lyrics of Jungle someone threw a cup full of beer that hit him square in the side of the head. 

 

Band stopped playing, Axl threatened to cancel the show, but to his credit they re-started the song and played on. 

[BrayWyatt]

At the milton keynes show in 93, when the cult finished it was sweltering hot, by the time guns came on (2 and a half hours later) it was non stop torrential rain. 

[Carburetta]

On 3/21/2019 at 8:43 AM, CAFC Nick said:

Most of my stories involve waiting around and shooting the shit, but one that stands out to me...:

 

2016 - Vegas, night 1 - a woman slapping me on the leg telling me to wake up as I was dosing a bit waiting for Guns to hit the stage. I had flown in from London the night before and GN'R hit the stage around midnight which was the equivalent of watching Guns play at 8am! I opened my eyes pretty quick once they started playing looney tunes!

Me too, I think I actually fell asleep leaning on the rail, had been up since about 4:30am UK time.

[AndyM]

On ‎25‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 10:20 PM, BrayWyatt said:

At the milton keynes show in 93, when the cult finished it was sweltering hot, by the time guns came on (2 and a half hours later) it was non stop torrential rain. 

I was at the Saturday show - it really did piss it down - Axl sang a little bit of singing in the rain!

[WAR41]

My most painful wait was the UCAP show at Webster Hall aka The Ritz.  I think they didn't go on until like 12:30am and I had gone to the show by myself.  I wasn't even drinking much and I still had to hold off on going to the bathroom.  I was waiting and waiting and finally they went on.  Even though I live in the city I still got home at I think 3:30am.  I remember by the time the show ended the place was like half full.  Now this wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that I started a new job the day before on Tuesday of that week.  That show was on Wednesday night.  

[scottish nutter]

On 25/03/2019 at 10:20 PM, BrayWyatt said:

At the milton keynes show in 93, when the cult finished it was sweltering hot, by the time guns came on (2 and a half hours later) it was non stop torrential rain. 

I take it this was the first night? I dont remember the rain because i was that drunk lol 10 hour train ride from scotland drinking all day and we got in just as nightrain started, had tickets for the 2nd day aswell, the cult were great

Edited March 27, 2019 by scottish nutter

[BrayWyatt]

On 27/03/2019 at 7:41 PM, scottish nutter said:

I take it this was the first night? I dont remember the rain because i was that drunk lol 10 hour train ride from scotland drinking all day and we got in just as nightrain started, had tickets for the 2nd day aswell, the cult were great

It was the Saturday show, travelled down from stirling on the friday night.

[scottish nutter]

3 hours ago, BrayWyatt said:

It was the Saturday show, travelled down from stirling on the friday night.

We bought tickets for the saturday show at the gate for £8 lol  i do remember the field was pure mud and a load of us all fell, i was mocket and got some funny looks on the train on the way home lol  i remember standing inside the toilets after the show when it ws raining but most of the show was a blur lol

[JimMorrison4]

Pittsburgh 2002 - Around 2 hours of Mixmaster Mike, lots of booing, lots of girls flashing. I was 2nd row on the floor. People were starting to talk about tearing shit up. ALOT of people were kicked out by security. The building was maybe half full. One of the guys from Jackass was standing in front of me.

Huntington, WV 2006 - Front row. Baz and Papa Roach were openers. Both were great. About an hour wait. Some girl offered me a beer if I let her in front of me. Couldn't say no. We made out during November Rain.

Toronto 2010 - Hour and a half-ish wait after Baz. Lots of booing. Shitty seats but first time visiting Toronto. Too broke to buy booze. The best I've ever heard Axl sound.

Wilkes-Barre, PA 2011 - Waited outside in line for 4 hours. They played from around 11pm-2am. Met some people from MyGNR so that definitely helped the time go by faster. Over an hour wait. Great show. My ex and I had the "great" idea that we should try out adult diapers. We knew we were going to be on the floor for a while once we got in there and didn't want to lose our spot to use the bathroom. The night before we bought some Depends and a bottle of Jack. Thank God we tested them. That would have been a mess. 

Toledo, OH 2011 (or 2012?) - Shitty seats. Black Label Society opened. It was after midnight when they finally came on. Played until 3am. Freezing out that night.. they even waited 45 minutes longer than advertised to open the doors! Good show though. 

Orlando, FL 2016 - Right on time. Best concert ever. Front row behind the pit.

Miami, FL 2017 - A few minutes late. Nothing crazy. Awesome show.