07/22/23 - Athens, GR - Olympic Stadium

[Blackstar]

More official pics found in this review:

https://www.newsbomb.gr/bombplus/politismos/story/1451577/orismenes-skepseis-kai-10-1-fotografies-apo-tin-epiki-synavlia-ton-guns-n-roses-sto-oaka

[Karice]

On 7/26/2023 at 12:43 PM, Blackstar said:

More official pics found in this review:

https://www.newsbomb.gr/bombplus/politismos/story/1451577/orismenes-skepseis-kai-10-1-fotografies-apo-tin-epiki-synavlia-ton-guns-n-roses-sto-oaka

That second picture of thousands of people jammed closely like sardines gives me Covid related virtual panic attacks! 😱

[Blackstar]

Three more reviews (all positive - the third one a bit less so):

https://www.monopoli.gr/2023/07/25/reviews/eidame-synavlies/701713/guns-n-roses-sto-o-a-k-a-i-synaylia-tou-kalokairiou/

https://www.avopolis.gr/live/live-international/80470-guns-n-roses-live

https://mikropragmata.lifo.gr/zoi/eidame-tous-guns-and-roses-sto-o-a-k-a/

Translation of the first one (I have incorporated some pictures with captions so that non-Greeks can somewhat get the funny comparisons with references to Greek popular culture):

Spoiler

Guns 'N' Roses: live and let live at O.A.K.A.

Electrified senses, truths and metaphors from the biggest concert of the summer on 22 July at O.A.K.A.

"You wanted the best, but they didn't f@ckin' make it! Here's what you get ... From Hollywood California... Guns an' f@ckin' Roses !!!"

We knew exactly what the summer concert was going to be back in February, when it was announced. What Arctic Monkeys, Prodigy and Siouxsie? What Helloween, Madrugada, Ghost and Echo & The Bunnymen?

That's the memory talking. The burning desire. To see, at last, once in a lifetime, those who were chronologically the last great band of the rock era. "Not in this lifetime" stated Axl himself in an interview in 2012, when asked about the possibility of reuniting with Slash and Duff McKagan. Having given up hope of seeing them live decades earlier, the local rock generations grew up with their songs, but without the live experience, the immersion of a live performance.

Yes, Slash and Duff came to Malakassa in 2005 (with Velvet Revolver, opening for Sabbath), but it was as if your cousin was trying unsuccessfully to fit into the jeans she wore on the five-day high school trip. It lacked the vibe, the unity, the mood and of course, the original voice.

Yes, Axl, braided, strong and in fine form, came to Rockwave in Malakassa 17 Julies ago, with a solid line up, with Bumblefoot on guitar and a guest appearance by Izzy Stradlin for the encore of "Paradise City". But it was his own Guns 'N' Roses, not the "real" Guns 'N' Roses.

And finally, yes, there was that infamous night of May 24, 1993, again at the O.A.K.A., back when the audience still lit lighters at the concerts, because there were no cell phones yet, that night when the 7.000 fanatics waited for Axl to come out for a couple of hours. Granted, the entire "Use Your Illusion Tour" lineup was there, but that concert fell into oblivion with time. No one you'll meet will list it among their seminal or best concerts.

So from the moment the news broke that High Priority was bringing Guns 'N' Roses to Greece, there was the undercurrent that makes a concert great, even before the first note was played: a widespread need that was crying out to be fulfilled.

Of the 60,000 or so people who flocked to the O.A.K.A. on Saturday afternoon, few could have imagined that we would be called upon to put this need of ours to the risk of a fulfillment that could turn out to be a disappointment, during the worst heatwave in years, with the country almost in the chaos of wildfires. But still.

The shade of the Kalatrava shelter did its job adequately as the crowd, relieved from the suffocating heat, flocked from likely and unlikely places all over Greece to experience what they were craving for, and the not so well known, but with a strong live track record alongside top names, "The Last Internationale" made the adrenaline begin its predictable runs through the veins with their vintage and tight sound. Cudos to singer Delila "I went to sleep as Eleni Tsaligopoulou* and woke up as Janis Joplin" Paz, who took on the heavy task, with the sun in her face, of turning impatience into engagement.

* Eleni Tsaligopoulou: Greek singer

The traditional Guns delay will fortunately last only half an hour. With dusk settling over the steaming O.A.K.A., the somewhat predictable modern visualization starts the countdown. And then, the feral voice of the introduction ("Ladies and Gentelmen...") gives way to the bassline of "It's So Easy," triggering the first mass explosion.

Awe. It’s really them, and they really are here before us. And their sound is loud, clear and hitting us appropriately.

59-year-old Duff McKagan, the man who at 30 miraculously survived the burst of his liver to become a neurotic punk bull at his best.

The solid-as-a-rock 58-year-old Saul Hudson, the man who should have died more times than Death himself, the so-called Slash, there, with his opaque Ray Ban, top-hat, and his Gibson Les Paul like a toy in his hands.

57-year-old Richard "I went to sleep as Ron Wood's cousin, I woke up as Stathis Psaltis*, lead actor in Richard III" Fortus, Axl's loyal soldier for 22 years, with also 57-year-old Frank Ferrer behind him, Isaac Hayes' easy-going clone with a precise and powerful drumming style (with a touch of swing added to Matt Sorum’s raw power, as engrained in our ears from the L.P. versions.

* Stathis Psaltis: Greek actor, mostly known frrom 80's trashy comedy films.

Further back on the right is 33-year-old Melissa Reese, the female keyboard multi-tasker who looks like she stepped out of a manga depicting a battle to the death between extras from the Barbarella set (the '68 film, not the disco club in Kallithea) and the late Floriniotis'* mid-phase ballet.

* Floriniotis: Cult Greek singer/entertainer, popular in the late '70s/early '80s

And of course, first and foremost, their one and unique singer, who emerges from behind the scenes assuring us that "he saw our sister in her Sunday dress pouting the best".

We know beforehand that 62-year-old Axl, the heavily abused child by both his biological father and stepfather, who by the time he came of age in Indiana had been arrested a dozen times, the one who, in order to survive, developed a larger than life ego and a musical eclecticism that borders (if not equals) neurosis in reproducing the very sounds that inhabit his head, is the strong and volatile element of the concert. We know that he is the key.

And indeed. With some extra kilos gained in the last couple of decades not getting in the way of his - albeit controlled - onstage movement and the orange hair of an auntie from a provincial town's harbour who has gone out to the market determined to find "the fresh peaches", he may have a shaky start, but just before "Welcome To The Jungle" he warms up and leads the crowd into the second explosion. Even if somewhere halfway through the show his delivery becomes uneven - the non-album songs "Hard Skool" and "Absurd" are low points, and he nearly ruins "Rocket Queen", but he gives goosebumps on parts of "Estranged", while he tears it up on "Live And Let Die", which requires few breaths – you never go to shows like this with your ears armed to the hilt. You go with your heart and especially with your eyes open to what happens and transpires from the stage. And what our eyes see is an aged but defiant frontman - the same one who has been ranked on countless lists of all-time greats – being aware of his limitations, but, with the passion pouring out of his eyes, trying as hard as he can. And often bowing down, saying thank you in a way that in the days of his reign – naturally - he would have had no room for:

"Thank you! You're very kind!"

Axl is omnipresent, almost distracting from the impressively flowing, rounded sound of Slash (who switches guitars more often than Axl changes shirts) and the impressive stature (and voice - he smashed it on "I Wanna Be Your Dog"!) of Duff. And the songs themselves are so powerful that the vocal ups and downs and Axl's looks don't matter so much. The mass demand of our collective need to hear "Civil War", "Live And Let Die", "Estranged", for the first time under the Athenian sky by the people who wrote them and made them mean a thousand things to millions of people, is so strong that what you see around you is a band that has taken an entire stadium by storm. Something that is by no means a given and by no means easy.

It's amazing to see the crowd boiling as the drums of "You Could Be Mine" kick in, and water bottles flying in the air, and hopping people of unexpected ages and unsuspected social backgrounds pushing each other as soon as the riff kicks in - tangible proof that the song has been heard so many times that concertgoers know exactly how to lead themselves to explode.

It's awesome to see Axl's ring-laden fingers caressing the piano keys on "November Rain," mingling the grandeur of his intro with the knot in your stomach and urging redemptive tears from thousands of pairs of eyes in the arena and the stands.

It's unforgettable to hear "Knockin On Heaven's Door", that paean that the father of all that is Dylan reserved for Pekinpah's historic sequence, the one that Clapton reggae-ized in '75, delivered in its full uplift, with full audience participation, verse by verse.

Axl saved his most consistent performances for the last part of the show. From "November Rain" all the way to the end, he gives it his all and the audience is now his. On "Reckless Life" he drills you mercilessly, on "Nightrain" you can see he's enjoying it too, and he conducts the sea of cell phones that light up the O.A.K.A. with the simple, whistling tune as his baton. A singalong happy birthday to Slash, chronologically the last true guitar hero in rock history, who every July 23 celebrates his unexpected longevity, leads into the closing Vesuvian party: "Paradise City," amidst fervent fury and screams.

"Worship the Survivors," said John Lennon prophetically in his last interview. And that's what we saw Saturday night at the O.A.K.A. The most unlikely survivors, the ones that from the beginning, the record company people have been saying about: "They're going to do great things. If they manage to stay alive."

Well, the three of them (plus one who joined in the Illusion era and for that tour, 60-year-old keyboardist Dizzy Reed) stayed alive. Steven Adler is alive too, but he can't play, and Izzy isn't too interested. Millions of dollars and dozens of personal feuds have now eliminated the possibility of seeing all five original Guns on stage.

They're all alive, but it was a historical necessity to see these three, Axl, Slash and Duff together, live, and we did. They stood worthy of the rock memories they have helped to carve out, in a world full of pre-recorded gimmicks that pass for "music".

As for all those who, either inside or outside the concert, appeared determined for untimely comparisons, for delicate bashing or, in general, with their index finger on their chin in a music-skeptic pose, we who enjoyed it have nothing to argue and very few things to share with them. One of which would be a paraphrase of what was written and sung by the other Beatle. The one that prompted Axl to take that old James Bond theme song and turn it into a rock life mantra: "Live and let others (instead of "die") do their thing. Whoever may last".

Guns 'N' Roses, with three-hour shows like the one at  O.A.K.A,, with the core of their original line-up intact and true to form, with their classics in full flow ('nevermind, honey, I'll put 'Don't Cry' on for you to listen to at home - in both versions') and a collaborative on-stage performance that not only echoes professionalism, but also reaches and engages the crowd, still last.

And they will last for a long time, for decades to come, in the collective memory of concert-going Greece, as they cemented their place in our musical memory with Saturday's historic concert.

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Blackstar

[Blackstar]

And some more official pictures (from the reviews above):

[Ratam]

11 hours ago, Blackstar said:

Three more reviews (all positive - the third one a bit less so):

https://www.monopoli.gr/2023/07/25/reviews/eidame-synavlies/701713/guns-n-roses-sto-o-a-k-a-i-synaylia-tou-kalokairiou/

https://www.avopolis.gr/live/live-international/80470-guns-n-roses-live

https://mikropragmata.lifo.gr/zoi/eidame-tous-guns-and-roses-sto-o-a-k-a/

Translation of the first one (I have incorporated some pictures with captions so that non-Greeks can somewhat get the funny comparisons with references to Greek popular culture):

  Hide contents

Guns 'N' Roses: live and let live at O.A.K.A.

Electrified senses, truths and metaphors from the biggest concert of the summer on 22 July at O.A.K.A.

"You wanted the best, but they didn't f@ckin' make it! Here's what you get ... From Hollywood California... Guns an' f@ckin' Roses !!!"

We knew exactly what the summer concert was going to be back in February, when it was announced. What Arctic Monkeys, Prodigy and Siouxsie? What Helloween, Madrugada, Ghost and Echo & The Bunnymen?

That's the memory talking. The burning desire. To see, at last, once in a lifetime, those who were chronologically the last great band of the rock era. "Not in this lifetime" stated Axl himself in an interview in 2012, when asked about the possibility of reuniting with Slash and Duff McKagan. Having given up hope of seeing them live decades earlier, the local rock generations grew up with their songs, but without the live experience, the immersion of a live performance.

Yes, Slash and Duff came to Malakassa in 2005 (with Velvet Revolver, opening for Sabbath), but it was as if your cousin was trying unsuccessfully to fit into the jeans she wore on the five-day high school trip. It lacked the vibe, the unity, the mood and of course, the original voice.

Yes, Axl, braided, strong and in fine form, came to Rockwave in Malakassa 17 Julies ago, with a solid line up, with Bumblefoot on guitar and a guest appearance by Izzy Stradlin for the encore of "Paradise City". But it was his own Guns 'N' Roses, not the "real" Guns 'N' Roses.

And finally, yes, there was that infamous night of May 24, 1993, again at the O.A.K.A., back when the audience still lit lighters at the concerts, because there were no cell phones yet, that night when the 7.000 fanatics waited for Axl to come out for a couple of hours. Granted, the entire "Use Your Illusion Tour" lineup was there, but that concert fell into oblivion with time. No one you'll meet will list it among their seminal or best concerts.

So from the moment the news broke that High Priority was bringing Guns 'N' Roses to Greece, there was the undercurrent that makes a concert great, even before the first note was played: a widespread need that was crying out to be fulfilled.

Of the 60,000 or so people who flocked to the O.A.K.A. on Saturday afternoon, few could have imagined that we would be called upon to put this need of ours to the risk of a fulfillment that could turn out to be a disappointment, during the worst heatwave in years, with the country almost in the chaos of wildfires. But still.

The shade of the Kalatrava shelter did its job adequately as the crowd, relieved from the suffocating heat, flocked from likely and unlikely places all over Greece to experience what they were craving for, and the not so well known, but with a strong live track record alongside top names, "The Last Internationale" made the adrenaline begin its predictable runs through the veins with their vintage and tight sound. Cudos to singer Delila "I went to sleep as Eleni Tsaligopoulou* and woke up as Janis Joplin" Paz, who took on the heavy task, with the sun in her face, of turning impatience into engagement.

* Eleni Tsaligopoulou: Greek singer

The traditional Guns delay will fortunately last only half an hour. With dusk settling over the steaming O.A.K.A., the somewhat predictable modern visualization starts the countdown. And then, the feral voice of the introduction ("Ladies and Gentelmen...") gives way to the bassline of "It's So Easy," triggering the first mass explosion.

Awe. It’s really them, and they really are here before us. And their sound is loud, clear and hitting us appropriately.

59-year-old Duff McKagan, the man who at 30 miraculously survived the burst of his liver to become a neurotic punk bull at his best.

The solid-as-a-rock 58-year-old Saul Hudson, the man who should have died more times than Death himself, the so-called Slash, there, with his opaque Ray Ban, top-hat, and his Gibson Les Paul plaything in his hands.

57-year-old Richard "I went to sleep as Ron Wood's cousin, I woke up as Stathis Psaltis*, lead actor in Richard III" Fortus, Axl's loyal soldier for 22 years, with also 57-year-old Frank Ferrer behind him, Isaac Hayes' easy-going clone with a precise and powerful drumming style (with a touch of swing added to Matt Sorum’s raw power, as engrained in our ears from the L.P. versions.

* Stathis Psaltis: Greek actor, mostly known frrom 80's trashy comedy films.

Further back on the right is 33-year-old Melissa Reese, the female keyboard multi-tasker who looks like she stepped out of a manga depicting a battle to the death between extras from the Barbarella set (the '68 film, not the disco club in Kallithea) and the late Floriniotis'* mid-phase ballet.

* Floriniotis: Cult Greek singer/entertainer, popular in the late '70s/early '80s

And of course, first and foremost, their one and unique singer, who emerges from behind the scenes assuring us that "he saw our sister in her Sunday dress pouting the best".

We know beforehand that 62-year-old Axl, the heavily abused child by both his biological father and stepfather, who by the time he came of age in Indiana had been arrested a dozen times, the one who, in order to survive, developed a larger than life ego and a musical eclecticism that borders (if not equals) neurosis in reproducing the very sounds that inhabit his head, is the strong and volatile element of the concert. We know that he is the key.

And indeed. With some extra kilos gained in the last couple of decades not getting in the way of his - albeit controlled - onstage movement and the orange hair of an auntie from a provincial town's harbour who has gone out to the market determined to find "the fresh peaches", he may have a shaky start, but just before "Welcome To The Jungle" he warms up and leads the crowd into the second explosion. Even if somewhere halfway through the show his delivery becomes uneven - the non-album songs "Hard Skool" and "Absurd" are low points, and he nearly ruins "Rocket Queen", but he gives goosebumps on parts of "Estranged", while he tears it up on "Live And Let Die", which requires few breaths – you never go to shows like this with your ears armed to the hilt. You go with your heart and especially with your eyes open to what happens and transpires from the stage. And what our eyes see is an aged but defiant frontman - the same one who has been ranked on countless lists of all-time greats – being aware of his limitations, but, with the passion pouring out of his eyes, trying as hard as he can. And often bowing down, saying thank you in a way that in the days of his reign – naturally - he would have had no room for:

"Thank you! You're very kind!"

Axl is omnipresent, almost distracting from the impressively flowing, rounded sound of Slash (who switches guitars more often than Axl changes shirts) and the impressive stature (and voice - he smashed it on "I Wanna Be Your Dog"!) of Duff. And the songs themselves are so powerful that the vocal ups and downs and Axl's looks don't matter so much. The mass demand of our collective need to hear "Civil War", "Live And Let Die", "Estranged", for the first time under the Athenian sky by the people who wrote them and made them mean a thousand things to millions of people, is so strong that what you see around you is a band that has taken an entire stadium by storm. Something that is by no means a given and by no means easy.

It's amazing to see the crowd boiling as the drums of "You Could Be Mine" kick in, and water bottles flying in the air, and hopping people of unexpected ages and unsuspected social backgrounds pushing each other as soon as the riff kicks in - tangible proof that the song has been heard so many times that concertgoers know exactly how to lead themselves to explode.

It's awesome to see Axl's ring-laden fingers caressing the piano keys on "November Rain," mingling the grandeur of his intro with the knot in your stomach and urging redemptive tears from thousands of pairs of eyes in the arena and the stands.

It's unforgettable to hear "Knockin On Heaven's Door", that paean that the father of all that is Dylan reserved for Pekinpah's historic sequence, the one that Clapton reggae-ized in '75, delivered in its full uplift, with full audience participation, verse by verse.

Axl saved his most consistent performances for the last part of the show. From "November Rain" all the way to the end, he gives it his all and the audience is now his. On "Reckless Life" he drills you mercilessly, on "Nightrain" you can see he's enjoying it too, and he conducts the sea of cell phones that light up the O.A.K.A. with the simple, whistling tune as his baton. A singalong happy birthday to Slash, chronologically the last true guitar hero in rock history, who every July 23 celebrates his unexpected longevity, leads into the closing Vesuvian party: "Paradise City," amidst fervent fury and screams.

"Worship the Survivors," said John Lennon prophetically in his last interview. And that's what we saw Saturday night at the O.A.K.A. The most unlikely survivors, the ones that from the beginning, the record company people have been saying about: "They're going to do great things. If they manage to stay alive."

Well, the three of them (plus one who joined in the Illusion era and for that tour, 60-year-old keyboardist Dizzy Reed) stayed alive. Steven Adler is alive too, but he can't play, and Izzy isn't too interested. Millions of dollars and dozens of personal feuds have now eliminated the possibility of seeing all five original Guns on stage.

They're all alive, but it was a historical necessity to see these three, Axl, Slash and Duff together, live, and we did. They stood worthy of the rock memories they have helped to carve out, in a world full of pre-recorded gimmicks that pass for "music".

As for all those who, either inside or outside the concert, appeared determined for untimely comparisons, for delicate bashing or, in general, with their index finger on their chin in a music-skeptic pose, we who enjoyed it have nothing to argue and very few things to share with them. One of which would be a paraphrase of what was written and sung by the other Beatle. The one that prompted Axl to take that old James Bond theme song and turn it into a rock life mantra: "Live and let others (instead of "die") do their thing. Whoever may last".

Guns 'N' Roses, with three-hour shows like the one at  O.A.K.A,, with the core of their original line-up intact and true to form, with their classics in full flow ('nevermind, honey, I'll put 'Don't Cry' on for you to listen to at home - in both versions') and a collaborative on-stage performance that not only echoes professionalism, but also reaches and engages the crowd, still last.

And they will last for a long time, for decades to come, in the collective memory of concert-going Greece, as they cemented their place in our musical memory with Saturday's historic concert.

 

Excellent review! And funny it actor look like Richard twin.

[Blackstar]

Full show is on youtube.

[We love Axl Rose]

I just posted photos from show in Budapest: 

[Majestic Beast]

I hate those of fake greek celebrities that went to the concert just for the insta story and to hear scom and pc,the only two gnr songs they only knew.

They payed expensive vip tickets  for that purpose,to make a fb/insta story.😝😝😝

[We love Axl Rose]

On 7/31/2023 at 5:52 PM, We love Axl Rose said:

I just posted photos from show in Budapest: 

More photos: 

[We love Axl Rose]

 

[We love Axl Rose]

More photos:

   

 

[Majestic Beast]

I've read some people discussing negative that Slash did wrong notes and falsettos etc,for god's shake,who the heck noticed something like that,even if you have perfect ear training,it's tough to notice wrong notes.Slash played fine,not perfect but fine.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Majestic Beast

[Blackstar]