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MetaSoul's review of Boise


Ghost_Guns

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Ok, just got back from the Boise show.  Here's a summary.  Pardon the grammar, I'm very tired and forcing myself to write this.  Anything I got wrong is not intentional, its the best from my memory:

Axl Rose - Initially dressed in a black 81 T. Brown Raider's jersey.  Black bandana.  Black Adidas sweat pants, with white Adidas (I think) shoes, later changed into red 27 Idaho Steelheads hockey jersey with "Rose" on the back, wore a red bandana.  Ended the concert with a white Jerry Rice Raiders jersey, number 80, no bandana.  His hair was weaved with bright red and blond streaks.  Braided.  Looked very cool.

Robin Finck - White silk jumpsuit, WWII army issue helmet (during Nightrain I think), sunburst Les Paul, black Les Paul.

Buckethead - Baggy khaki pants, navy blue peacoat, black cape, funeral KFC bucket, no mask...haha, just kidding, Flying V KFC guitar, white Les Paul, hollow-body acoustic.

Tommy Stinson - Plaid pants with a white tee and a plaid long sleeved jacket.  

Richard Fortus - Solid green camo style khakis.  White Tee.  Faded Les Paul.  

Brain - White hat worn backwards.  I couldnt make out a lot of his outfit, but man this guy gets better and better every time I see him.  He is phenomenal.

Dizzy Reed - Star-logo tank (couldn't see the rest, was on other side of the stage).  Did a great job on The Blues especially.

Chris Pitman - White tee beneath what appeared to be a work suit (like mechanics wear), but as I looked at it more I thought it might be more like a sweat suit.  Sleeves pushed up to his elbows.  5 Keybords (1 tri-tiered, 2 independant) on spring stands which allowed the keys to be yanked horizontally (sweet setup).  He moved around a lot.

Stage/Lighting/Video/Pyro - Black with tiered wings on both right and left side of the stage, Giant gold banners with Chinese characters covered as the backdrop, lighting was in a half moon arch, peaking about 20-30 feet off the ground.  A nice wall of sound speaker setup with display screens above the crowds on the right and left sides of the stage, vertical-rectangular big screens in the center-rear and on both sides of the stage.  The rectangle displays pieced together to make a big screen for showing a giant image or separately to show "slivers" of images.  They showed a lot of funk 70's images, a lot of title pages to old 70's movies, Foxy Brown, etc.  During Madagascar they showed a lot of pyrotechnics, especially during Live And Let Die and Paradise City.  There was four or five pyro "wheels" dropping sparks and shooting them up into the rafters (surprised something didn't burn...flesh, wires, hair, etc.  They also had a pyro line above the front of the stage that stretched from one side of the stage to the other, dropping a curtain of fire showers.  There were giant flame and sound-cannons on both sides of the stage toward the rear, and another two on the ceiling of the stage...heated up the crowd quite a bit. They used the flames a lot during Chinese Democracy.

Setlist:  

Welcome To The Jungle

It's So Easy

Axl Speech to the Faithful

Mr. Brownstone

Live And Let Die

Madagascar

Think About You

Band Intro

Axl Speech to the Stupid

You Could Be Mine

Finck Solo

Sweet Child O' Mine

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Out Ta Get Me

Dark Creeping Pounding Slow Piano Solo (thats funny to read, but it's true, lol.  It moved me.  Primo.)

November Rain

Rocket Queen Funk Jam

Buckethead Nun Chuka Kata  

Buckethead Alien-Robot Dance

Buckethead - Giant Robot Theme/Shredding As Fast As The Legs Of An Asylum Escapee (me   )/Big Sur Moon/Star Wars/Hog Bitch Stomp

My Michelle

The Blues

Chinese Democracy

Patience (acoustic/electric)

Nightrain

Finck Pouring Out His Fucking Soul Solo

Paradise City (fire, confetti, etc.)  

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Highlights:

Band hit the stage about 10:30.  Most people in the crowd were mumbling that he didn't show, some people just didn't "get" it and left, rumors abound.

Band stormed on with Welcome To The Jungle and instantly the crowd went wild.  Axl shocked a lot of the doubters because he was on the money, into it, he looked lean and fuckin' mean decked in black with an aura of confidence to match.  He was vibrant and ran a lot.  He took any doubts anyone had at that moment and squashed them beneath his feet.  The band was so tight and everyone had such a look of confidence that it almost teasingly made a mockery out of the ex-musicians (Im sure it wasn't intentional).  

After It's So Easy, Axl speaks to the crowd.  He smiles.  He says something like, "Despite the rumors, it looks like you still showed up".  Smiles again.  Classic.  The crowd was thinking the same thing about Axl as he said this.  It was ironic.

Madagascar - Incredible.  Crowd dug it.  The Martin Luther King clips were still very moving to watch as the music carried King's voice.

Prior to Brain's intro into You Could Be Mine Axl introduces the band.  Midway through, someone in crowd yells something about  Sl*sh .  Axl says, "Uh uh uh uh...now that wasn't very nice was it?"  His voice mimics as if he were talking to a little child (perfect for the situation) and he says, "If you are not having fun, you can go the fuck home" (crowd is a bit shocked, why I have no idea) "and if you want to see the OLD band you can go the fuck home and watch your OLD video tapes and DVD's and listen to your OLD CD's...if it's the OLD band that you want"... (he pauses as if thinking).... (impeccable timing)...."And it would be a shame if these nice people all around you kicked your fucking ass."  It was the best.  The crowd laughed their asses off and screamed to the top of their lungs.  Axl regained his cheerful mood and moved on.  It was the epitome of class.

Don't recall in what song this occurred, but Finck pulled Fortus out of Finck's spot by his guitar cord (jokingly of course), dragging him back to Fortus' side fo the stage (psuedo-center).  They laughed and then jammed together.  The whole band seemed closer to each other than in the past.  This is a good thing.  I am so attached to this new line-up.

Sweet Child O' Mine - Axl was really into it, screaming hard.  Fortus played the first solo, followed by Finck, Buckethead may have jumped in soloing at the end.  I just remember it struck me when Fortus soloed it.

Axl asked for a piano.  He said something like give me a piano, kabato, etc., using about 10 different terms for piano I guess, I'm not quatralingual.  The Intro to November Rain was very cool.  It was very dark and slow, using minor keys.  Classical influenced.  Axl pounded the keys heavy but painfully slow.  It was moving in eerie-soulish type of way.  I loved it.  

Axl requests some funk saying, "Give me that funk intro thing" and they break into Rocket Queen.  The groove was very funky and tight.  They moved and sounded very natural, grooving to this.  They showed a lot of old 70's funk clips with 70's movie add scenes, "Swinging Wives", some brief porn-ish scenes, a girl swimming underwater through the end climax.  Fortus kicked this song's ass, literally.  His slide was impressive.

Buckethead stole the crowd before he ever picked up the guitar.  His nun chuka kata drew a big applause.  His robot dance is so intriguing, seemed to draw the younger crowd in.  He set the mood with Giant Robot Theme and moved into Big Sur Moon.  The crowd went will on Star Wars and jaws dropped on Hog Bitch Stomp.  All the pro- Sl*sh  fans either bowed their heads or became converted at that moment.  Afterwards, he threw toys into the crowd, as well as his guitar strap.  He had the toys in bags passing them out like fucking Santa Clause.  It was cool.

Axl introduces Chinese Democracy.  Lots of video and flames.  The vibe was untouchable comparative to the older tunes.  This song owned the concert imo.

During My Michelle, Axl came out in an Idaho Steelheads jersey, number 27, with "Rose" on the back.  Thought that was interesting.  

The Blues was great.  The crowd, who had never heard this song, fell in love with it.

On Patience, Buckethead played acoustic with Fortus, Finck handled the electric.  It sounded smooth.

Nightrain blew my mind out of the older tunes, Buckethead's solo cannot be touched.  In fact, it sounded like a chromatic train under great momentum.

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Finck poured his fucking heart out on his last solo.  He moves with his music.  This guy has some of the best stage presence in my opinion.  I've been on his side of the stage at both Vegas and here. I sync more and more with him every time.  God this guy impresses me more and more every time I see or hear him.  I held my Vegas shirt out at him a lot, as well as at Axl, who spent a great deal of time on our side of the stage (if he wasn't running).

The band played an extended version of Paradise City.  The solo part was longer than normal and Buckethead and Finck when out on the forward-center stage and had a jam session to beat all jam sessions.  They shredded like never before.  Great encore it was, ending with confetti and showers of fire.

Axl did a lot of animations during the songs, he moved a great deal, running and spinning.  He was extremely active.  He dancingly chased Tommy in a circle around the mike stand.  He tried bending Chris' keyboard over to the ground and it springed back up.  He was in a good mood.

Overall the crowd was positive the whole show.  Axl was giving 100%, there was no question about it.  I half-expected him not to give an all-out performance because the show wasn't filled, but by the time they came on it was 3/4 filled and the crowd was drawn in at first signs of Welcome To The Jungle.  There was a mixture of ages.  They drew some younger crowds who were either curious or wanted to see Mix Master Mike or CKY.  Once the younger kids saw this band they were drawn in.  They really need to reach the younger kids in other ways as well.  I think there could have been a lot more younger kids if they would have advertised the new band members and talked about them on the radio, but they only mentioned "Guns N' Roses" and "Axl" for the most part.  They don't really know what an all-star line-up this really is, but once they are informed their whole attitude towards GNR changes.  They went nuts for Bucket and there were others who realized it was Finck from NIN, on and on and on.  Also, I think when the album is released you will see more and more young kids getting into them.  Axl said he would like to come back to Boise, and with an album to support it they will sell out easily.  

One more thing to say: This band is only getting better and better.  Their attitude, their vibe, their aura.  They are a caliber above the competition in every respect and I see nothing but potential for when they really break loose into the songs off of Chinese Democracy.  We are all in for a big fucking awakening, regardless of if you are a hard-core fan.  Watch out!

YEYE awesome review..GNR baby!!

G-Face

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metasoul;

thanks thanks thanks. That was what we wanted to read not the crap rolling stone & that idaho idiot wrote. You were so detailed it was amazing and you know the fucking business i thought i only knew Buckethead did the star wars theme. Man He should of played The TRANSFORMERS theme have any of you heard it kicks the shit out of anything I have ever heard other than Yngwie Malmsteens instrumental cover of "somwhere over the rainbow."

again great review fdrom a fan. You ought to write music reviews. Thanks bro. SAy anyone wearing those mini kfc buckets?

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  • 9 years later...
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