aaamusic | On 05, Jun 2012

London, 31st May

Guns N’ Roses are in London for two sold-out dates at the massive indoor arena in North Greenwich. Despite the support act (Thin Lizzy) starts its show on time, the hard-rock band hits the stage at 10:40pm creating many grumbling from the crowd after the announcement that special bus services will be provided in case of show delays. I still don’t understand the reason why Guns N’ Roses (and maybe Axl Rose in particular) decides to include 2 hours delay as part of the show. The O2 Arena is really packed tonight, with almost 20,000 people with hundreds of them waiting in the queue since early morning. It’s 10:00pm and the crowd start to be really impatient, and I must think that Axl Rose has no thoughtfulness for his fans and paying audience, also considering the fact that it happened several times during past dates that Guns N’ Roses had to interrupt their show because of bottles, objects and coins thrown on stage. So once again, my question is, “Is it really necessary to be almost 2 hours late?”. I don’t think so, especially if there’s still a huge number of a hard-core fan that is reluctant to accept that the original line-up no longer exists and cannot accept that Axl is still acting weird towards old members. In fact, tonight, unconfirmed voices have said that people wearing Slash t-shirts were not allowed to access the arena under the band’s management regulation. According to some fans, wearing these “infamous” t-shirts, they were asked to remove the t-shirts and wearing a “different” outfit (is this part of the “Chinese Democracy”? Maybe!). Anyway, it’s almost 10:40pm and the boos are becoming very loud, but the lights go down and the song “Spitting The Atom” by Massive Attack opens the show while the “angry mob” is still complaining against the band. It takes a couple of minutes and the intro of “Chinese Democracy” to calm down the crowd. Axl’s voice is absolutely fantastic and while listening to “Welcome To The Jungle” I must admit that for a while I thought that the time never passed. The whole band is incredibly fit and no matter if I can’t see Duff, Slash and the old pals together on stage because tonight Guns N’ Roses (or the new GNR if you prefer) are undeniably impeccable. The setlist runs smoothly with songs like “Mr. Brownstone”, “Sorry”, “Rocket Queen” and “Better” until the very big surprise of the night: the special cameo from Izzy Stradlin singing and playing “14 Years” (first time played live since 1991) with the band. I must say that this is really a surprise considering the recent event at the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony (when Axl refused to attend, as he felt unwanted). The whole setlist is simply perfect, with tracks taken from the long-awaited album “Chinese Democracy” and obviously with their worldwide big hits, leaving time for special solos for Richard Fortus, Dizzy Reed, DJ Ashba and Bumblefoot. There are no words to explain the atmosphere during songs like “This Love”, “Streets of Love”, “You Could Be Mine” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” that turn the whole arena into a music paradise. With a short tribute to Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall”, Axl sits behind the piano and plays the goose-bumping song “November Rain” followed by  “Don’t Cry”, “Civil War” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “Night Train”. It’s now 1:30am and the arena is half empty because some people have decided to leave the venue in time for the last tube, but those hard-core fans that left the venue only after “Paradise City” (the last song of the night at 2:00am), I can be 100% sure that they enjoyed one of their best rock night ever; and as far as I’m concerned, I can say that Guns N’ Roses were flawless tonight, with Axl Rose at his best. Bravo guys!

 

 

SETLIST:

 

Chinese Democracy

Welcome To The Jungle

It’s So Easy

Mr. Brownstone

Sorry

Rocket Queen

Estranged

Better

Motivation

14 Years

Richard Fortus Guitar Solo

Live And Let Die

This I Love

Shackler’s Revenge

Dizzy Reed Piano Solo

Street Of Dreams

You Could Be Mine

DJ Ashba Guitar Solo

Sweet Child O’ Mine

Instrumental Jam

Axl Rose Piano Solo

November Rain

Glad To Be Here

Don’t Cry

Civil War

Dead Flowers

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

Nightrain

Instrumental Jam

Paradise City

 

Author & Photos: Luca Viola