Get In The Ring Muthaf****r And I'll Kick Your Bitchy Little Ass, Punk!

Thursday October 14th 2010 - O2 Arena London. 


Without a doubt the best concert I have ever been to.  Visually stunning, excellent pyro effects and lighting.  The whole band was on form, Axl's voice was spot on at all times.  He was still bombing around the stage like he did 20 years ago.  The rest of the band looked and sounded great.  The only downside to the whole night was that it had to end (and also I may have gained an extreme slight crush on DJ Ashba).


We (myself and my friend Sarah) got to the O2 at 4.30pm.  Slightly early.  Apparently we got there too early as Sarah suggested going later and I didn't respond so we went early - I don't remember that bit though.  The guy in Starbucks laughed at me as we were 5 hours early.


Somehow though time flew and suddenly we were in the arena and Sebastian Bach came on stage.  I saw him a few years back in Nottingham when he was supporting Guns N Roses there.  He had the same energy there and was a good performer, he got the crowd going and there were quite a few Skid Row fans in the crowd.  I've got no idea what he was talking about though, I heard his voice but didn't understand.  He performed an hour long set and then we waited for GNR.  After about an hour or so the lights went down, the crowd went wild and then opening riff of Chinese Democracy sounded.


I love that song, I first heard some Chinese Democracy songs around 8 years ago when I went to see them at London Docklands Arena, I only remember Madagascar though from that time. 

Anyway, Sarah and I decided that Bumblefoot would be a great guy to go to the pub with.  He seemed really down to earth and a lot of fun. 

Duff appeared on stage - the first time Axl and Duff have been on stage together for 17 years.  I've seen Axl twice and Duff twice, it was great to see them together.  It was actually pretty impressive.  Since the event there has been loads of speculation that there is going to be a reunion and if so what would happen to the new band and also that Axl was 'cold' towards Duff on stage.  I enjoyed it for that 1 night special, kinda like when Tom Cruise joined the Black Eyed Peas on stage a few months back - obviously Duff was more epic though. 

I found out that Richard Fortus has amazing pecs.

DJ Ashba, I'll be honest, I hadn't heard of him before he joined Guns N Roses.  He's a lot older than he looks.  So he's the 'replacement' Slash.  He's come under a lot of scrutiny because he also uses a Gibson Les Paul (along with thousands of other guitarists may I add), he wears a hat (that looks tailored to suit him, I also know a lot of people who wear hats) and he moves like Slash (again, when playing the guitar, there are only so many ways you can 'jam').  I liked DJ Ashba a lot.  I liked his energy, he had a pretty smile and he spent a lot of time on the side of the stage where I was - I'm going to position myself on that side again in Birmingham and Sods Law will dictate that he decides to take a liking to the other side of the stage that night.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of his pretty smile, I didn't quite catch it.

Axl Rose.  Still my ultimate favourite bloke/showman/performer.  He really proved that he still 'has it'.  He sang and whistled all songs with apparent ease.  What really impressed me was when he sang Nice Boys perfectly.  Yes he still had many costume changes, but from what I saw he needed to - he was running around the stage and his clothes were soaking wet within seconds of a change. 


Guns N Roses played a large range of old and new songs.  I enjoyed every second of it.  I did notice though that for a rock concert, the crowd was rather tame.  The crowd was loud but generally quite static.  Perhaps it was something to do with at the beginning a guy got escorted out by security for starting a mosh pit.  Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of the rest of the band. 


I took loads of photos, most of them were rubbish.  I learned that the iPhone4 camera is not great in a concert situation.  And the zoom lessens the sharpness of the photo.

Guns N Roses gave a big FU to their haters.


BRING ON BIRMINGHAM!!!!