I gradually made my way to the front of the crowd who were surprisingly well behaved and passed the time by tweeting from my @Axls_Rose twitter account. I did consider taking Duff's book with me to read as I know how late GNR can be sometimes (it was my 7th GNR show, I'm a GNR gig veteran now!) but unfortunately it was too big for the bag I took with me.
They took to the stage at about 22.47 and the crowd went absolutely wild. There were a few boos before the band came on stage as the crowd was getting impatient and some middle aged guys behind me were getting rather agitated and saying that "Axl was taking the f***ing p*ss" etc. When GNR came on stage though, that was all forgotten. The crowd loved them, the same middle aged guys behind me were yelling to each other about how amazing Axl was and that the wait was worth it. They were also shouting at Richard Fortus "Izzy, you're amazing!"...yes, they genuinely mistook Richard Fortus for Izzy Stradlin, that made me chuckle for a while!
GNR started their set, as they have for all 7 shows I have been to before, with Chinese Democracy. I love that song and it's such a good show opener. Most of the song was just an instrumental as Axl's mic stopped working - I did at this point panic a bit as thought he might have stopped the show completely and thrown a tantrum, but he was in good spirits and the mic sorted itself out (or he got a new one) by the 2nd song - Welcome To The Jungle.
They played for a solid 2.5 hours and I loved every second of it. They didn't play Shackler's Revenge, Patience or Whole Lotta Rosie though I was expecting them to. Bumblefoot ditched his Pink Panther solo to perform a song of his - Glad To Be Here, which was actually fantastic, I will search YouTube to see that again. I'm unsure if his back is any better (injury from a car accident) but he was moving around effortlessly - he was possibly doped up on painkillers.
I was a little disappointed that Richard Fortus changed his solo from a James Bond theme to whatever it was he played. It sounded good, I just really like when he gets into the JB theme and jumps around in circles whilst playing it, though to be honest I soon forgave him when he took his shirt off - he has a FANTASTIC body.
I positioned myself to the right of the stage for a reason - DJ seems to frequent that side more than the other side, and true to form he did the same that night in Nottingham. He was brilliant as usual and is really good at engaging with the audience and waving etc. He's a real crowd pleaser, and is SO pretty!
Axl Rose was on top form, his voice sounded amazing and he was dancing around like he normally does, despite his majorly bruised leg (that was 50 shades of purple..!) from a hamstring injury after a fall in Russia. He falls over a lot (see a clip on YouTube of him slipping over onto his bum after a gig in Liverpool on Sunday).
I made it out of the arena at around 1.30am and left Nottingham for the 4 hour drive back home at 2am. I was a bit unsure of going all that way on my own for their show, but it was fantastic and well worth it. Bring on the 8th GNR show!!! (which will be their show in London on 1st June, I have a ticket for the 31st May in London but can't go :( )
I don't think anyone can say that I'm not a dedicated fan.
Yayy!
ReplyDelete