The show was tight as hell. I saw them in the early 90s with Skid Row and again in 2002.  This band is a better group of musicians. GNR is Axl. Really , the sound of GNR is the voice, pack in a bunch of virtuosos to back him, The voice is more fine tuned, he was spot on all night.  I saw them with Slash 15 years ago as I mentioned , and he was so S%#t faced in the past that he wasn't as effective as he could have been.    Ferocious performance, incredible guitar work by Fink and Thal.  Really, the highlight in my opinion was the opportunity for each member to solo . These guys made me want to go out and learn how to play guitar. They literally made the guitars sing. Dizzy on Piano solo was great, it was all just excellent.

 

The downside?  Audience energy was terrible. The venue capacity was 20 k and there were like 5500 people there. The place looked mostly empty. That has to be demoralizing, playing on a Monday night in the Rain to a soft audience. Many people with grey hair at the show which was weird as hell!  Many left early as they played till about 2 AM.

 

To their credit, they played their asses off despite the audience, but I think they gave us a final jab,,,,

 

NO PARADISE CITY!!! The encore ended with Madagascar!  Great song but come on!

 

How can GNR not play Paradise City? No usual confetti cannon. It was strange, maybe a small F-U to the crowd. I caught Baz shaking his head periodically when he was turned around or side stage like he was pissed by the energy.  They all did their best to pump the crowd. Overall, I was left with the feeling that if this show was in a smaller venue, like a theater seating 2000, it would have been without a doubt , the best show I have ever seen, purely because the crowd input was blah.

 

GNR rocks. I'm a surgeon, and tomorrow, as often before, GNR will rock in my Operating Room.