The Jersey crowd gave him a very warm welcome as expected.  He played for about an hour, did some new stuff and the Skid Row hits.  After about a 15 minute stage change Matt Pinfield came out to introduce Papa Roach.  Their music is not my style, but they did sound great.  If I was more into Papa Roach I would have appreciated it more.  They also played for an hour.  All through the sets of Sebastian and Papa Roach they all did their job to keep the crowd hype up for the main act which is why we all came.  Then the stage change started for G N R.  Unfortunately they had some problems with one of Dizzy's keyboards, which delayed the start the start of GNR until about 11:45.  Before the set started a voice came over the sound system reassuring the crowd that Axl and the band were ready backstage but the keyboards had to be fixed prior to the start.  When the lights finally dropped and Axl came out the arena erupted as Robin Fink played the opening power cords to the Welcome to the Jungle and then you Axl scream "Do you know where the fuck you are!!!!! "  After a few songs Axl poked some fun at himself saying the technical difficulties were true and not the fault of my " sorry ass ." About midway through the set Axl said some people were throwing stuff at the stage, and he is right a couple off assholes can ruin it for everybody.  At least those assholes got their thought back about them and didn't ruin the show for the rest of us.  Dizzy Reed did a great rendition of Lynard Skynard's Tuesday's Gone on the piano.  Sebastian joined the band on stage for My Michelle, and all I can say is wow!!!  My girlfriend said,  " I'd love to be in the middle of that sandwich."  In conclusion the whole show sounded great.  Axl looked great and sounded even better.  I recommend everybody see them when they come around.  But a word of warning for the weak at heart, the show ended at 2am and here I am over 10 hours later as I type this and my ears are still ringing.  That is how I know it was a GREAT show.  Thank you Axl Rose, Guns N Roses, Sebastian Bach, and Papa Roach!!!  One other thing, if Axl reads these....Sebestian is right we'd love to have you as a Jersey Boy.

 

Peter Montanaro