I posted this review in another thread but here it is again just in case, without the setlist (already posted).
This was an amazing concert. They came on just after 10pm and played till half past midnight.
Axl was on top form and was speaking to the audience and cracking jokes throughout. As someone else mentioned, he stopped 3 songs in because "the people at the front are getting fucking smashed" and told us to move "a half-step to a step back".
At one point a girl thre her bra onto the stage. Axl picked it up and joked that hed use the cups as bowls for his breakfast cereal tommorrow, he then put on a mock scottish accent and said he looked forward to some "Scottish milk....some highlander milk!". At another stage he picked up a scottish flag and held it up for the audience, which brought the house down.
In a slightly surreal moment near the start of the show, Axl picked up a cup of beer (or something less savoury) that someone threw onstage and the crowd held its breath. Axl calmly went and got a towel, threw it down and mopped it up himself using his foot- still singing at the same time! What a legend!
He also stopped for a rant about the Swedish authorities- Ive got a video of it from my phone (see youtube link below) but its hard to make out what he said. Basically, he said hed asked the police how they can just pick people (axl and a swedish model) off the street and drug test them. He'd been told that they needed a strong "tip" that there were drugs involved and that they had been targeted as he was a "rockstar". Something like that anyway. He ended Out ta get me with "so you can BITE me again".
I cant remember the setlist exactly as I didnt write it down at the time but the one posted in this thread looks accurate. I was chuffed that they played Think about you and Madagascar.
Axl hugged Izzy when he came on and introduced him as "my good friend Mr Izzy Stradlin". They dueted into Axls mic a good few times- just like the old days!
There were also a number of standard 2006 tour solos including Dont Cry, Beuatiful and a solo by Robin Fink that Axl introduced as "Somewhere over the rainbow- for your Scottish listening pleasure" which bore little resemblance to the original! Bumblefoot was awesome throughout. There was also a great piano solo by Dizzy Reed who came down from his keyboard area to the stage front to tinkle the ivories. He got one of the loudest cheers of the night after being Axl thanked him afterwards.
The standout songs for me were obviously the first three which brought the house down, and Patience. Axl regularly ran backstage, presumably to use his oxygen tanks and make a costume change, but this didnt distract from the show. At one point, during a piano solo leading up to November Rain, someone near the front either bood or shouted something like "play a song" to which Axl said "well go home then fuckhead, noones stopping you. Go and catch a bus or something".
Axl had already said something like "This isnt Macdonalds or Burger King. This isnt an order it as you like it show" when some fans near the front got impatient with one of the guitar solos. But these minor incidents apart, the crowd were fairly rowdy and on form
And to top it off, at the end Axl screams "Glasgow...Scotland.
..Thankyou....Goodn
ight" and throws his microphone into the crowd. I managed to catch it (being 6'3 came in handy) and smuggle it out without being lynched! Its an all black one he used for the encore, not one of the red topped ones he used for the rest of the show. A well used Shure SM58 for anyone that knows about these things. Ill not be selling it on ebay, not that anyone would believe its authenticity anyway, shame he doesnt sign his mics, hehe.
Ive seen a fair few big name acts live, including Aerosmith, AC/DC and the Stones and this show was up with the best of them, no contest. Axls the most charismatic frontman Ive ever seen, you cant take your eyes off him when he's on stage.
If theres a minor niggle its that there are too many guitarists vying for the lead guitar spot, rather than one legendary lead man ala Perry, Richard, Young or... dare I say his name....?! But I guess Maiden get away with it. And as Axl says, the Gunners were never an "as you like it" kind of band.
I took these videos on my phone, very poor quality but gives an idea of what it was like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oLYKG5bfq4 (Sweden rant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJKiAhBogvU (solo + sweet child o mine)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZQe75HfpE (November rain)
