What a night. Arrived via a Kenny Rogers playing cab driver, which was rather surreal. Into the gig and straight into Angry Anderson and his brothers Rose Tattoo- solid sounding set for the oldies in the crowd (which I almost am now!). Nice Boys Don't Play Rock N Roll!!!
Then came treat number one- Sebastian "Mr Hard Rock Charisma" Bach played a full set of primarily Skid Row songs and if you knew them it was great. If not then it might have been a battle. Sebastian gets 7 out of 10- keep that energy pal! Probably the highlight was the crowd pleasing "I Remember You" which proved to all that his voice still has it and was never faked.
About midnight the first riffs of Welcome To The Jungle started bouncing around the dry ice and it was all on. I had my doubts until recently as to whether Axl Rose could still carry it off, but anyone who saw any of the gigs last week in Auckland and Christchurch will tell you, well, Rose is still a rock and roll legend in his prime.
I won't bore you all with blow by blow detail, suffice to say it was a two hour set of crowd pleasing greatest hits, along with three new songs- Madagascar being the outstanding one there. And the band- outstanding. It may not be Slash, Duff et all but this mob are as cohesive and together as any incarnation of G N R that theres ever been. Robin Finke of Nine Inch Nails fame is virtuoso, Richard Fortus of Psychadelic Furs fame is a treat- and my personal highlight of the night was Ron Thal's outstanding rendition of the NZ National Anthem that morphed into an instrumental version of "Don't Cry" on the "Flyin V" guitar- it was like Jimi Hendrix was in the room.
Best tracks- Welcome to the Jungle, the epic firework driven November Rain, Madagascar and Paradise City to close. And many, many more.
The Razor Review gives this 9 out of 10 and says its the best gig I've seen in 2007. Not quite into the Top 5 of all time, the 1988 version of G N R just cuts this one off at the pass, mainly due to it being my first ever gig!
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