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Reviewed by Prodigal
Well, that was a most interesting evening. First of all London transport did it's best to make me late, despite leaving home at 4pm. Hooked up with Carla
outside & promptly got lost trying to find the South East entrance! Eventually we found our seats at about 18:20........waiting patiently, for the first act Sebastian Bach.
I have to say I know very little about him other than that he fronted Skid Row in the past, so I'll leave Carla to give her more expert view - and setlist! - here I have to say I was VERY impressed by them - the guy has an amazingly powerful voice and a stage presence second only to Bruce. He had a great "I don't give a f--k" attitude and even when they had some technical problems, he kept the crowd entertained by singing and joking. The band was powerful and tight with some really excellent tunes.......... One of the best opening acts I have seen in a very long time. a BIG 10 from me.
At this point I have to say, why do promoters say that the show was sold out, when it was pretty obvious by the half-empty floor that it wasn't. Very annoying 'cos I like being on the floor - if you know what I mean! If it was sold out - the only reason I can think of for the less than full attendance is that maybe fans stayed away because of the rumours about Mr Rose's fondness for late-night shows!
Anyway, onto the music - it was good to see lots of BFMV fans there in the crowd, also some Velvet Revolver ones ( I wonder why?!) BFMV gave yet another reason to confirm that they are going to be a massive band with a great future..... Their show was utterly brilliant - but much too short, if Bach can play for an hour then why couldn't they? The beautiful tape intro leading into the crushing Her Voice Resides, leading straight into 4 words to choke upon............after that my memory is a littly hazy, so this setlist isn't gospel!
Intro
Her Voices Resides
4 Words To Choke Upon
Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow
All These Things I Hate
Cries In Vain
Tears Don't Fall
No Control
Spit You Out
Utterly brilliant, but Matt still needs to learn to open up a bit more - perhaps being around the hyper-active Sebastian Bach he might learn a few things about how to be a good frontman.
Right.....the time now was approaching 21:30, so we waited..............and waited............with a mounting sense of frustration - whaich was shared by the crowd as several slow hand claps started up - and the obigatory Mexican Wave....grrrrrrrrr...... seeing as we had to leave at 23:15 in order to catch the last train - the prospect was that we were only going to see 4 or 5 songs at most. 22:20 - the lights went down and it started - the crowd going bonkers and the annoying drunks in front of us promptly fell on their backsides being so plastered! Where was security?
Welcome to The Jungle was a storming start, with Axel in fine voice and showing lots of energy............following this up with It's So Easy, Mr Brownstone & a brilliant Live & Let Die - this was a brilliant, energetic and stirring stuff and made me wish that we didn't have to leave so soon....Then we got a "solo" that put a lot doubts in our minds. It was mind numbing naffness - it was supposed to be God Save The Queen - my cats screaching for their dinner sounded better. Knockin on Heavens Door & Sweet Child o'Mine were again, brilliant - why spoil the flow with that solo Mr Rose?? Then, we saw a piano wheeled stage, and we thought great - November Rain should be up next. Wrong!!!! The keyboard player - Dizzy played a piano solo........yes, I'll say that again..........A PIANO SOLO! I am sorry, but that has no place at a rock/metal show.............if you wanna see Piano solo's, go and see Elton John!
A new song was played after this, which wasn't too bad - no idea what it was called as Axel's crowd intereaction was minimal to say the least. Another bad idea was to have video screens at the back of the stage - seeing Mr Rose close up like that gave me nightmares (along with THAT solo of course).
It's a real shame saying this, but basically this is Axel with a tribute band as backup - it isn't Guns'n'Roses. And unless, he can somehow patch up his differences with Slash & the others and get the original line up back......he is just going to be parody of a once great performer.....sad. The ego has landed..............with a bump!
Setlist for (what it is worth)
Welcome to The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr Brownstone
Live & Let Die
crap guitar solo
Knockin on Heavens Door
Sweet Child o'Mine
crap Piano solo
New song
another crap guitar solo
---------------------------------
We left!
Summary of the night:
Sebastian Bach - a truly great frontman with an excellant band and material: 10/10
BFMV - what more can I say? brilliant: 9/10 (docking 1 point for the shortness of their set)
G'n'R - After a great start, it fell apart with some very tedious solos: 5/10 (docking 3 points for their lateness on stage, a further 2 going for those solo's)
Prodigals Overall Star Rating: 8/10
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