2011.11.19 - Comcast Theatre, Hartford, USA

wow...first Gn'R show of my life...so much love for this band...I will never judge another song by a youtube video...now i understand what many have been saying for a long time...if you don't go to the show...your opinion is worthless...and that's a fact...if you wanna get in the first row and stay there throughout the show...bring comfortable shoes, don't drink water and find someone to talk to otherwise you'll go nuts...the waiting was pretty brutal to be honest and I'm pretty hard-core...hit the line at 4pm and guns started around 7h later...but I shouldn't even be talking about the start time, since the show was so great...I basically saw every song I wanted to see and stood 3 feet away from Axl staring into his dark aviators 95% of the time...he is fucking mesmerizing...you just watch and are in awe...his voice was perfect every step of the way...

it's actually amazing how good it was and how easily he produced every single scream...even you could be mine was great....with the rasp and everything...heaven's door was great...shackler's was awesome...I was very excited for november rain and he was great on that one too...sang it lower than usual, which made it even better....the pyro and the confetti are awesome...the band was solid...best show I've ever seen...go see for yourself....the last thing I was thinking about while standing there was whether they were gonna play oh my god or something like that...didn't think about the setlist at all...just let the show guide me and it was great....full work-out...don't know how those guys do it every night....I'll have 3 days to get myself fixed up and hit albany on wednesday and then worcester on friday...

the crowd was great..full house...very few if any empty seats and it remained like that till the end...I heard good things about the show from the people around me...obviously there was one douchebag who kept yelling where is slash and take off the hat to ashba...but he was also really drunk and was suffering from the worst case of white trash syndrome I'd ever seen...I mean when we came into the theater at 7pm he and his degenerate buddy were yelling USA, USA for like 15 minutes...and before axl came on he was yelling motherfucker, pussy etc....but he was the only one....i thought everyone else was having a good time....there was an incident during live and let die when at the end someone threw a cup right at axl and it hit him in the chest, he reacted to it but said nothing and went on with the next song...this guy next to me also threw a hat at him, dunno why...he just picked up and refused to give it back to him and threw it away

interesting fact, axl might be moving or buying a house in connecticut, I heard about that last year but this time he mentioned it during heaven's door...he said he better not fuck up or some of us could look him up and kick his ass i thought that it was funny...he was having a great time...funny thing...tommy disappeared somewhere after paradise and didnt come to bow...no idea what that was about...he seemed to be having a great time

but overall, go see the show, and I'm sure that if you're a fan you'll enjoy it, there's a lot going on!

Axl Rose clearly doesn’t subscribe to that old showbiz saying, “always leave ’em wanting more.”

Rose and his latter-day Guns N’ Roses lineup took a more maximal approach Saturday night (and early Sunday morning) at Comcast Theatre in Hartford, where they played 32 songs over nearly three hours, starting at 11:30 p.m. (OK, math whizzes: 11:30 start plus 3-hour show equals what time?)

As a declaration of existence, and as a display of virtuosity, it was impressive. Even all these years after Rose split from the other original members of the band, he’s still clearly determined to show that he didn’t need those jerks anyway. And though the current Guns lineup doesn’t have the air of impending mayhem that made the original band so compelling, the singer has assembled a group of top-notch musicians to back him on stage.

He just didn’t choose the songs very well.

Sure, there was strong representation from “Appetite for Destruction” and the “Use Your Illusion” albums, and it’s reasonable to expect a bunch of songs from the most recent effort, 2008’s “Chinese Democracy.” With so much strong Guns material, though, two AC/DC covers (“Riff Raff” and “Whole Lotta Rosie”) might have been overkill. For that matter, so was littering the set with various scripted instrumental jams and snippets of things like Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” or Dizzy Reed’s solo-piano instrumental take on the Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” which followed bassist Tommy Stinson’s lead-vocal turn on another Who song, “My Generation.” We get it: these guys can play.

Regardless, the band put on a show, with jets of pyro and fireworks on a big stage with plenty of room for Rose and his band to roam around. The singer has taken excellent care of his voice, and if he didn’t sound as restless and hungry as he once did on “Welcome to Jungle,” well, he isn’t. But he sang it and the other songs well, dancing a little in place here and there and running back and forth between vocals.

His platoon of three guitarists — DJ Ashba, Richard Fortus and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal — nailed Slash’s guitar tone on “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and pounded through “Chinese Democracy” tunes including “Shackler’s Revenge.” Rose anchored the piano part on “November Rain” and the crowd helped him sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” late in.

After wrapping up the main set with “Nightrain,” the band returned for an encore that included another cover — Rose Tattoo’s “Nice Boys” — before ending with “Patience” and, finally, “Paradise City.”

So now that I am more awake I can tell my tale of the concert. So I guess I'll start with the opener, Bach. He put on a hell of a show and really got the crowd pumped, although I didn't know too much of his music it was nice to see him open, he's freakin nuts on stage. So he got off around 10:15 and they started setting up stage. I'll be honest after about an hour I myself was getting a little pissed and people were screaming "COME ONE FUCKER, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU DOUCHEBAG!" It was a bit ridiculous but then at 11:28 the lights went out and the Dexter theme started. Some guy in front of me was like," The fuck why are they playing the Dexter theme?!?!" Then the screens came on with that screaming red baby thing and bam everyone was going nuts. When I heard those first chords on Chinese Democracy they were so loud it damn near blew me away, it was unreal I was so pumped. One thing that really caught my eye were the monitors and all that plays on them, those things really added flair to the show.

Anyways fast-forward a few songs forward I was surprised they did so many songs before the first solo, and I was surprised that they moved RQ up the setlist but anyways the crowd seemed to really like Estranged. I noticed though during solos and new songs most people left and went to the bathroom or whatever, it was kinda sad. I did hear one guy when I went to the bathroom before the show say that hopefully enough people boo him on ChiDem so they skip it and go to Jungle. Anywho they sounded amazing, and Axl sounded killer, and he looked happy. Youtube videos may be nice to watch, but when you're there seeing the show, and feeling the energy it's a whole different story. What I liked about this venue is it was small so even though I wasn't in the pit I had pretty good seats.

The band, was stupendous, the chemistry is just there. They all just fit so right on that stage, and they way they interact with the crowd is great. I love how Richard thew a few picks, Ron let people play his guitar and DJ threw some drumsticks after playing his guitar with them. Richard was a blast to watch, how he jumps, spins,twirls, strums he was just so interesting. Ron for awhile didn't really move and was kinda just passive which is understandable because of his injuries but he still gave it 110%. Overall for me it was a magical experience, especially the confetti at the end of PC (grabbed a bit and saved some) They showed me how great they are, and just made the night incredible, it's almost hard to put into words. I will list below a few points I thought were of interest.

- As said before at the end of LALD someone nailed Axl with a cup dead in the chest and he just kinda shook it off, thank god it was the end of the song so he didn't stop it.

- Axl added the "with your ass in the air" to YCBM which I thought was cool because it doesn't seem like he does it too often.

- The crowd out of all three guitarist really seemed to like Ron the most, when he did his solo people next to me were like "FUCK YEAH THATS BUMBLEFOOT." Overall people just seemed to like him the best.

- In the beginning Axl asked how we were doing, then almost walked off the stage and said "shit I wouldn't have been doing to good if I walked off that."

- I forgot which song but DJ fell off the stage at one point and came back on a few seconds later.

- Axl during KOHD said he may be our new neighbor soon, maybe he's buying a house in CT somewhere?!?

- Axl and Tommy are fun to watch on stage just because they always joke around with each other and play games.

- When Axl went to blow the whistle on Paradise City it like didn't blow for some reason and he just looks at the crowd shakes his head and goes "Well shit," and threw it anyways.