2012.12.12 - Leisure Valley Gurgaon, Delhi, India

Guns N'Roses dedicate Gurgaon concert to Ravi Shankar
IANSBy Indo Asian News Service | IANS – 1 hour 46 minutes ago

Gurgaon, Dec 13 (IANS) American rock band Guns N'Roses Wednesday dedicated their concernt in Gurgaon to sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar who died in the US at the age of 92.

Three-time Grammy award winner Pandit Shankar had been admitted to the Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, San Diego, near his home after complaining of breathing difficulties. He passed away Wednesday morning.

"We dedicate this show to Pandit Ravi Shankar, who passed away today (Wednesday)," the band's lead vocalist Axl Rose, said during the concert.

During their three-hour long performance, the band took the crowd of over 5000 people in the Leisure Valley Grounds, on a roller coaster ride, as they belted out their popular numbers like "November Rain", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".

Newly formed Texas-based rock band Brand New Machine opened the show for Guns N'Roses, and entertained audiences with some of their foot-tapping and head-banging songs.

However, the excitement among the crowd reached another level as Guns N'Roses took the stage.

The band consisting of Axl Rose, Dizzy Reed, Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Richard Fortus, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Frank Ferrer and DJ Ashba, took the audience by storm as sang songs like "Welcome To The Jungle", "Paradise City", "It's So Easy", "Live and Let Die" and "Think About You".

The highlight of the show was when Axl bought piano on stage and played it for the audience. People were seen swaying to the tunes of the piano and enjoying every bit of the performance.

"It is great for us to be here (in India) and play in front of you beautiful people. It is an honour for us to play here. I just want to make sure that all of you are happy," Axl said while interacting with the fans during his performance.

Formed in 1985, Guns N' Roses had Rose as the lead vocalist, Slash as lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler. However, over the years, many new talents replaced the old ones and right now, Axl Rose is the only original member from the band.

Before playing in Gurgaon, the band has already performed in Bangalore and Mumbai. Guns N' Roses have been brought to India by Mooz Entertainment.

Guns and Roses rocks Gurgaon
By Vineet Gill, TNN | Dec 13, 2012, 04.01 AM IST

GURGAON: The artful scream - that rock-and-role staple - was first heard in the 60s, when Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant arrived at the scene of world music. It was two long decades, before the world heard another voice, as intense, as moving, and as loud as Plant's, and this time it came from the American West. "Is it too loud for you?" Guns N' Roses front-man Axl Rose screamed into the microphone at Wednesday's GnR gig at Gurgaon's Leisure Valley Park - sounding nothing like a 50-year-old.

This was the band's third and final show in the country, after Bangalore and Mumbai. And for the thousands of admirers of the 27-year-old band gathered here, this was the first opportunity to catch live an act many of them have grown up with. "I was brought up on GnR man," said Amit, who is about as old as Axl himself.

There are a few givens for a successful GnR show - the setup will be grand; the sound will be great; there will be a mix of bright lights and bling on the stage; and, not to forget, Rose will be wearing sunglasses at night. Wednesday's performance lived up to all these counts. And in addition, there was no lack of colour in the audience at the Leisure Valley Grounds.

Practically all age-groups were represented, and as were several nationalities. The Japanese national Yoshika, dressed in a corporate white shirt and sand-brown trousers, stood slightly away from the crowd. "I first heard them 20 years ago. And have seen them live in Tokyo once," he said, adding that he works for the carmaker Honda here in Gurgaon.

Most of the set-list the band plays these days is one long list of sing-along popular hits, punctuated with improvisations and covers of Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. The Delhi-based engineering student Tejasvi Verma stood flailing both his upraised arms out towards the stage, and singing loudly the words of 'Estranged,' an old classic. " Yes, I remember the words to almost all of their songs. And this is fantastic! The first time live," he said.

To see Rose do 'November Rain,' on his glam grand piano, was quite possiblly one of main the reasons most people were here, inside the venue. Outside though, there was the law-firm employee Ankit Khurana, who was on his way home when he heard the opening notes of 'Live and Let Die,' and decided to stick around. "I had no idea that GnR was playing today. I was just passing by. So I thought I will stay here and listen," said Ankit, who stood at the entry gates, although he later conceded that the show would be enjoyed better from within.

According to Neetu Bhatia, the CEO of Kyazoonga.com, the ticketing partners of the GnR gig, the audience response was 'tremendous.' "I think the Gurgaon gig is tacking up as the second best in the series of the previous three GnR shows, after Bombay," she said. Bhatia said that the city has just the right demographics for it to get more of such international acts. "Once there is more permanent infrastructure in place here, it will come out to be the preferred venue for such big shows."

Organizers of the gig, Mooz Entertainment, who have earlier brought the nu-metal band Korn to Gurgaon, said that the GnR show puts the city on the 'rock and roll map of the world.' "This has been awesome. The crowd has been on its feet throughout. The ghost of Metallica is finally laid to rest," said Karamjeet Singh, senior vice president, Mooz Entertainment, referring to the 2011 Metallica gig in Gurgaon that faced an unwelcome cancellation back then.

Guns N’ Roses Plays India After Twenty Year Wait
By KABIR TANEJA
December 13, 2012, 4:19 am

The legendary American rock band Guns N’ Roses made the outsourcing boomtown of Gurgaon the last stop on their debut tour of India Wednesday night, a tour 20 years in the making.

In 1992, the band had been slated to play Mumbai (then Bombay), but cancelled after riots that pitted Hindus against Muslims shook the city. They played Israel instead.

The show in Gurgaon, just outside New Delhi, hit all of the band’s high notes, including anthems like “Patience” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” but also the kind of low that has haunted it for decades: an apparent squabble between band members toward the end.

The venue was the so-called Leisure Valley, a bare patch of earth in the center of Gurgaon’s business district, a clutch of high-rises housing the Indian offices of international companies like Google and Accenture. A crowd of about 8,000, just over half the venue’s capacity, turned up for the show, made up of office workers in suits and ties, college students in black T-shirts and even entire families.

The band’s leader, Axl Rose, took the stage exactly on time amid roaring guitar riffs, and the band thundered immediately into the title track of their latest album, “Chinese Democracy.” Dubbed “the Titanic of rock albums” by the New York Times critic Jon Pareles when it came out in 2008, “Chinese Democracy” took 15 years to make and may be the most expensive album ever produced.

The crowd, mostly familiar with earlier albums like “Appetite for Destruction,” struggled to recognize the opening song. But they warmed up as the guitarist DJ Ashba teased into the anthemic introductory notes of “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Axl Rose, the lead vocalist of Guns N' Roses, performing at their concert, in Gurgaon, Haryana, on Wednesday.Courtesy of Shiv AhujaAxl Rose, the lead vocalist of Guns N’ Roses, performing at their concert, in Gurgaon, Haryana, on Wednesday.

As Mr. Rose began his trademark shrieking vocals, the crowd seemed to hold its breath, perhaps collectively wondering if the 50-year-old still had the pipes. By the end of the show, it was clear that the growl of the ’90s was missing, but for a not-so-healthy looking guy, he sounded good. Those legendary screams in songs like “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Live and Let Die” and “Paradise City” were close enough to the originals to give a slight tingle to the spine.

In all, the band played a three-hour set, rolling out newer songs and revisiting some classics like “It’s So Easy” and “Mr. Brownstone,” as well as throwing in a handful of covers, such as Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.”

But Guns N’ Roses’ trademark epic ballads didn’t always fare so well. “Estranged,” from the “Use Your Illusion” double album, was a particular test – the band only managed to play a passable version of the melody-heavy, nine-minute piece of musical theater. It wasn’t something the purest Guns N’ Roses fans (and I include myself in that camp) were happy about. That sometimes-ethereal piece of music calls for three good guitarists, and the three on stage were mediocre.

Much of the crowd seemed to be hearing the songs from “Chinese Democracy” for the first time, but the melodious grooves of “This I Love,” “Street of Dreams” and “Catcher in the Rye” seemed to hit the right nerve, and attendees swayed in time.

The band really got the crowd’s attention, though, by throwing in a cover of AC/DC’s “Riff Raff.”

In true Indian fashion, hawkers sold popcorn and peanuts during the show. Looking at the eclectic mix of concertgoers, which seemed to include both middle-aged parents bringing their kids and kids bringing their middle-aged parents, it seemed that more than one generation had been waiting for this concert to happen.

Each band member got a showcase song: the bassist Tommy Stinson sang one of his own, called “Motivation,” while the pianist Dizzy Reed did a rendition of Led Zeppelin’s classic “No Quarter.” (View the entire set list here.)
Crowds at the Leisure Valley Grounds in Gurgaon, during the Guns N' Roses concert on Wednesday.Courtesy of Mooz EntertainmentCrowds at the Leisure Valley Grounds in Gurgaon, during the Guns N’ Roses concert on Wednesday.

The song that got the loudest crowd response was, as expected, the seminal “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” with its instantly recognizable opening guitar riff. This was quickly followed by two other Gunners classics, “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry.” The latter was the 23rd song of the night, and Mr. Rose was both visibly and vocally drained.

Still, the band went through “Civil War” and “Nightrain” before exiting the stage, leaving concertgoers wondering aloud whether it was over or not. (Concerts of this scale in Delhi are still rare, so many people didn’t know whether to expect an encore or not.)

Amidst chants for an encore, Mr. Rose came back onstage and declared himself happy to be playing in India. “This has been a longtime dream,” he said. Then he dedicated the entire show to Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar maestro who died on Tuesday. The dedication was followed by an acoustic jam between the guitarists Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal and DJ Ashba, then the mellow classic “Patience.”

As the clock neared 10 p.m., the opening riff to “Paradise City” blared through the speakers. The band had managed to finish a three-city tour of India successfully, without any major hiccups, fulfilling the dreams of many in the audience who had craved a chance to see their music heroes from yesteryear live.

But it was not over yet. After all, what is Guns N’ Roses without some drama?

After the band came out together for a final bow, Mr. Rose seemed to decide he still had one more song in him. He called the band members back on stage. Mr. Stinson seemed to balk: he was visible from where I sat nearly throwing his bass backstage, as a roadie tried to stop him.

The rest of the band started playing “Nice Boys” from “Rose Tattoo,” but Mr. Stinson didn’t come onstage. Mr. Rose disappeared backstage, and reappeared moments later. He was followed by Mr. Stinson, who threw his bass onto a pile of equipment, flipped the middle finger at some crew members and left. The band finished the last song without a bassist.

Kabir Taneja is a freelance journalist who owns all of the Guns N’ Roses albums, including “Chinese Democracy."

This guy's a party animal! RT @[url=https://www.a-4-d.com/profile.forum?mode=viewprofile&u=gunsnroses: After the show in #Delhi @axlrose took some time and said hello to some fans instagr.am/p/TKg473tDrX/

— Axl Rose (@axlrose) gunsnroses: After the show in #Delhi @axlrose took some time and said hello to some fans instagr.am/p/TKg473tDrX/

— Axl Rose (@axlrose) December 13, 2012