2017.02.11 - ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Australia

Guns N’ Roses concert sound problems?

Our review of the Gunners’ concert at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium at the weekend elicited a number of readers’ comments, most of them about the sound quality.

The Melbourne concert is tonight at the MCG (after which it’s Adelaide and Perth’s turn), so concert-goers might want to check where they’ll find themselves sitting and recall what they paid for their tickets.

But Mike Basil cautioned reason: “People complaining about the sound are inevitable at a stadium concert. No sound mixer can make it sound good everywhere. Just isn’t possible.”

But the more expensive the ticket, the better the sound quality?

“I had Diamond Tickets….best concert ever. No sound problem. Axel’s voice was pitch perfect and Slash and Duff were amazing on their guitars. Take me back to Paradise City. Loved it,” wrote Ivanka.

“Wow, it’s hard to read that you guys had a hard time with sound on Saturday night. We fortunately scored some diamond standing section tickets and wow what an amazing gig!,” said Ant Alpen.

But at the other end of the spectrum Ian commented: “Saturday night’s gig was a shocker — really terrible sound quality and the screen was out of sync — at first I thought Axl was lip syncing as the vocals didn’t add up.”

Others agreed.

Said Kevin: “Attended Friday night and the band was brilliant but the sound was disgraceful. I too saw many leave just prior to Angus coming stage. The sound improved after Angus but was still poor. Completely out of synch, unable to hear 80% of the vocals.”

Audrey commented: “I went to Saturday night’s concert, have waited so long to see them. The sound was very disappointing, couldn’t hear Axl’s lyrics at all, the band was good. Just because you pay less than the people at the front it doesn’t mean you should have crap sound. The sound techs at ANZ should be sacked — worst concert ever. I have seen other concerts at the ANZ stadium and they have been awesome. Really bad on Guns n Roses part.”

And the beer?

“Friday night sound was poor, not even close to being loud enough, seen better acts in local pubs. ANZ staff should be ashamed of themselves — unorganised, useless, slow staff — 45 min to hour wait for 9$ flat warm xxxx , crowd was awsome,” wrote Pezz.