Har bare 1/4 dusin ting å klage på etter denne konserten. I vektet rekkefølge:

1. Ølsalget stenger før konserten er over
2. Man kan bare kjøpe 1 øl pr pers pr gang
3. Ølet var dyrt

Rent personlig er jeg bombesikker på at musikkverdenen ville vært langt fattigere uten folk som W.A.R. (i likhet med – tja – R.Kelly, Phil Spector og Michael Jackson; figurer som balanserer sin identitet mellom å være store kunstnere og trøblete mennesker).

Det mest interessante ved Axl i 2010 er vel strengt tatt hvor sta han er i forhold til sin egen visjon, og at han samtidig velger å hedre Appetite… med et drøyt halvdusin («sju» blir bare ikke det samme) låter fra nettopp dét mesterverket (tidenes beste album, når man kjenner etter).

Jeg er nokså sikker på at Gn’R ville blitt lynsjet offentlig om ikke de spilte låter fra de tre (eller eventuelt to/fire, avhengig av hvordan man ser på Lies og UYI 1+2) første platene; samtidig er det åpenbart at hovedmannen selv ikke kunne brydd seg mindre om «riktig» og «galt». Dette er ikke størrelser i hans univers. «Chinese Democracy» er ikke en plate som vil bli husket ut dette tiåret engang; like fullt er det der Axl har sitt fulle fokus. Blir det noen delfinvideo herfra, dog? Du kan tippe og bli med i trekningen av noen premier.

Til slutt en liten oppfordring: Vær gjerne bestemt/sarkastisk/panegyrisk i din analyse og omtale av denne popkulturelle raringen og bandet han fronter, men vis respekt for de andre som snakker også.Det er kun slik vi får en interessant debatt.

Sound was terrible. Couldn’t hear Axl for the first three songs almost, just vaguely in the background. The band kept having issues with the sound, the vocals appearing and disappearing throughout the show. Sometimes his voice was extremely loud, sometimes very low.

Chinese Democracy is a lukewarm opener. It doesn’t get the crowd going too much. Welcome to the jungle is therefore the real opener, when people go nuts. Sadly, I couldn’t hear crap of his vocals, and I had the best damn seats in the entire arena.

His vocals finally showed up on Sorry. It sounds killer live. One of the highlights of the show. Crowd was pretty dead though. In fact, all the Chinese Democracy songs sounded mostly great. This I Love was superb too, but Axl have to really haul ass to do the songs. His voice are very raspy these days, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year. People love it though, because they think that’s how he is supposed to sound, but it truly is not.

Street of Dreams. Jesus. With all those ballads in there, why the fuck play it? Can’t they do another CD song? It’s been played to death already. Give it up. It’s a mediocre ballad. With Sorry and TIL there, absolutely no point.

DJ Ashba is the shining star of this GNR version. He plays well, he got a great stage presence. He saves it all from a total disaster stage presence wise (except Axl of course). Put your faith in DJ Ashba people.

Bumblefoot, hands down the greatest thing to happen to us in regards to communication with the fans, is so anonynomus on stage. He does nothing really. Just disappears somewhere between Axl and Ashba. The Buckethead craving has never been bigger. Bumbles solos are nothing special, his playing is skillfull but doesn’t give me anything. And his spot used to be filled with Buckethead. The difference is DRASTIC.

Fortus, cool on stage, was off several times on his rythm parts. Cool James Bond theme though.

Frank Ferrer just underlines the fact that Brian Mantia is the best drummer GNR ever had. Ferrer is too polished, «too nice».

When Axl’s vocals was present, he did his best. He kept disappearing backstage all the time. Annoying, but not uncommon. However, you see him sing and then run away, you just go «aaarrrrggghhh» after an hour or so. Ron said in an interview that the voice decided the setlist. Now, SOD is pretty hard to sing. Just replace it! Too many ballads. It looses momentum.

Better didn’t sound as good as I remembered from 2006. The back up vocals with Bumblefoot and Tommy works good though. Axl struggles throughout the song, but he always did on Better. I was scared they wouldn’t even do Better, but thankfully it came.

Madagascar was awesome. Just how it should have sounded on the record. Heavy and very tense. TIL was also great. Axl did great on it.

Embaressing moment when some dork gave Axl a Swedish flag. Axl wore it for a few verses on You Could Be Mine. He either had no idea it was the wrong flag for the country he was in, or he just wanted to have some fun. Guess he got the point when the crowd didn’t react to his little gesture.

He was also dead quiet for the entire show. Didn’t speak one word to the audience except for his introduction of the band and the guitar players. He said thank you at the end though, it felt like we did him a favour showing up or something.

The crowd cheered loudly when he stopped TIL 10 seconds into it because «he couldn’t hear shit». He smiled and seemed to be in a good mood. No problems there. For Axl, he almost seemed apathic. «Just do the job and get on with it» mentality. Very unlike what you expect from him.

So, I’ll give it a 3 out of 6.

Too little Chinese Democracy, and when played, they do the wrong songs. Maddy and SOD, well…heard them for years. Do something else. Plenty of songs to choose from. Only TIL played which was brand *new* thinking 2002-2006.

So, I can complain about the set list. I was there. Jarmo says the band plays for the audience. Well, I was in the audience and I want Chinese Democracy songs with AFD and mix them up a little. They’re growing into this pattern of doing a repeat-setlist every night.

So, I’m slightly disappointed with this 2010 version except for Ashba.

Du skal ikke ta den samtalen der så fryktelig på alvor. Jeg har vært fan av Guns N Roses en del år, og når Axl først kommer til Norge er jo det en fin anledning til å synse litt om både musikk, klær og hva det måtte være.

Ang det med priviligerte musikkjournalister, så har du jo et poeng i at vi er heldige som får gått på mange konserter. Men de fleste av oss (i hvert fall meg) har brukt fryktelig mye tid og penger på plater og konsertturer, og vet hvordan det er fordi vi fremdeles gjør det (Copenhell neste helg). Det kule med blogger som denne er jo nettopp å prate med musikkfolk som vi og jeg er enig og uenig med, og på den måten få nye opplevelser med musikk.

Rammstein er kanonbra, helt klart. Litt bitter for at jeg ikke får sett dem på Koengen i sommer.

Asbjørn

PS: Sjekker ut nye Kingdom Of Sorrow nå, dritfet plate. Den ligger på full stream på MySpace.com/KingdomOfSorrow

Jeg er forresten født litt over halvveis ut i april mnd. helt mot slutten av 70-tallet.

… is a fagband!