POSTS
GnR
Sweet! My buddy M@ hooked me up with a ticket to GnR Monday. Being one of my favorite all-time bands, I was stoked. Honestly I wasn’t that excited about the opener, Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), who I’d seen open for GnR some 16 years ago. I’ve always considered Skid Row to be wussy rock, a sort of precursor to Incubus (who should’ve stuck with the funky stuff they put out early).
We slammed down my flask of whiskey in the parking lot, then headed in (box seats, not GA). I predict: “First song- Welcome to the Jungle.” Jen, the nice lady bringing the beers warned us promptly…”Axl’s not coming on till midnite. Maybe 11:30.” That’s still nearly 5 hours away. We order beers. The Suicide Girls (surprisingly clean-cut and nontatooed) came out and did a pretty sweet set of routines. Some Reservoir Dogs, stewardess dances, chocolate, all sorts of stuff. Pretty entertaining, I busted out the below-seat binoculars.
To leave Jen to better things, we started ordering beers 2×2.
After the Suicide Girls, we got a nice set from Helmet. Helmet! They’re awesome, I didn’t know Helmet would be there! woohoo, things were looking up. They could’ve cranked the volume quite a bit more, but they were the opening band.
2×2, yeah. Happy Monday!
Okay.  Sebastian Bach friggin rocked. He played a kickass set, a mix of old and new. He made it feel like the audience was there to see him. His new stuff shredded, the old stuff was tame by comparison. He belted it out, and his musicians were good and loud. They had fun. I rocked out.
Last call. 2×3 delivered in the 6-pack. My most expensive 6-pack ever. Like a QuickieMart in Antarctica expensive. But holy crap it tasted good, my blood was flowing, and it got us through the show.
GnR came on.  Welcome to the Jungle. sweet! Nice riff. The new band sounded great. Axl did not sound great. He was flat. His voice virbrated like a reed a times. It’s the end of a hard tour. Singing like that, man, he has some energy, but he couldn’t carry it. Not this far. But the band sounded great, they added their own twists to the songs, not stealing riff after riff, but with the same flavor.
Being in a box, there were other folks in it, something I’m mindful of. But when you’re rockin you’re rockin and that means you’re not sitting. So I stood in the corner and banged my head till my neck hurt and banged some more. Guy behind me suggested that I sit, so others can see. Not angry, but pleading: “It’s f*%king Welcome to the Jungle man you hafta rock!” and I continued to rock. I sat when I didn’t need to rock.
Song of the night: Rocket Queen. Sweet variation musically, and Axl hit this one really well.
Downer: It’s So Easy. Just didn’t have the f*$k you sound to it just trying to get through it. This is when I sat down. I did stand up again, stand up, sit down. Whatever. It was fun. I’m not an asshole usually, but I gotta rock.