Guns n' Roses - Not in this lifetime Tour - Melbourne 14th Feb

Setlist

1. It's so Easy
2. Mr Brownstone
3. Chinese Democracy
4. Welcome to the Jungle
5. Double Talkin' Jive
6. Better
7. Estranged
8. Live and Let Die (Wings cover)
9. Rocket Queen
10. You Could Be Mine
11. Attitude (Misfits cover) (with "You Can't Put Your Arms… more )
12. This I Love
13. Civil War (with band introductions)
14. Slash Guitar Solo
15. Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From The Godfather) (Nino Rota cover)
16. Sweet Child O' Mine
17. Whole Lotta Rosie (AC/DC cover) (with Angus Young)
18. Riff Raff (AC/DC cover) (with Angus Young)
19. Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd cover) (Slash & Richard Fortus guitar duet)
20. November Rain ("Layla" piano exit intro with… more )
21. Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan cover)
22. Nightrain

Encore
23. Don't Cry (with Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm… more )
24. Paradise City

Highlights: Rocket Queen, Night Train, Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Mr Brownstone
Notable Omissions: Reckless Life, Move to the City, You're Crazy, My Michelle, Patience, Down on the Farm, Right next door to hell, I used to love her

Taking the setlist at face value a fan should be able to tell that is where this concert went wrong. I should make a career of being a setlist consultant to bands. Frustrating and could have been so much better, best sum this concert up.

The original driving trio of Axl, Slash and Duff, back together, playing songs from a catalogue of 5 fantastic albums yet they decide to fill the set list up with covers of songs, most of which they never played in their hey day. AC/DC covers, waste of time like the band, Layla, what are you thinking, Pink Floyd songs should never be covered, the Godfather theme - what the **** and Rolling Stones, again who cares. They did an entire album of punk covers and only did 1 song (Attitude) from that. It was so frustrating listening to yet another cover, I just couldn't care less. Then there were the extended guitar solos interspersed between songs, to give Axl a break, good for a time, but it kept on happening. Just when the concert seemed to pick up, it would be ruined by something like that.

Guns n' Roses are one of the greatest hard rock bands in history. They stormed onto the scene in the (US) summer of 1988 with Sweet Child o Mine, its guitar solo one of the most famous in history, so good I played it at my very first trivia night. They paved the way for a bunch of hard rock bands like Def Leppard, Poison and Motley Crue to have commercial success in an era where electronic synth pop reigned supreme. Guns n' Roses are unique because they're one of the few American bands to be heavily influenced by classic British music instead of their own inferior music scene. Axl, a die hard Queen fan, has essentially replicated many aspects of Queen's music whilst retaining a quintessentially American sound. That is very hard to do well. An excellent arranger of music, at his disposal is Slash, a flamboyant guitarist with a unique guitar sound, driving his music. My favourite video of him is with Brian May when he teachers him how to play the riff for We Will Rock you prior to the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert, the protege taking over from the master. Duff, ever tight on bass, keeps things together.

Appetite for Destruction put them on the map and is one of the best hard rock albums ever made combing youthful exuberance with raw energy, a punk snarl and its quite diverse within its genre. I really only first heard about them when the most beautiful girl in my school (as decided by secret underground vote) kept telling me how much her boyfriend loved these guys and wanted to play these songs. None of my friends were into them so I saved my money and smuggled the album home so my mother didn't see the warnings about bad language. Fast forward a bit and I was amazed how popular these guys were in Melbourne, every one loved them and was looking forward to their new releases.

So it didn't surprise me to see the MCG was a buzz with people, a combination of grand final day and World Cup final. I arrived late and even though the band were due to be on stage at 8pm they simply couldn't given the large numbers of people amassed outside the ground. The sun set, the lights stayed off and around 9pm the band took stage welcoming Sydney to the concert and opened the show to a long series of boo's. The early part of the set ruined by poor sound quality, the vocals inaudible, guitar too distorted, the delay between 2 sets of speakers creating some sort wall of sound. Axl's vocals were poor, it was really the energy of the music and crowd that kept things going early. The crowd always at its best when they played songs from Appetite for Destruction as those were the songs we know and love. Indeed Axl's vocals improved on these songs. The band were tight, the guitar solo's always excellent and the sound quality improved as the night progressed, the mix getting clearer as they improved the delay problem. Axl was a little chubby but this didn't stop his running around the stage.

The night's highlight was easily Rocket Queen, a sophisticated song heavy on drums which changes direction several times and allows each band member to showcase their talents, drums, bass, guitar all shine and Axl's vocals at the end, the crowd singing in unision generating a bond through music.

If you need a shoulder
Or if you need a friend
I'll be here standing
Until the bitter end
No one needs the sorrow
No one needs the pain

They nailed the song.  Civil War could have been so much better, the guitar solo's weren't long enough when they were overdone through the rest of the concert. Axl sang poorly on Sweet Child of mine but Slash made up for it on guitar with his solo. November rain I always hated and was too long, I still can't figure out how an 11 minute song became a number 1 hit single in a post Meatloaf era. I was dazed and confused by the end of the first set as I was bored with the AC DC songs, Godfather theme cover, Wish you were here by Pink Floyd and a number of guitar solo's. I thought it was a bit self indulgent at times. And if they liked covers I think they should have only done punk songs, Queen songs and Led Zeppelin tunes.

Waiting for the Show to Begin.

The band redeemed themselves by closing with Nightrain, which they totally nailed. The song heavy on bass, it really highlights how well Duff and Slash play together, with elongated guitar solo's and a chorus the crowd sang along to. They only left the stage briefly, returning for Don't Cry, a total rip off of Queen's White Queen but nonetheless very popular with the crowd. I thought Axl sung this particularly well, his vocals able to rest throughout the show as he went off stage when Slash indulged in his guitar solo's. The closer Paradise City was clearly the song everyone waited for, the band saving the best for last. The band totally nailed it and despite the large numbers of people in the crowd, possibly over 100 000 it was hard to gauge how into the show they were as the music drowned everything out.

Fireworks at the end of the night.

The crowd was packed onto the ground throughout, all the stands were full but it was hard to hear the crowd sing along. The people around me sang in unison to Sweet Child of Mine, Rocket Queen and several others. The AC/DC covers were popular with others but at times I sensed the crowd was bored with the other covers and crap tracks from Chinese Democracy. I'm critical there were no tracks from their first album, Reckless life, where were you and I'm dirty on the covers because it takes away from their catalogue. The show was enjoyable in places, certainly not early on as I was frustrated with the mix.

I really don't know why bands persist in doing outdoor gigs, they are fraught with logistical issues, the sound quality is crap and whilst the weather was better then any outdoor Gig I'd seen in Europe, it didn't improve the sound quality. Although I reminded myself several times how good it was to not be sitting there in the cold and wet, the crowd stood up for most of the show, which lasted about 2 hours. I sat down for the covers cos I didn't care. And given the up and down nature of the music, sound quality, I really enjoyed parts of the show but not all the show. Slash was in fine form throughout and for me was the main draw-card. His distinctive style the reason the band were so successful

And as we debriefed on the way home, fans squashed together, 1 guy commented he felt he was witnessing the death of rock n roll. I was just happy I heard a band singing in English.

Final Score: 6/10.