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Not in This Lifetime

joecubbie
Fri, 15/07/2016 - 18:42

There are three events I've dreamed of happening in my lifetime: marriage (the most reasonable of the three), a Cubs World Series win, and a GN'R reunion. The latter 2 of the 3 I've wished and hoped (the Dusty Springfield kind) and prayed and cried for YEARS to happen before finally coming to the realization that neither would happen in my lifetime. Yet here we are halfway through 2016 and one of those events has already occurred.

There have been bands I've really wanted to see and lucky for me, I've seen most of my favorite bands live. Walking into Soldier Field on Sunday, July 3 was different though because unlike every other show I had seen, this was the show I have literally been waiting my entire life to witness. The concert of the millennium. Axl, Slash, and Duff on the same stage again. I was shaking just walking into the stadium.

We had nosebleed seats up on the 300 level...or so we thought. Surprisingly, after a completely sold out first night that Friday, they only sold out half of the stadium for the Sunday show. Therefore, everyone on the 300 and 400 levels were given upgraded tickets to the 100 level. Awesome!!! That much closer to history!!!

Opening up the show was a childhood favorite of mine, Alice in Chains. They're a band I had been wanting to see for years and delivered a killer 45 minute set of all the hits including “Man in the Box”, “Them Bones”, and “Would?”. Their dark yet beautiful sound has stood the test of time and had I closed my eyes I would've thought singer William DuVall was the late great Layne Staley. Sheer brilliance.

Now it was time for the main event. At about 9:00, the classic GN'R logo appeared on the giant screen with the guns part of the logo shooting bullets. This lasted about 5 minutes until the lights finally went out and one of the guns shot a bullet directly towards the Chicago skyline with the Looney Toons theme music playing in the background. Before you knew it, Duff McKagan was playing the opening notes to “It's So Easy”, Slash joining in on the intro and then kicking into the riff which lead to Axl Rose running out onstage with that opening line, “I see your sister in her Sunday dress.” The crowd was cheering so loud that at some parts of the show you couldn't even hear the band. GN'R was back and the best they've been since 1993!!!

Slash and Duff have remained practically unchanged since GN'R went their separate ways all those years ago. Both played and looked like they hadn't missed a beat, especially Slash. The only thing missing with a lit cigarette in his mouth! Axl on the other hand has aged, but this did not affect his performance (despite what my cousin said about him looking like a "slob"). He's lost at least 25 pounds in the last couple years and vocally is in the best shape he's been in since the Use Your Illusion Tour. He hit every note with ease and nailed challenging tracks such as “Rocket Queen” and “Don't Cry”. The setlist consisted of everything including songs off of Appetite, UYI I & II, covers (including “Raw Power” by The Stooges, “The Seeker” by The Who, and “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd amongst others), and Chinese Democracy.

What?!

Yeah you read that right. The reunited GN'R played not 1, not 2, but 3 songs off of the atrocious Axl Rose nu metal record known as Chinese Democracy. Now this pisses me off for a few reasons. People are spending their hard earned money to see this tour and to hear the classics. Why the hell are Slash and Duff playing songs off a record they didn't even play on and a shitty one at that?! This is essentially the equivalent of Black Sabbath getting back together with Ozzy in the 90s and saying, “Yeah those 3 records we did with Dio? You gotta learn these songs off of them.” My God could you even imagine Ozzy trying to sing “Neon Knights” or “The Sign of the Southern Cross”? I will say, Slash's spin on Buckethead's guitar solos were pretty cool and made those songs much more listenable (btw, anyone who knows me knows I love Buckethead, just not as the guitarist for "Guns N' Roses" as Axl Rose used to call himself). But then I realized on the way home from the show that there's another side to all of this...

Considering it took Chinese Democracy a million years to come out, it's very possible that those songs were originally worked on with Slash and Duff back in '93/'94 which is when Axl started writing it, if not earlier. The end product was garbage, but I could only imagine what it could've been if it was released a decade earlier as a proper GN'R record and not an Axl Rose as GN'R record. What we're hearing on this tour is the closest we'll get to that.

Other than that, I would certainly say this was the show I had waited my entire lifetime to see. They played a 3 hour set of 25 songs and closed out with “Paradise City”, complete with an epic fireworks display. At the end of the night, I felt different, almost like a new person. I know why I felt this way. I felt this way because a part of me that had been empty ever since my little 9 year old ears first heard Appetite for Destruction was filled. And it happened in my lifetime.


titoagogo's picture

RAD!!!! I can't wait to see them in Los Angeles!!!

5
joecubbie's picture

Have fun! It's going to be amazing.

Blüdrayne's picture

Axl Rose lost 25 pounds? Only 50 more to go then.

5
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