Guns N' Roses

On December 13th GNR (and we all know that is just an Axl Rose solo band, but who cares?! It's f-ing Axl Rose!) finally came to Utah. I was a bit apprehensive about the concert, I mean will Axl even show up? If he does show will he act enthusiastic? Most importantly will he sound great? Axl Rose needs to sound great, that is the only acceptable setting for him. Even a good Axl isn't good if that makes any sense... Same with Sebastian Bach, Sebastian and Axl did a duet cover of Aerosmith's "Back In the Saddle" and it was terrible! They both only sounded good, and it made the song sound bad. But Sebastian Bach was a major backing vocalist on GNR's "Chinese Democracy" album and they both sounded great which made the album AMAZING! I will probably get shit for saying this but "Chinese Democracy" is hands down the best Guns N' Roses album, in my opinion ( Guns N' Roses' "Better" ).

Black Label Society opened for Guns N' Roses, they were the only openers and they didn't start until 9pm. I just barely saw BLS on November 4th when they opened for Judas Priest. Now don't get me wrong, I love BLS and Zakk Wylde. But I found out that the love is only on CD. I was still upset from the Judas Priest show when I found out that Zakk had a stack of lyrics next to him. And then to make matters worse he played the EXACT SAME SET as when I saw him last month... COME ON ZAKK!!! Why do you hurt me so bad? I saw him last year and went more for Children Of Bodom that opened for him, I also found the band 2cents that show (2cents - "Get What?"). I thought maybe how boring his show was may have been a fluke, because when I saw him play for Ozzy in 2007 it was amazing. Meanwhile when it got time for his guitar solo intermission I turned to my dad who was with me and said "His solo gets really annoying around minute 10." I don't think he thought I was serious until minute 7 or 8 of his outrageously repetitive and simple solo. I will not make an effort to go see Black Label Society again if they come headlining.

The time is now 11pm and GNR finally comes out on stage. DJ Ashba starts out the intro to the song "Chinese Democracy" and the crowd is going insane! The intro gets closer to the end and OMG there he is! Its Axl! I can't believe I am actually seeing Axl Rose perform in Utah. And OMG he sounds amazing! Oh it is going to be a good show! The only thing I can complain about the show was that the band was so loud that they drowned out Axl's voice for probably the first half of the concert until they tweaked the sound enough. So it did get even better than before! And they played for 3 hours non-stop, just hit after hit after hit! People started leaving around 1am, I couldn't believe it. I was so tired but who knows when Axl will come to Utah again, if he ever tours again. I would have stayed another 3 hours to watch that Metal God perform. It was an amazing night. Thanks to my father for the concert ticket!