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Rating: Ok, here we go. I recently registered on DeBaser and noticed that every album has been reviewed about 2,000,000,000 times (sometimes by deaf people), but while browsing a bit, I noticed that concerts can also be reviewed...WOW!
The story I want to tell you starts from far away: from the year I was in my second year of high school, the year the Guns took me by the hand and led me into the fantastic world of real music. I spent several months listening to Welcome To The Jungle, Paradise City etc., etc., before landing on "Use Your Illusion I", "II" (if you hadn't realized, I'm someone who assimilates music very slowly). Well, just when my interest in the Guns was about to completely fade away, the big news came: Axl Rose and his band (sorry, but I can't bring myself to call them Guns N' Roses) are touring to promote their latest album "Chinese Democracy" (released about 2 years earlier -_-) and will be stopping in Italy on September 5th!!
All excited, I immediately buy tickets on Ticketone (about 3 months in advance). I fidget for days and days until the fateful date arrives: 5/9/'10. We're all outside the Palaforum in Milan, looking at each other, no one knows what to expect. Reading articles on the internet, the one touring with Guns N' Roses is an old-fashioned Axl! A great performer, you might say?! No, a great jerk... canceling dates at random, showing up late to concerts, stopping concerts halfway because the crowd is too agitated, reaching his peak of stupidity by abandoning the Irish date, leaving the stage prematurely. With these premises, we enter the sports arena and await the arrival of the "Guns."
Suddenly, the lights go out, and the big screens on the sides of the stage show the face of a Chinese person deformed by anger on a red background, and the notes of the intro of the new single Chinese Democracy start to spread in the air—here we go, it's time!! At one point, the silhouette of the new guitarist who recently joined the band, DJ Ashba (who, incidentally, tries very hard to be Slash but can't), appears on the central big screen (right above the drums). However, he strums the first chords of Chinese Democracy with a good sound, transmitting excitement to the entire audience, but Axl is still nowhere to be seen until suddenly there's a burst of light! And there he is, my idol for all five years of high school: Axl Rose. A bit heavier, it's true, and he doesn't perform the classic runs on stage, it's true, but from the initial voice of Chinese Democracy (even though it's not particularly difficult), he shows that little has changed within him, he continues to scream with the same youthful anger and this sends the 15,000 people in Assago into rapture. After the first song ends, the initial darkness recreates itself, and the same guitarist strums the initial notes of Welcome To The Jungle: the whole band performs it perfectly, with the usual grit and ferocity; at that point, I think: Listen, guys! Are you missing something? Do you hear anything wrong? These are the GUNS'N'ROSES DAMN IT!!! Meanwhile, the band continues their incredible performance in this order: It's So Easy, Mr Brownstone, This I Love (fantastic), Rocket Queen, Street Of Dreams, You Could Be Mine, Sweet Child O' Mine (preceded by a very pleasant solo from DJ Ashba) Another Brick In The Wall (performed on the piano by Axl), November Rain, Knockin' On Heaven's Door.
So far, everything perfect!! The drummer hammers harder than Adler, Axl still seems like a young kid, and DJ Ashba and Bumblefoot interpret Slash's solos brilliantly. But from here on, the painful notes begin. "Nightrain" starts, and the entire audience, in a fanboy hysteria, doesn't realize something is wrong with Axl's voice...."I must have heard wrong," I think and decide to give him another chance: the encores start, and the band hasn't played Paradise City yet, but everyone knows it will be played last. Well, Axl and the band get back on stage for the encore starting with Sorry, a pleasant little song from the new album, but even here something doesn't convince me, it's as if Axl's microphone suddenly broke!!! Sorry (thank God) ends and finally makes way for the great closing song: Paradise City!! Well, I have to say: DJ Ashba starts this song by the book, with a very clean and powerful sound, but something is wrong! It's as if he's playing it slowly! In these notes, I no longer feel a group of kids drunk as monkeys who channel their vitality into their instruments!! What is this stuff!! But the best is yet to come: there it is! Axl starts and brings the house down (as he had previously done with This I Love with an epic performance). There he is!!! There he is!!!.... but what the hell is this? Did the microphone batteries die? Oh Christ.... you can't hear anything!! So, it happens that the audience, full of compassion, starts singing Paradise City and at least partially covers the total lack of Axl's voice.
Do you want to know how I felt just walking out of there? Well, I was as excited as a young porn actress dealing with her first Rocco movie xD great concert, great fun!! Too bad Axl is no longer 20 years old!!! A great concert, incredibly fun and a must-see!! Please don't kill me, but your first love is never forgotten ;-)
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