You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Oslo, Norway - June 2, 2010 (Oslo Spektrum)
Alright.
Sound was terrible. Couldn't hear Axl for the first three songs almost, just vaguely in the background. The band kept having issues with the sound, the vocals appearing and disappearing throughout the show. Sometimes his voice was extremely loud, sometimes very low.
Chinese Democracy is a lukewarm opener. It doesn't get the crowd going too much. Welcome to the jungle is therefore the real opener, when people go nuts. Sadly, I couldn't hear crap of his vocals, and I had the best damn seats in the entire arena.
His vocals finally showed up on Sorry. It sounds killer live. One of the highlights of the show. Crowd was pretty dead though. In fact, all the Chinese Democracy songs sounded mostly great. This I Love was superb too, but Axl have to really haul ass to do the songs. His voice are very raspy these days, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the year. People love it though, because they think that's how he is supposed to sound, but it truly is not.
Street of Dreams. Jesus. With all those ballads in there, why the fuck play it? Can't they do another CD song? It's been played to death already. Give it up. It's a mediocre ballad. With Sorry and TIL there, absolutely no point.
DJ Ashba is the shining star of this GNR version. He plays well, he got a great stage presence. He saves it all from a total disaster stage presence wise (except Axl of course). Put your faith in DJ Ashba people.
Bumblefoot, hands down the greatest thing to happen to us in regards to communication with the fans, is so anonynomus on stage. He does nothing really. Just disappears somewhere between Axl and Ashba. The Buckethead craving has never been bigger. Bumbles solos are nothing special, his playing is skillfull but doesn't give me anything. And his spot used to be filled with Buckethead. The difference is DRASTIC.
Fortus, cool on stage, was off several times on his rythm parts. Cool James Bond theme though.
Frank Ferrer just underlines the fact that Brian Mantia is the best drummer GNR ever had. Ferrer is too polished, "too nice".
When Axl's vocals was present, he did his best. He kept disappearing backstage all the time. Annoying, but not uncommon. However, you see him sing and then run away, you just go "aaarrrrggghhh" after an hour or so. Ron said in an interview that the voice decided the setlist. Now, SOD is pretty hard to sing. Just replace it! Too many ballads. It looses momentum.
Better didn't sound as good as I remembered from 2006. The back up vocals with Bumblefoot and Tommy works good though. Axl struggles throughout the song, but he always did on Better. I was scared they wouldn't even do Better, but thankfully it came.
Madagascar was awesome. Just how it should have sounded on the record. Heavy and very tense. TIL was also great. Axl did great on it.
Embaressing moment when some dork gave Axl a Swedish flag. Axl wore it for a few verses on You Could Be Mine. He either had no idea it was the wrong flag for the country he was in, or he just wanted to have some fun. Guess he got the point when the crowd didn't react to his little gesture.
He was also dead quiet for the entire show. Didn't speak one word to the audience except for his introduction of the band and the guitar players. He said thank you at the end though, it felt like we did him a favour showing up or something.
The crowd cheered loudly when he stopped TIL 10 seconds into it because "he couldn't hear shit". He smiled and seemed to be in a good mood. No problems there. For Axl, he almost seemed apathic. "Just do the job and get on with it" mentality. Very unlike what you expect from him.
So, I'll give it a 3 out of 6.
Too little Chinese Democracy, and when played, they do the wrong songs. Maddy and SOD, well...heard them for years. Do something else. Plenty of songs to choose from. Only TIL played which was brand *new* thinking 2002-2006.
So, I can complain about the set list. I was there. Jarmo says the band plays for the audience. Well, I was in the audience and I want Chinese Democracy songs with AFD and mix them up a little. They're growing into this pattern of doing a repeat-setlist every night.
So, I'm slightly disappointed with this 2010 version except for Ashba.
Adding a dice for every song - 1 to 6
Setlist:
Intro
01. Chinese Democracy - 3
02. Welcome to the Jungle - 5
03. It's So Easy - 4
04. Mr. Brownstone - 4
05. Sorry - 6
Richard Fortus Guitar Solo - 3
06. Live and Let Die - 3
07. This I Love - 5
08. Rocket Queen - 4
Band Introductions/Dizzy Reed Piano Solo - 2
09. Street of Dreams - 2
Jam
10. You Could Be Mine - 3
DJ Ashba Solo - 3
11. Sweet Child O' Mine - 4
Jam (Another Brick In The Wall) - 4
Axl Piano Solo (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road/Someone Saved My Life Tonight) - 2
12. November Rain - 4
Bumblefoot Guitar Solo - 1
13. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - 3
14. Nightrain - 4
Encore:
15. Madagascar - 6
16. Better - 4
17. Paradise City - 5
thanks for the review though
Re: Oslo, Norway - June 2, 2010 (Oslo Spektrum)
Yes, Sorry and TIL.
Who can blame them? 80% of the crowd just wanna hear NR, WTTJ, SCOM and PC.
But for people who are interested in seeing this band as a Chinese Democracy band, it's disappointing.
The arena wasn't full. Plenty of seated areas empty on the sides. Even in the middle.
Over at htgth they speak the general piss, but u can't paint roses on everything.
Re: Oslo, Norway - June 2, 2010 (Oslo Spektrum)
Cheers for the review. Shame they have never seemed to get on top of the sound issue. Either sack the appropriate crew members or (and I suspect this could be the real culprit) Axl needs to start turning up for sound chekcs.
Interesting your comments about DJ, I was curious as to what his stage craft might be like.
lol the Swedish flag thing, I imagine that wouldn't have gone over well at all!!! I always give me Norwegian friends shit about Sweden, Ikea etc etc just to rile them up.
Re: Oslo, Norway - June 2, 2010 (Oslo Spektrum)
I see someone posted your review DCK in the concert thread over at HTGTH, wonder how long it will last:
