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By rainman
Detroit/Auburn Hills 'Rock City' Review--
Well, there is really good info and a little bad (mostly good though) and
some of this review is similar to other reviews, but PLEASE READ ON. Forgive
me if I miss something or slur my words since I had a long drive home and I
am very tired and the weather was crappy. The crowd of mainly composed of
twenty/thirty some things, although there were a lot of teenagers, which is
a good sign for the future.
There where even some 40/50 years in the moth
pit, really cool. I was in the center of the Floor (general admission) about
5 feet from the stage. The floor was sold out or appeared to be from my
angle, the lower bowl mainly sold out overall and the upper bowls had a some
empties, but overall good considering. I would say not counting the empty
seats in the 'behind' the stage area it was 70% sold out. That sounds about
right, but I wasn't really counting. That again was my view from the floor.
If there was a single or New CD it would have sold out for sure.
There were a few fights in the crowd on the floor and it appears to have set
the tone for the night. CKY started just after 8 PM instead of 7:30 PM and
they said they were late due to the Detroit Metro Airport giving them shit.
They also complained about not getting peanuts on the plane, wah wah.
In between each one of their songs the crowd would chant 'Guns N' Roses' and
piss the band off. It obviously has wore on them over this tour and it
showed. CKY would reply to the crowd, 'We Don't know what you are saying or
care' and also said later 'Fuck Off', etc... The lead guitarist even spit on
a guy in the front row. After their approx. 30 minutes or so minutes of fame
that was it for CKY. The lead guitarist was having words with some of the
crowd after their set was complete and eventually threw his guitar into the
lower bowl on the left side of the stage in the seating area and almost hit
a girl. A roadie from CKY went out there quickly to get it since it was
scarfed up pretty quick by a fan.
Mixmaster Mike is good at what he does no doubt about it, but after a while
it gets a little old for me. The Detroit crowd was into him most of his set.
MMM mixes the same songs you saw in other reviews I believe.
GNR came on about 10:50, played about 1.5 hours or so, more on that later...
Sorry, but I was unable to view the time on my pager since I was seated
general admission and every was moving forward in anticipation of GNR. They
did make us wait a little, but came on hard and heavy and sounded great. AXL
was wearing a 'DETROIT REDWINGS-BRETT HULL #17 JERSEY to start the concert
and later on he put on a 'DETROIT PISTONS-BEN WALLACE #3 JERSEY. AXL looked
and sounded great as well as everyone else. Robin Finck had a black jumpsuit
on and showed a lot of emotion in his playing. Tommy Stinson had a lot of
energy especially after a few songs. Brain has always rocked, as the same
for Buckethead.
AXL introduced Buckethead as the other shows, saying he was kidnapped by
aliens and raised in a chicken coup. Buckethead did his usual great and
interesting act and also had a bobble head Col. Sanders that he showed to
the crowd. He gave away a few toys to the crowd and we were really into him.
I spotted a couple of people sporting KFC buckets at the show. Richard
Fortus is really good and displayed a lot of energy. He was like an IZZY on
speed. Dizzy really rocked during 'The Blues' and when AXL introduced him,
along with Buckethead the crowd went nuts!!!
Chris Pitman has this funky keyboard stand that looks like it is bouncing
on a spring. He didn't look overly busy though. AXL had a joke/rant about
the Motor City and how Detroit provided the wheels to everyone or something
like that. He also asked the crowd what to play next at one point and there
were a lot of 'One in Million'
requests chanted and he said he cannot play that.
They played basically the same set list as the other shows (now
the bad part starts) except they played 'RHIAD' which sounded
awesome, BUT did not play 'MY MICHELLE', 'NIGHTTRAIN', AND 'PARADISE CITY'
(ENCORE). I didn't spot any technical problems with the mike from my area.
The crowd really was into it and sang all the songs including the NEW songs.
Some people of course did not know the new songs and I felt cool since I did
and a few looked at me with amazement or maybe they were thinking, 'What a
showoff'. No matter what I had fun up to the end of 'Patience'.
AXL screwed up the lyrics a couple of times to 'Patience' and especially
prior to the guitar part towards the end. When he forgot (temporarily) a few
lyrics and then started singing again he was looking at Tommy and pointing
at the teleprompter and looked mad as hell. AXL song and at the point where
he usually goes to the back at the end of 'Patience' during the guitar part
he walked away (which is fine), but he through the mike in the air and his
body language looked like, 'Well Fuck it'. Robin and Tommy kind of looked at
each other, like oh shit what is going on. He came out as normally scheduled
to finish the scheduled vocal part of 'Patience', but then when 'Patience'
was done he said goodnight and shortly after the house lights came on and
that was it, period.
So there was no 'Nighttrain', 'My Michelle', or 'Paradise' encore with
confetti. AXL has not changed a whole lot when it comes to his attitude and
the crowd was really into GNR the whole time they played, so it kind of
surprised me he did that. I would have gave the show an A or A- up to that
point, but I have to give it a solid B for indifferent attitude.
I rocked to GNR the whole show, but was disappointed when the show was cut
short with no encore. Thankfully the fans were mainly pleased overall and NO
RIOT happened. PS--I had planned a longer review, but I cut it short since I
had some disappointment, but don't get me wrong I had a great time and will
go again when they are back with the new CD. Enjoy the show when it comes to
your town, but pray the teleprompter works!
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