Yes, we missed the guitar genius of Slash. At 50, Axl Rose, the long-haired heart throb of the nineties, just about managed to keep his fans happy with a few old classics and some still energetic vocals. And no, he did not climb on to the grand piano – or fall off it, like he's done at concerts recently.
All in all, the Guns N' Roses concert on Friday here, was hardly the rocking show that we've watched longingly on MTV, or more recently, on YouTube. Unfamiliar with most of his newer tracks – the ones he's been dishing out since the band split in the mid-nineties – the crowds waited patiently through the first hour of the concert.
A shadow of his glorious past, Rose's voice sounded tenuous and strained. But, he managed to put the guns back in Guns N' Roses when he returned to the classics. Obviously, the party didn't get started till the audience heard the familiar strains of the opening guitar solo of 'Sweet Child O' Mine', which then moved into the haunting and evergreen 'November Rain'. The purple patch of the concert extended into other classics -- mostly from their most popular album 'Appetite for destruction' and softer ballads from 'Use Your Illusion-I'.
Their most well-known cover, 'Knockin on Heavens' Door' was an expected track, but Rose surprised his audience with a taste of Pink Floyd with the anthemic 'Another brick in the Wall' that had the audience singing along.
Though he didn't entertain us by climbing on to the piano – and we thank him for that – he did shake his leg every now and then, leaving us all wishing hard for a time machine that could take us back to his heydays.
