Seeing Guns 'N Roses Live Was A Religious Experience
I saw Guns 'N Roses last night for the first time. Now they're not one of my favorite bands, not by a long shot. I recognize their greatness and of course I know Slash is one of the GOATs and maybe THE goat, but it's rare that I go out of my way to actively listen to them. To me, they're just a llllliiiiitttttlllllleeee too heavy, and now that I'm old, fat and no longer dominating the HS football and baseball fields and have no need, I don't really go out of my way to listen to shit that's TOO heavy.
For instance, my most recent Spotify listens are the following artists and bands:
Curtis Salgado:
Eric Lindell:
JJ Gray & Mofro:
Freddie King:
You get the point. Love OAR, love Dave, blah blah. I just typically need laid back ~vibez~ 99% of the time I'm listening to music.
I couldn't have been more excited to see them. Dante talked me into dropping the $200 on a ticket in the pit. He told me that they're one of the very best live acts I'll ever see and that since the whole band fucking hates each other, that there's a good shot I'll never have a chance to see them again. I trust Dante when it comes to music more than just about anybody, so that was the only nudge I needed.
Who gives a shit about $200 anyways? That's pennies in the grand scheme of things. But holy SHIT am I glad I dropped that coin. From start to finish, it was the unquestioned best concert I've ever been to in my entire life. They unseated Van Halen w/ David Lee Roth for me and I didn't think anyone would do that. (Side note: a lot of what I am saying about GNR can be said about Van Halen too…. absolutely surreal live and I never LOVED them like I do other bands).
Start to finish it was a 3 hours stretch of melt your face off, incredible music. There's nothing I can say or need to say about Slash, everyone knows that's he's god at playing guitar, but seeing him live is different. Yes, I was one of "those guys" who whipped out my phone every time he'd go into a guitar solo. Excuse the first video, I posted this to IG when I woke up and was still drunk and just threw all the videos I took into the post. Guess one slipped through the cracks that shouldn't have.
Anyways, just scroll right:
In the last video you'll notice Slash paid homage to the greatest city in the world, Chicago, with his spin on some Chicago blues guitar playing. Buddy Guy would be proud. As you can see from my playlist above, watching arguably the greatest living guitar player put his spin on MY personal favorite style of music was unreal. I keep using the words "holy" and "religious" to describe the experience for me, but I can't think of a better way to spin it. He and they were that good.
The TL/DR of this post is this: go and see Guns 'N Roses the next time you have a chance. It doesn't matter what kinda music you're into, they transcend musical taste. I can't wait to talk about this on our music podcast, On The Guest List next week
SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! I'm actually playing Hells Bells on stage in front of 25,000 people or so myself next week (actually)…. stay tuned for the video to come. I hope Slash sees it and decides he wants to take me under my wing, coach me up, and turn me into a rock star
We've have some crazy big guests on the show so far. Not quite Slash or Axel big, but big nonetheless. Marc Roberge, Cory Wong, Teddy Swims, Neon Trees, X Ambassadors, AntiFlag, Andy Frasco and have…
…. drum roll ….
Gary Clark Jr and Black Pumas lined up as guys who we have tentative "yes" answers from. It's a good show. I promise that. Check it out.