GNR Concert

How do you know you're at a Guns N' Roses concert?

You have to wait a really long time for the show begin.

And so it went on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre as a crowd of about 21,000 waited for frontman Axl Rose to begin just over two hours past the scheduled start time - would you believe at 11:25 p.m.? - following sets by homegrown opening acts Danko Jones and Sebastian Bach.

Scenes that occured while we waited;
• Women in the stands - either in various states of undress or making out with each other
• There were boos as the crowd's impatience grew.
• Grown Men puking from consuming to much alcohol
• Security escorting people out almost continuously

The response for his tardiness - "Sorry about the time delay," "We got a little carried away .... last night. But anyway, we're here."

The concert started off with a heavy version of the GN'R classic Welcome To The Jungle.
Other song highlights were no surprise: A fiery, explosion-laced version of Live and Let Die; the GN'R signature song, Sweet Child O' Mine featuring stellar guitar work by Ashba; the heartfelt ballad November Rain with Rose at the piano; the propulsive You Could Be Mine; a great cover of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door that included an audience singalong; the anthemic Night Train and the show-ending Paradise City complete with more explosions pink confetti and silver streamers. (It's 1:55 a.m when they finally leave the stage although Axl returns to take a bow with his band and distribute shots to some people in the crowd and throw flowers out into the audience.)

Sadly I have to admit that we only made it to 1:15 a.m and missed the end of the show. I look back now and secretly regret my decision, however it is a little bad that I feel asleep in the middle of the concert because of full on exhaustion. It was a great concert I just wish I could have stayed awake.

I was doing a little thinking while we were waiting of all the "performers" I have seen, and since there are a few lists out there I thought maybe I would share my list of concerts I have had the pleasure of attending, so here they are in no particular order;

Aerosmith - Front Row
Brian Adams (x2)
Kim Mitchell
Sass Jordan
Live 8 Concert - (Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, Bryan Adams, Deep Purple, DMC, Jann Arden, Motley Crue, Our Lady Peace, Sam Roberts, Simple Plan, The Tragically Hip, Tom Cochrane)
MMVA '06 - Center Stage Bracelet (Metric, Hedley, Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy, Nick Lachey, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado)
NKOTB (x2) - Meet and Greet
Donnie Wahlberg (CD Release) - Side Stage
N'SYNC
Canadian Idol - Season 1
Bon Jovi
Gretchen Wilson
Spice Girls
Tina Turner
Def Leppard - Touching Stage
Gun's N' Roses
Mariah Carey (x2) - 5 Rows from Stage (Tuesday Feb, 9th 2010)
Collective Soul (x2) - VIP, Meet & After Party
Suzie McNeil - Olympic Torch Ceremony
Chicago
Van Halen - On The Floor

Other Types of Concert
Jersey Boys
Dirty Dancing
Jerry Seinfeld
Just for Laughs Festival '09 (Briefly, then got rained out)
Jazz Festival '09
David Letterman