Most of the city had a frown when they heard legendary rock band Gn’R was coming to our quaint little city. Some because they felt that the rumours were fake, some because of their loyalty to Slash. Axl and his band of merry arrived in Bangalore, performing at Bharatiya City, Thanisandra on the 7th of Dec. The band had never made a move towards the Indian part of the hemisphere, but the wait as it turned out was well worth it. There is nothing like hearing the beginning of Welcome to the Jungle live. I understood, for the first time, what it felt like to have an electric guitar give you the shivers.
The concert that was supposed to start at a sharp 6:45 saw the band go on by a late 7:30. The crowd was scarce at the ‘Gold’ segregation, while the ‘Silver’ segregation had a healthy set of people leaning on the barricade that, I felt, could have been removed. The crowd shrieked and roared as a beer-bellied Axel, drink –in-hand took to the stage. And take on the stage he did. Without a break, the man ran through a mixture of the band’s old and new numbers with the lungs of a noisy infant. In his element, Axel sounded everything and more than expected. Kicking off with Chinese Democracy, the electricity hung in the air as guitarist DJ Ashba and Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal stuck every note of Welcome to the Jungle (that followed) to perfection. Following that however, were a series of new Gn’R songs that had only a part of the crowd grooving. They did pick up the pace with Beatles classic Live and Let Die but that didn’t carry them for too long.
Bumblefoot and Richard Fortus’ guitar skills did garner a little woot here and a few claps there but the crowd went up in a magnanimous screech when DJ Ashba kicked off Sweet Child of Mine making Gn’R fan Sudhir Selvaraj explode, “I don’t miss Slash, that’s how awesome this is!” The crowd agreed vehemently as profanity filled the air at Ashba’s precision and delivery that carried through the guitar solo of other classic and personal fav: November Rain.
After a few more classics the band went into current mode letting a few of the band members take the stage solo, while the crowd grabbed a drink. The plausible main reason for the up-and-down momentum of the band was to give Axel a chance to relax his vocal chords and regain energy. After all, the man was the reason most of the crowd showed up. Ok, let’s not joke, the man was the reason the ENTIRE crowd showed up. And rightly so, as he stood next to Ashba and rendered Patience that had most couples in the crowd take a step closer to one another.
After that, as the clock ticked closer to 10, people realised the show was coming to an end. But the end witnessed was far from what was expected. Paradise City burst forth as a series or red rocketed towards the sky from the stage forming a cloud of red that glittered before the stage lights. Throats that could scream no-more shrieked at the sight. So much so that Axel himself burst out laughing, causing me to have a sudden jolt of silence at his Botox-et-all smile. With shouts of “one-more” and “Throw me Axel’s shirt”, people began to mill out, happy at making the 1 ½ hour car ride to the grounds and standing in the mile long queues to get in. Gn’R is worth watching live, but make damn sure you are surrounded by the right crowd!
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