You know you're at a rock concert when the colour of choice is black...
Anyways, the day finally came (which thankfully, didn't rain or get raided by PAS/UMNO ppl) for me to meet one of my idols in music and DonN was the only other person I knew who was into this genre of music. So by 5pm, we were already at the venue. Thinking it was still early, we decided to grab a bite before lining up which turned out to be a slight mistake as by 6, the place was entrance to SL was quite packed with all sorts of rock fans and metal heads, and the show was suppose to start at 7.
I decided not to bring my camera along that day for the fear of getting it stolen or broken so sorry for the minimal and sad looking pictures (from my phone camera). And besides, I'd be too busy rocking my brains out to take pics \m/. Right, it was already 630 pm and still no one was getting in, the crowd understandably, was getting impatient. Some were drinking beer and liquor before the concert even started! DonN somehow found this a little disturbing... dude, its a rock concert, wtf u expect man... I think only by 645 did they open the gates and that also took bloody slow cos they had to scan the bar codes of the printed tickets...
Crappy pic #1 but my view was much clearer...
Needles to say, we got in late but in truth I didn't mind la cos all we missed was the opening act by Amy Search. I think the poor fella must've been having one of those wtf moments playing to a near empty crowd as most of us got in only at around 750. But surprisingly we manage to get pretty good standing places in the crowd, kinda front of the stage with almost no room to move d. So many people packed like sardines with body heat coming out waiting for the man of the moment to come out.
And when he finally did, the crowd went bonkers !! There he was, one of the greats in the flesh!! Something I'd equate to watching United play here last year! He kicked things off with a song from his solo album followed by several old school tracks such as Night Train and some of his Velvet Revolver songs... I'm sad to admit that I'm not a huge Gn'R fan so much of his older songs I didn't know but never the less, the headbanging and devil horns in the air kept going on and on...
That Myles dude really had style and swagger...
FYI, the songs on his solo album were recorded with many other artists like M.Shadows, Iggy Pop and even Fergie(!) so of course, it be almost impossible to bring them all here. So he brought along Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge who sang 2 tracks on the album to sing on all the vocals in the concert. And credit to him, he did a brilliant job belting out those high pitch Gn'R tracks as well as songs sung by other artists. Hey, who needs Axl huh? Oh, even he knew we don't get that much rock acts in the nation... now that's sad...
Coincidently my favourite track of Slash's new album was sung by Myles called Starlight. And it was one of the best performances of the night I thought. But the crowed really went berserk when after a little solo by Slash, the intro of Sweet Child o' Mine started playing. Everyone was literally jumping up and down, singing along to every word! I thought I saw a look of awe in Myles's face when that happened... hahaha...
Here they are playin Sweet Child o' Mine, not my vid though...
So after about an hour of sweeping solos, power vocals and near deafness of the audience, they went of stage for and encore performance which was quite fittingly, Paradise City. When the lights went out after that, we were all still buzzing, sweating and still couldn't believe that we were entertained by Slash, the man with the stellar top hat that most guitarist dream of being.
What a way to end the night... again vid not mine...
In a nutshell, the performances was mind blowing but the organizing was well below par. Something I thought we Malaysians have moved on, see when I wanna be proven wrong about my scepticism oso kenot. Entry was one thing, getting out was another big mess, here jam, there jam. I think it took me nearly 1 hour just to get out from the stage to the car park to the highway...
I can safely check out one of the acts I wanna see in my lifetime. Now the big question is as posed by DonN: When la Metallica gonna come? If the answer is never, then a night out with Slash more than satisfied our thirst for good music!
