We went to see Guns N Roses last night at the Times Forum in Tampa. A month or so ago, my friend asked me if I wanted to go, and of course, I said yes. It didn’t hurt that the tickets were free. We dragged a friend’s husband along with us too. We got to the Forum and inside by 8pm, which was a half hour after the show was due to start. The lines were insanely long outside due to the security doing metal detecter checks on every single person. Eek! Lots of good people watching inside and out – people with 80’s hair and all sorts of fun things to look at.

Sometime after 8:30, possibly closer to 9pm, the first act finally came out. We didn’t know who to expect, since the tickets just said Guns N Roses, so we were surprised when it was Sebastian Bach! He was so-so. I knew 4 or 5 of the old songs he did (Slave to the Grind, 18 and Life, I Remember You), didn’t like the new stuff, and his voice didn’t sound that great. But who cared? We had sweet suite seats about 20 rows up from the right side of the stage, and a primo view. Not to mention free beer in the suite – yay!

After Sebastion was finished screaming into the mic, they tore down his set and set up another set. Russ and I went out in search of a t-shirt for me, and a snack for both of us. Forty dollars later, I had my t-shirt, and $7 later, we had a pretzel each. We got back into the suite just as the second act was starting…and imagine our suprise when it was NOT Axl Rose, but Papa Roach. They did a great set, but I wasn’t into it – I’m not a fan of theirs, I only know about 3 songs, but even so, I could tell they were doing better than Sebastian. FINALLY they were done, and their set was getting taken down.

And we waited. And we waited. And called and texted our spouses to let them know yes, we’re still at the concert, and no, we haven’t seen Axl Rose yet. Finally, sometime after midnight, he came on stage, backed up by a 7 member band. And it was worth the wait. They had pyro-technic things exploding and cannons going off, a video screen – it was amazing. He started off with “Welcome to the Jungle” and did all of his trademark “Axl” moves – dancing from side to side, spinning around holding the microphone stand. Wow – it was so great seeing him in person after being such a fan in my youth. I never ever expected to see him live, and it definitely was 10 times better than what I expected. He did “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Live and Let Die”, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”, “Mr. Brownstone”, and “It’s So Easy” and the theme song GNR did from “Terminator II”. It was a bit distracting how he kept running off stage every time he had a bridge in a song (to do what – a line of coke?) but he really was singing his heart out and working the crowd. His banter was polite and respectful, and showed a kinder, gentler Axl Rose.

We waited for a break in the music and it came in the form of Dizzy Reed doing a piano solo. It was almost 1am, and we had been at the forum for over 5 hours, and we all had to get up in the morning, so we tore ourselves away. I wish we could have stayed because it was an amazing show.

[tags]Guns N’ Roses, Axl Rose, Papa Roach, Sebastian Bach, concert, Tampa[/tags]

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