October Rain

It had been more than 10 years since I had attended the Austin City Limits Festival, one of the country’s premiere music festivals. It’s not that I stopped enjoying festivals but the amount of effort required to attend ACL in the past surpassed the enjoyment we were receiving. No parking, long lines for bathrooms, food and logistically a major pain in the ass were a few of the reasons we stopped going. Another reason was the lack of hard rock acts. ACL had become the venue for classic soft rock with artists like Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, The Eagles as well as modern indie, folk, EDM and alternative. Hard rock and metal have always been absent except for a couple of years ago when Metallica headlined. That caught my attention and when Guns n Roses was announced for both weekends we decided to give ol’ ACL another go.

We chose the second weekend to see GnR in hopes of perhaps some fall weather. The first weekend was brutal with festival goers sweating it out in humid 90’s. That morning as we trudged along with the masses to the Zilker Park fairgrounds we were greeted by not only fall temps in the 40’s but drizzle and steady wind. Nevertheless we were determined to get there early to claim our spot in front of the huge AT&T stage where GnR would be playing 7 hours lately. This would mark our third time to see them on this tour having also seen their football stadium run as well as basketball arenas.

After watching an all girl pop band, a country band and alternative band we were more than ready to see our heroes hit the stage. With little fanfare and stage show other than some simple ramps and huge view screens with an intro video they opened things up in grand fashion. Opening with It’s So Easy and Mr. Brownstone was a great way to ignite the crowd. I quickly recognized Chinese Democracy having seen the newly reunited band playing this album before and when Axl broke into the intro for Welcome to the Jungle all bets were off. First thing I realized was that Axl was the best I’d heard him on this marathon tour. Any criticism you read on other sites about his vocals are going by crappy cell phone acoustics or they have damaged ear drums cuz Axl is in rare form. Same goes for the rest of the band. We’d seen them multiple times but also have seen Slash during his solo tours with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators and the man keeps getting better with age. Not only is he more technically advanced but his feel and tone is at an all-time level of playing. Other highlights of the set were the rare Coma, also rare Double Talkin’ Jive and Civil War. Slash played an extended solo at the conclusion of Jive with energy and conviction. The rhythm section was brilliant with Duff and Frank Ferrer especially on songs like Rocket Queen and You Could Be Mine. Melissa Reese and Dizzy Reed dazzled on the keys and Melissa provided lead vocals on Better. Richard Fortus has especially come into his own as a guitarist for the band weaving guitar notes in and out with Slash. The guys fits in like a glove. The band played for more than two and half hours and you could tell they would have liked to play for more. Can’t wait to see them again…