Maidens VS Guns
Yesh, so I wasn't sure I wanted to say anything about this, and it actually is not really a VS, so not a face off. More an observation in difference between two live shows that, even though they were in kind of the genre, they were very very different experiences.
So as you might have guessed, the first one, was IRON MAIDEN, at Royal Arena, last tuesday.
The Maidens had brought Killswitch Engage as support, which suited me absolutely great.
I hadn't seen Killswitch in years, and they delivered a hit parade of a warmup show. I was loving it. A little heavier than what the typical Maiden fan that night were used to, but people felt it, especially when they tapped into 'Holy Diver'. A Dio cover, that they pretty much made their own... almost.
Anyways, Maiden was up, and they were tight, energetic, had an awesome stage show going on, and sound and lights were spot on. The only thing to say that kept the show from getting 6 out of 6, in my opinion anyways, was I would have like a few more of the early tracks. But besides that, the night was amazing. These guys are way into their sixties, and they're as awesome as ever.
So leaving the Arena on tuesday night, had me pumped to see Guns N Roses for the second time, the very next day at Odense Dyreskueplads.
Little did I know what was in store for us.....
It all started out great, we left Copenhagen, almost according to plan, had a few beers in the car... the ones of us not driving obviously.
We got to the place, an outdoors area, weather was amazing, and we found a good parking spot.
So, we walked into the area, and already we were kind of starting to question this whole thing. Now, there were 4 of us, all with hundreds of live shows behind us, so good 'live show' ethics, and kind of having standards.
First thing we noticed, was the way the area was set up. Didn't make any sense really, a whole big part of the area unused, and the loads of food places on each side, drinks in the middle, and toilets placed together on the far right side, and all the way down by the stage. You couldn't order food and drinks at the same place, which meant standing in line twice, if you wanted a drink with your meal. We skipped that... and this is where something great happened.
The burger we had was great. End of story.
So this is something than absolutely can be tolerated , when a show delivers, and everything else fades. Not what happened here, but I'll get to that.
The supporting acts were 'Greta Van Fleet' and 'Manic Street Preachers'. None of whom i really understand as supporting acts fro Gun N Roses, but ok.
From looking at the crowd, it seemed most had come for Manic Street Preachers, and thats not a lash out, its just the way it looked.
I can honestly say, I've never before felt more out of place at a rock show, than I did that day. And I mean, this was Guns N Roses... you remember these guys right... badass attitude, tight riffs, amazing guitar play, nerve for days... Those Guns N Roses. The band that started it all for me. The guys whose posters filled up my childhood room, alongside Madonna, Sebastian Bach and Alice Cooper. Those rowdy motherfuckers, from one of the most epic music scenes in history, Hollywood Sunset Boulevard in the '80. Yup those guys.
Had I just showed up, not knowing who was headlining, and guessing from the audience, I would have thought ToTo or Rod Steward or something more proper like that. I was absolutely baffled. here are a few key points as to why
1. 50% were my parents age. Ish
2. The ones my age (I'm 37) looked my parents age, and dressed accordingly.
3. 75% were wearing denim shorts. And not that anything is really wrong with denim shorts, If it's lemmy style shorts, but these were over the knee, knickers I guess.... and mostly worn by dudes...... Also a good portion in combination with a polo tee.
Lets let that sink in for a moment
4. there were 3 kinds of people there. Those with kids, those with beer goggles so thick, a small miss step, led to running forward, and smashing face first into the ground. The is those who could actually stand. And last, there were those in groups, looking like they were leftovers from the last carnival, just hanging out, getting drunk, looking like they could care less who was on stage, or if a stage was even present.
5. this was 40.000 people, I only spotted 2 band shirts from where we stood, both on kids. With was pretty cool, but a bit frightening.
6. Looked more like a warehouse employee summerparty, than a rock n roll show.
Ok and just for the record, I'm not lashing out at any of the people there, or whatever they looked like, I'm just pointing out, how far from my own reality they were, and how that made me feel out of place, in the place where I should feel the most at home.
So, All of this, is something that can be tolerated had the show been of epic proportions.
Not what happened.
Guns N Roses started out pretty good, getting it hard with some of the good old tracks from Appetite For Destruction. They even did a Velvet Revolver cover, which had me both impressed and loving it.
But.... then it started in part.... the 'death by solo's, intro's, outgo's etc. Seemed like they just could fracking just finish a song. It dragged on forever. Some cover of 'The Godfather' , some Pink Floyd, and whatnot. All would have been great, had the setlist been cut with the almost 1 hour jamsession, only partly broken up by a few good old hits.
And it's not that the band wasn't goo, they played great, sounds was good considering the wind and whatnot. But that setlist should be burned and buried and burned again. It made absolutely no sense, and people started leaving before the encore.
It was such a weird feeling. When it wasn't feeling like they were trying to bore everyone to death, (and Axl having the camera zooming in to, what looked like a piece of the crown jewel on his finger, for an entire song, while sitting on a goddamn motorcycle playing piano.. yes you read that right,, so fucking dub,) ..... it was amazing. And to me, just being Slash and Duff onstage is almost enough to make my nigh. But man, cut we just cut out about half of the 3 hour show, none of the other factors would have played a role at all.
We even stopped drinking beer... the mood just wasn't there. I mean, what the hell.
So as you might have guessed, the first one, was IRON MAIDEN, at Royal Arena, last tuesday.
Photo by Morten Rygaard
The Maidens had brought Killswitch Engage as support, which suited me absolutely great.
I hadn't seen Killswitch in years, and they delivered a hit parade of a warmup show. I was loving it. A little heavier than what the typical Maiden fan that night were used to, but people felt it, especially when they tapped into 'Holy Diver'. A Dio cover, that they pretty much made their own... almost.
Photo from my iphone
Anyways, Maiden was up, and they were tight, energetic, had an awesome stage show going on, and sound and lights were spot on. The only thing to say that kept the show from getting 6 out of 6, in my opinion anyways, was I would have like a few more of the early tracks. But besides that, the night was amazing. These guys are way into their sixties, and they're as awesome as ever.
Photo Claus Bonnerup
So leaving the Arena on tuesday night, had me pumped to see Guns N Roses for the second time, the very next day at Odense Dyreskueplads.
Little did I know what was in store for us.....
It all started out great, we left Copenhagen, almost according to plan, had a few beers in the car... the ones of us not driving obviously.
We got to the place, an outdoors area, weather was amazing, and we found a good parking spot.
So, we walked into the area, and already we were kind of starting to question this whole thing. Now, there were 4 of us, all with hundreds of live shows behind us, so good 'live show' ethics, and kind of having standards.
First thing we noticed, was the way the area was set up. Didn't make any sense really, a whole big part of the area unused, and the loads of food places on each side, drinks in the middle, and toilets placed together on the far right side, and all the way down by the stage. You couldn't order food and drinks at the same place, which meant standing in line twice, if you wanted a drink with your meal. We skipped that... and this is where something great happened.
The burger we had was great. End of story.
Photo by Carsten Bundgaard
So this is something than absolutely can be tolerated , when a show delivers, and everything else fades. Not what happened here, but I'll get to that.
The supporting acts were 'Greta Van Fleet' and 'Manic Street Preachers'. None of whom i really understand as supporting acts fro Gun N Roses, but ok.
From looking at the crowd, it seemed most had come for Manic Street Preachers, and thats not a lash out, its just the way it looked.
I can honestly say, I've never before felt more out of place at a rock show, than I did that day. And I mean, this was Guns N Roses... you remember these guys right... badass attitude, tight riffs, amazing guitar play, nerve for days... Those Guns N Roses. The band that started it all for me. The guys whose posters filled up my childhood room, alongside Madonna, Sebastian Bach and Alice Cooper. Those rowdy motherfuckers, from one of the most epic music scenes in history, Hollywood Sunset Boulevard in the '80. Yup those guys.
Had I just showed up, not knowing who was headlining, and guessing from the audience, I would have thought ToTo or Rod Steward or something more proper like that. I was absolutely baffled. here are a few key points as to why
1. 50% were my parents age. Ish
2. The ones my age (I'm 37) looked my parents age, and dressed accordingly.
3. 75% were wearing denim shorts. And not that anything is really wrong with denim shorts, If it's lemmy style shorts, but these were over the knee, knickers I guess.... and mostly worn by dudes...... Also a good portion in combination with a polo tee.
Lets let that sink in for a moment
From a video on my phone.
4. there were 3 kinds of people there. Those with kids, those with beer goggles so thick, a small miss step, led to running forward, and smashing face first into the ground. The is those who could actually stand. And last, there were those in groups, looking like they were leftovers from the last carnival, just hanging out, getting drunk, looking like they could care less who was on stage, or if a stage was even present.
5. this was 40.000 people, I only spotted 2 band shirts from where we stood, both on kids. With was pretty cool, but a bit frightening.
6. Looked more like a warehouse employee summerparty, than a rock n roll show.
Ok and just for the record, I'm not lashing out at any of the people there, or whatever they looked like, I'm just pointing out, how far from my own reality they were, and how that made me feel out of place, in the place where I should feel the most at home.
So, All of this, is something that can be tolerated had the show been of epic proportions.
Not what happened.
Photo by Carsten Bundgaard
Guns N Roses started out pretty good, getting it hard with some of the good old tracks from Appetite For Destruction. They even did a Velvet Revolver cover, which had me both impressed and loving it.
But.... then it started in part.... the 'death by solo's, intro's, outgo's etc. Seemed like they just could fracking just finish a song. It dragged on forever. Some cover of 'The Godfather' , some Pink Floyd, and whatnot. All would have been great, had the setlist been cut with the almost 1 hour jamsession, only partly broken up by a few good old hits.
And it's not that the band wasn't goo, they played great, sounds was good considering the wind and whatnot. But that setlist should be burned and buried and burned again. It made absolutely no sense, and people started leaving before the encore.
It was such a weird feeling. When it wasn't feeling like they were trying to bore everyone to death, (and Axl having the camera zooming in to, what looked like a piece of the crown jewel on his finger, for an entire song, while sitting on a goddamn motorcycle playing piano.. yes you read that right,, so fucking dub,) ..... it was amazing. And to me, just being Slash and Duff onstage is almost enough to make my nigh. But man, cut we just cut out about half of the 3 hour show, none of the other factors would have played a role at all.
We even stopped drinking beer... the mood just wasn't there. I mean, what the hell.
Fucking Motorcycle piano chair, what the fuck. How am I, as a grown up ginger, supposed to explain to my 10 year old ginger self, that the only ginger badass I knew of as a kid (besides my big brother), would 25 years later, be sitting on a fucking motorcycle chair, playing intro to intermezzo to outtro to solo, knowingly showing off a fucking green rock on his finger the size of my closet. Impossible.
So, all in all, a very confusing day, that left me with a day off the next day, since I had TAKEN the day off expecting an epic hangover.
Next up in Copenhell in a week and a half, and of all places in the world, this is a place where we fit right in, and feel completely at home.
Till then
Anne
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