Once In A Lifetime Reunion: Guns N Roses Concert Review

Wow what a Wednesday night I had!!

July 6, 2016 will go down in music history and I was there to see it!

But I’ll get to that shortly.

First, I’ll just say that I finally saw one of my favorite bands ever, Guns N Roses, at Paul Brown Stadium, where the Cincinnati Bengals play.

I was in the 23rd row, behind the pit.

Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown opened. Very good hard rock band. Check them out.

Guns N Roses now consists of original members W. Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan.

It also includes Dizzy Reed on keyboards, who has been there since 1991.

Drummer Frank Ferrer and guitarist Richard Fortus, who have been there for several years.

And a new keyboard player Melissa Reese.

Again, I’ll get to the history making moment shortly, but first, my thoughts on the show.

For me, they played pretty much all the songs I would want to hear in concert, plus more.

They played from two hours and 45 minutes to three hours.

And for the doubters out there, they showed up on time. Starting just after 9:30.

Lead singer W. Axl Rose has a bad reputation for being a jerk and showing up late for many shows, but on this tour and the AC/DC tour he’s been on this year, he’s been a complete professional.

And yes his voice is still really strong.

Many people say he can’t sing anymore. Well guess what people? You’re all wrong.

It was a pleasure seeing him run all over the stage and be the great frontman he really is.

Lead Guitarist Slash is of course an amazing guitar player.

I had only seen him two years ago with his solo band, which was great, but this was so much more.

He’s back where he belongs.

Playing all these great classic songs, and playing his great classic guitar parts.

Bassist Duff McKagan is solid as a bassist and sang part of a Johnny Thunders song then segued into a Misfits song. Pretty cool.

I’ll post the setlist at the end.

The rest of the band are solid. Especially drummer Frank Ferrer. He plays all of Steven Adler and Matt Sorum’s parts quite well.

Did you see I wrote Steven Adler’s name? There’s another reason why I mentioned him.

For the first time since 1990, for two songs, Steven Adler played drums for Guns N Roses again!!!

Axl told the audience that they had a surprise and said that he thought the audience would know who this person was.

And introduced Steven.

The whole crowd, myself included, freaked out in the best way.

Steven was all smiles and played great on the GNR songs Out Ta Get Me and My Michelle.

The story has blown up all over social media.

And I can say that I was there!!!

Truly, the whole concert was amazing!!

I have been to many concerts over the past 18 years, and I can honestly say that this GNR show is in my top 3 concert experiences, along with my favorite band KISS and The Rolling Stones.

They had not even sang or played a note yet at the start of the show, but when I saw Axl walk out, I was just in heaven.

GNR have a been a favorite of mine since I was 10, so this show was a big deal.

I almost cried when they played their classic November Rain.

For those who were there, you saw history and most importantly, a great night of music.

For those of you who were not there, you missed a phenomenal concert.

This is definitely one for the books.

I’ll see Axl sing for AC/DC in Columbus September 4.

I can’t wait!

As today’s birthday boy Ringo Starr would say, peace and love to everybody.

Lucas Hannon

P.S. Here is the setlist and pics. The extreme close up shots I took from the big screen, but again, I had a pretty good view. I also shot some videos too. These are here too. Enjoy.