What a great show!

I'm not sure I can say this was my favorite Guns N' Roses show that I've ever seen but it was the best managed and produced Guns N' Roses concert that I've ever been to without a doubt.

Outside of Ford Field, there were a myriad of merch trucks, radio stations, local photographers, and a ton of stuff happening at and around the venue. The was a pre-party at The Fillmore, a giant faux spray paint GN'R logo on the side of a nearby parking structure, and a sea of men and women of all ages dressed in GNR merch (most of which was suspiciously new, but I digress).

Inside, the security got you through the doors quickly and had about 3 additional security checks before you hit the pit. When the show finally started, the production team did a killer job with the lighting, video packages, and pyro. It looked and felt like a proper tour. For GN'R, it hasn't felt that way since 2006 and even that wasn't to this scale (and I'd argue it damned well better be given the ticket prices). All of these details add up and make for a more complete concert-going experience, not to mention make it easier for hardcore fans to get those coveted spots on the rail.

There was a great energy for pretty much the entire set. It was all the powerful forward momentum of rock n' roll. The drums were loud and everyone seemed ready to go off the bat. I was beyond excited to hear "Coma" and "Double Talkin Jive" in person for the first time and you could feel a different energy on those songs as opposed to the old stalwarts like "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Nightrain". I've seen a lot of criticism of "The Seeker" but it sounded incredible and the whole band, especially Axl sounded beyond thrilled to be playing it. Frank is hardly my favorite GN'R drummer but he sounded really quite good to my untrained ears. He didn't play the drum breakdown on "Better" though and I was a little bit bummed by that but overall that's a minor complaint.

The only bump in the road was "This I Love", which I do like, but felt out of place in the set as it's hard to sing along to and stopped the momentum to that point. There also were a couple of technical hiccups that Axl worked through (I can't remember the song TBH but something about not being able to hear himself) and Slash when he broke his guitar string on "Nightrain" and switched up the outro. I can't really speak to the overall crowd energy because my ears were gone as soon as they hit "Jungle" but the reaction seemed quite positive and the house was packed.

A cool moment was when Axl joked with the crowd about not singing back on "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and said something to the effect of, "Oh, so you mean, fuck you Axl then...". Then I gave a joking thumbs up which he seemed to catch and then pointed back at me grinning. That's my little fanboy moment of the night.

I honestly don't care. I don't want to hear similar songs and they're already playing DC and TIL. But I don't want to hear Nightrain, OTGM, or YCBM together in the same set either.

Yep, they definitely did. I shouted out "wooooo Rhiad" and then felt kinda dumb when they went into RQ.