Welcome to the Jungle!

And finally after a long wait GNR made it to India, Bangalore.. Me and a couple of my friends bought tickets to the section closer to the stage..

Having taken a half day at office and reaching the location over 2 hours early finally paid off. We lodged ourselves in the front row facing the stage!

A local band - Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ) played for some time.. They were quite good.

And then the big boys entered the stage just as the skies darkened..

 For half an hour I was totally dazed seeing the rock legends stand so close to us and play our favourite numbers.. As senses returned, together with the wild crowd that rocked and pinned us to the railing we whooped and screamed in time.. head banging wildly.

They played all the songs I wanted to hear including the hot fav - Sweet child of mine, November Rain, Paradise City, Welcome to the Jungle, Don't cry, Civil War, Knocking on heaven's door, Estranged etc.,

Axl seems to be a sobered-down-version of his former self.. His voice wasn all the same. (Din look the same either ;) ) But it was still awesome :)

 I did feel most of times they compensated well on Slash's removal from the band (almost). Richard Fortus, Bumblefoot and DJ Ashba played some mind blowing guitar and their energy flowed into the crowd..

People eagerly started debating if Metallica concert was better than GNR.. I felt they both had their charms.. While Metallica wooed the crowd and became one with us (even the distance and the fact that we could not see the stage did not dampen the spirits) GNR was all glamour and music with tracks that satisfied everyone, plus we were standing so close!