Guns N Roses Experience at the Eden Court, Inverness on Sunday the 12th of October. A Review.
So this was a slightly surreal experience. Although not the real thing, reasonably convincing pretenders doing their ‘rawk’ thing (said in a cool American twang) at the ‘theatre’ (said in a posh voice) of the Highlands.
First up were local lads ROADWAY. Stripped back for a full band acoustic performance they suited the venue, however, their music needs that electrical charge to give it its full glory in the spotlight. The mellowness of the acoustica almost sent them down Celtica avenues at times. Although they made a good spectacle of themselves, you need to see them in glorious electrical Technicolor to appreciate what they are all about (They play Mad Hatters on the 23rd of October)..
For a rock concert, it struck me how the atmosphere felt very constrained in the One Touch Theatre.It’s a beautiful space, but with everyone seated and ‘watched over’ it appeared at odds with a good bit of loud rock music.
So, you would expect things to get loud! If a rock concert is played at 10, then you would expect Guns N’ Roses and related bands to be at 12. It felt like it was at 5. I could have talked to the guy next to me and heard everything he said to me clearly if I had dared to do so.
This however was not taking anything a way from the band. Axl is very close to the original both in looks and sound while the remainder of the band choose to look more like a bunch of rock dudes concentrating more on creating a pretty genuine sounding finished product.
Everyone stood up, loosened off and started to enjoy themselves
All the hits were there from the word go as ‘Take It Easy’ made way for all the hits including ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Night Train’, ‘Live and Let Die’ and many more, but still in this rigid box with everyone sitting down.With about thirty minutes left and obviously feeling the same vibe as me, Axl (lets call him that) said, “Everyone stand up. This is a rock show not a theatre show”. Everyone stood up, loosened off and started to enjoy themselves dancing and singing along (even some of the staff) as the band ran through a list of monsters including ‘Patience’, ‘Sweet Child’, ‘You Could Be Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’ among many more classics.
It may have taken a little while, but the sold-out audience enjoyed themselves thoroughly by the end of the night.
