The last Guns N’ Roses show in Brazil for the South American leg of the Chinese Democracy was MAGIC. Magic is the word  i can find to describe what happened on March the 16th at Fiergs in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Getting There
After what happened in Rio on Sunday i was a tad nervous about how they would get everything ready to go for the Porto Alegre show. There was also the fact that the venue chosen to hold the gig was never used for a concert before. It turns out it was the perfect place.

It took us about 2 hours to get to the venue by car, traffic was slow because Fiergs is located in a very busy avenue that is an alternative entrance to the city of Porto Alegre. After getting our tickets from the box office we had to walk about two miles to get to the beginning of the huge line formed by about 6 thousand fans who were still outside waiting to get in. It was 9 PM and i was already tired, the line was moving slowly due to the tight security at the entrance of the venue, beer, cigarettes and a cheap hot-dog… Call that my dinner.

Inside
We finally went  in at around 9:50 pm, by then, according to the original schedule, Sebastian Bach should be at the end of his show and we would have to wait around 10 minutes for Axl and Co to get on stage and start the show. That wasn’t the case though. No band had played by then and the crew on stage looked nervous, probably with problems related to the incidents in Rio. The wait started.

The venue was great. Very well organized, beer price was alright, Guns N’ Roses merchandise was awesome too but, what impressed me the most was the amount of beautiful women hanging there, met many friends there. The atmosphere was magical! i have been to many big concerts in my life but i had never felt like that night. The proximity with the airport was a nice touch, those big airplanes flying over our heads, i can only imagine how amazing it must have been for those up there seeing the crowd at Fiergs as they fly by. PERFECT!

People seemed impatient with the wait, there was no information on what was hapening and, of course, rumours started spreading, canceled show, Axl still in Rio among other stupid things.

At midnight the first band that was supposed to play gets on stage, they get so booed and receive such hostility from the crowd that they had to leave stage after 3 songs.

It was almost 1am when Sebastian Bach hit the stage, the Savage Animal was on fire! He tamed the angry audience mixing classics from Skid Row with material from his Angel Down album. What a front man! His energy was incredible, he sang and rocked out for about one hour. Always kindly apologizing by the wait, asking if we were ready for Guns N’ Roses. Always in Portuguese, always loud, we love the Savage Animal!

At exactly 2 am, 15 minutes after Sebastian left the stage, lights went down. The place was filled with anticipation, so far we hadn’t seen anything special with the stage production, everything was kept for the big moment. A loud, weird perhaps scary song was playing on the PA’s then the song stops for an exciting moment of silence. Everything turned red, on the back of the stage, behind the drums, the silhouette of DJ Ashba, like a ghost, moved to a platform that lifted him, he rose his hands and the crowd went insane. When the first chords of ‘Chinese Democracy’ came up, you could barely hear it, the crowd was insanely loud, jumping up and down and singing along every word of the new song.

‘Chinese democracy’ was followed by ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ that literally made the floor tremble, at this point my voice was already gone and my knees were giving up. It made me wonder how Axl Rose does it.

It’s really important to point to the stage production, the pyro, lights, screens… What an spectacle!

‘It’s So Easy’, ‘Mister Brownstone’ then ‘Sorry’, which to me was the best song of the nigh along with ‘Nightrain’ and ‘Better’.

After ‘Better’, an amazing James Bond session that started with Richard Fortus solo, “Fortus, Mister Richard Fortus”, said Axl Rose. Fortus played an amazing interpretation of the James Bond theme song, it was the first time i’ve ever seen more then 20 thousand people jumping up and down for a solo! The James bond session was closed with ‘Live and Let Die’ and ‘If the World’.

‘Shackler’s Revenge’ started and surprisingly to me, many people knew the lyrics and sang along throughout the whole song, ‘Street of Dreams’, ‘Rocket Queen’ then Dj Ashba’s solo preceded ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ that made the floor tremble once again.

Axl Rose was in great shape and in a great mood. At a certain point he called Beta to the stage, introduced her and she then translated to Portuguese a few words from Axl who was smilling the whole time. I am certain that the atmosphere was the same for him, the nigh was indeed, special. He kept joking “good morning”, because well, it was actually 3:15 am.

‘You Could be Mine’ with formula 1 cars on the screens, ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ then an EPIC ‘November Rain’ when a couple actually exchanged rings and got engaged during the song, all that on the middle of the crowd. “It was our dream” said the man to a local news website.

Ron Thal then played his Pink Panther solo with that little bit of ‘Estranged’ which makes me wish someday they would play that song again.

‘Knockin on Heaven’s Door’ Axl with a cowboy’s hat and the crowd singing along then ‘Nightrain‘ which, to me was the best version of the song i have ever heard. Axl wished us a good night and left the stage along with the band. As part of the crowd the crowd was shouting “Guns N’ Roses”, a good portion started to leave the place, i guess some people didn’t know about the encore.

‘Madagascar’ was the first song of the encore, on the big screen, a beautiful sun rising and Axl kepts saying “look, the sun is rising my friends” it was almost true.

‘Patience’ had a very funny moment, at some point somebody on the crowd, threw a Homer Simpson doll on stage, Axl picked it up and put it in his pants, he then walked to Ashba pretending he was, well let’s say pleasuring himself, while walking to the back of the stage Axl was laughing so much he couldn’t sing anymore, it was beautiful! The crowd went nuts again.

‘Paradise City’ closed this MAGIC concert, ‘Happy Birthday to You’ for Vanessa Lebeis and also for a fan that was holding a sign saying it was her birthday, she tried to kiss Axl he laughed and sang “Happy Birthday to you Vanessa and to this crazy girl i dont know who the fuck she is, happy birthday to you!”.

That was it, the best concert of my life, have in mind the list of concerts i went to is nor small or cheap! This one was MAGICAL. I had a bunch of friends with me some of them very skeptical professional musicians that by the end of show were saying that it was the best concert of their lives as well, people i never expected to hear something like that from. This show proved to me and a lot of people that good portion of the media is out to get Axl Rose and it won’t change. “Axl Rose turns red and sweats during concerts” haha! Gotta love professional/impartial/non-grudge-holding music critics.

Thank you Guns N’ Roses. Thank you EL GORDO!

Gabriel