My Rock & Roll Lifestyle

I had front row tickets to Guns n' Roses through work on Tuesday. To give you an idea of how good the seats were, Taylor Hawkins, the drummer from the Foo Fighters, was sitting a couple rows behind me. I have to say, Axl looked better than I thought he would, and if it weren't for the dreds, he'd almost look like himself circa 1993. Went with my boss, and one of our artists, William Tell. You may recognize his track Slipping Under from current American Idol promotions.

Sebastian Bach opened, and unfortunately he's the only one I have a picture of, since venue security at the Gibson Amphitheater was yelling at everyone who pulled out a phone during the GnR set. His version of 18 and Life was one of the most exciting songs I think I've ever heard from an opening act. Also had backstage passes, which was a first. It's not like there was much to see backstage, except a bunch of other people with backstage passes. There was free booze, which was nice.

Axl certainly isn't doing this thing on the cheap. The band featured three guitarists, two keyboardists, a bassist and drummer. It was noted that one of the keyboardists was likely just handling some of the programed backing vocals. In a truly old-school rock move, each guitarist took a 5 minute-plus guitar solo, as did one of the keyboardists. Given that none of them were named Slash, it was more than a little excessive. It was worth sitting through for the classics.

Speaking of old-school rock moves, as early as the Sebastian Bach set, multiple girls in the open area in front of the stage took their tops off, popping out their girls repeatedly throughout both his and GnR's set. Sebastian seemed right at home with it, though surprisingly Axl looked a little weirded out, and never really mentioned it. For those wondering, I would estimate the girls in question were about 8 years old when Appetite for Destruction came out.

In other celebrity news, I saw Danny Strong, who played Jonathan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, at the Bed Bath and Beyond in Santa Monica today. Something must have paid pretty well, because he was driving a really nice BMW, which would seem beyond the means of a small part on a WB show. However, that IMDb profile is accurate about the 5'2" part, he was really short.