An evening in the snakepit

hey ...

So after a month of waiting n wondering .. of uncontrollable excitement n impossible imaginary flights ... i finally went to the ROCKTOBER fest featuring Velvet Revolver. There were three other punk bands... 'Breaking Bejamin' being the one worth any mention of those ... but who gives a hoot ... we were all there for one reason and one reason only .... to watch the snakepit come alive n the shirtless, faceless guy smoking that eternal cigarette mesmerise us using his AWESOME collection of mind boggling six-strings and two blessed hands.
And deliver he did .... the setting was perfect ... the croud had managed to sqeeze itself to a pulp of human mass of unimaginable density .. hysteria was at breakneck levels before the set was even prepared for the masters of the evening and as the first of the 'slash signature series' marshal amplifiers went on stage ... the crowd managed another round of squeezing towards the stage .. though i could've sworn there was no room for air in there anymore ...
and at last ... after interminable minutes of waiting .. the stage grew blindingly bright with strobes blinking at nano-second intervals and a single sound emerged from the brightness ... the unmistakable howl that only comes when an extra special set of fingers caress the guitar and make it speak to you with a single note . Obviously ( and i WAS expecting it this time ) ... there was another mighty push towards the stage and i knew this time the freaking barriers would fuckin break . but they held and i managed to use that thrust to move within 4 feet of the stage and i look up to see slash right in front of me ... with his red mockingbird guitar .. the cigarette reassuringly present and the hair their usual mess ....the hat conspicious in its absence .I've always maintained that les pauls are the best looking guitars .. but that mockinbird was spellbinding in that instant ...its a beautiful piece and deserves an opening at the hands of the master. But that moment of seeing slash right in front of me .... it was sheer electricity ... i was totally spell bound ... n i noticed that no one realises how fuckin HUGE his forearms are ... he could freaking break someone's neck with those ... n the way he handles the guitars ... is pure genius ... i mean his wrist freaking doesnt move ... nor does the forearm ... its simply fingers going around in such smooth fashion ... its like gliding on the strings n frets ... he goes into this 'trance' every now n then .... n there's like nothing else on the planet for him ... you can see him totally 'out in another space' and yet the guitar 'speaks' it solos perfectly each time.

honestly speaking ... i didnt even hear the first song .. all i heard was the guitar .... it after the first song ended that i saw duff n matt n whoever the lead singer is ..... i freaking dont care .... duff looks a lot better than earlier .... he's definitely over his drug n drinking days ... he actually looked fit ...

i think going for velvet revolver .... these guys chose the closest resembling guy to axl they could find .... the lead guy looks totally gay ... n tries stupid antics ... even tries the same axl reminding crowd antics .... he actually punched a fan .... went totally nuts ... but alas .... he's got nothing to match axl's voice ... axl's charisma or axl's personality .... i was sooooo glad to see the 'closest thing to the original gnr' .. but alas ... it just made me think just HOW AWESOME they mustve been with axl there ....
The band has huge talent ... great individual personalities .. n i cant imagine what an explosive mixture it'd have been with axl thrown in with this bunch .... makes me really rue i wasnt there at that time ..... we really missed out on magic ...

but hey .... to me .. GNR has always been about slash first ... so getting back to him ... he delivered the money's worth like 10 time over . after the first song .. he came back out with his own signature series gibson les paul .... aaaaawwwww that guitar is a beauty .... its got a custom dark tobbacco burst finish ... n cream single ply binding ... aged nickel elements ... the most beautiful guitar ever ..... and he put it to good use ... going into a kneeling down solo like right infront of us again ( did i mention we were lucky to be on the right side ... n he was there most of the time) . Next time around he came up with a la-jimmypage les paul .... goldtop . n he went into some old gnr style antics n some totally new ones with that one .. a special moment coming when he played a solo ... with the guitar over his head n the fingering hand going all the way around the neck .... how he managed that ... is beyond me ... but he played a perfect solo in that position .
The other highlight was when duff n slash went up the drumset stage , n did an impromtou jam with matt ... the old three from gnr really really rocked ...

n thats how the evening went .... the crowd was mad for anything n everything ... n the band obliged generously ...
finally .. the show was over . . n we true fans ... broken in bodies but escatic in spirits .. decided to hang around backstage for a final glimpse or maybe even an autograph ... n after a long wait ... we were rewarded with a matt autograph ... slash n duff went to an afterparty somewhere ... lol ... he just waved .. n dissapointed as we were ... we were sure he'd have been mobbed by even this puny crowd of 50 odd jokers . We had a nice chat with matt .. someone asked him about axl n he said " its like after a breakup ... you wanna forget the girl .. well me too .. so i dont know woh youre talking about " .. he was cool .. even signed my friends shoe ... lol ...
but we weren't going to get off slash's back that easily .. we decided that mcallen being the size it is .. there's only two or three hotels he coulve gone to ... n decided to check 'em out .. n hit jackpot (well kinda) at the frist try ... we saw cop vans .... the tour buses and ultra mean security guards .. n it was certain slash was here .. :-) ... we decided in the best interest of our physical bodies that a police beating was not what we were upto at that moment n decided to enjoy intellectual victory at finding out the hideout n just leave peacefully ...
just as well for us .. cuz the freaking security guards did not look like they knew of any absurd ideas like freindliness ... .