Guns N' Roses 2016

In 1991, Axl Rose sparked a riot in St. Louis when he saw a fan taking pictures during a Guns N' Roses concert and flipped out.

25 years later, I'm sitting in my bedroom watching someone's bootleg livestream of GNR's reunion tour.


Not talking about buying a bootleg CD or VHS tape of some show years after it happened. (And I easily spent hundreds of dollars on live/rare GNR bootlegs, back in the day.)

Last night, at 3am, I am in my bedroom watching live footage of a Guns N' Roses concert happening on the other side of the country.

This wasn't even something I planned or sought out. I just... stumbled on it! Through a fan's link on the Guns N' Roses subreddit.

With all the effort and expense of a mouse-click, I'm transported to this concert. Terrible picture and sound, to be sure, but better than some of the videos I spent a lot of money on back in the 90s.

Fortunately, Axl didn't flip out like he did back in the day. Probably helped that he'd broken his foot and was mostly confined to a rockstar throne that Dave Grohl had loaned to him. (I guess this means GNR and 1 member of Nirvana are cool now?) But it's kind of a marvel at how much technology has advanced since the founding members of GNR performed live like this.

In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast. Thank you.

Here's a review of the show with some videos.