In muggy Tel Aviv, Guns N’ Roses brings sizzling show to 62,000 fans
Energetic peformance, one of Israel’s largest concerts ever, runs for over 3 hours; woman seriously hurt attempting to scale stage, 65 treated for dehydration
Melanie Lidman is an AP reporter and former Times of Israel reporter
Guns N’ Roses closed out their European tour with a high energy, marathon-length show in Tel Aviv that lasted for more than three hours on Saturday night in the Yarkon Park.
Lead singer Axl Rose, 55, spent much of the show, which had no breaks, dashing across the stage and tossing the microphone stands with abandon, defying his three plus decades of rock star living.
One woman was seriously hurt while trying to climb onto the stage in the middle of the show.
Some Hebrew media reports said that the woman, in her late 20s, appeared to be drunk when she attempted to climb up the side of the stage during the performance. She then fell off and injured her head.
Medics at the show gave her first aid and she was transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital while unconscious and on a respirator. However, medics said her injuries were not life-threatening. Some 65 people were also treated for dehydration.
More than 62,000 people attended the concert, making it the largest of the summer and among the largest ever in Israel. Out of the 62,000 attendees, only one “Guns N Moses” shirt was spotted, which is approximately one too many.
“There sure are a lot of you here,” Rose told the crowd at the start, one of the few times he addressed the crowd directly.
The Tel Aviv show took place amid increased security following a terror attack on Friday morning at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The band had originally planned to tour Jerusalem on Friday but that plan was canceled after the attack, Israeli media reported.
The show started promptly at 8:00 p.m. The start time was moved from 8:30 p.m. in order to accommodate the band’s request for an extra-long concert since it was the last stop on the tour, a move that angered a handful of religious fans as the concert began before Shabbat ended. Blustein Group Live Nation, the show’s producers, said six people requested and received refunds due to the time change.
The Guns N’ Roses “Not in this Lifetime” tour is the highest-grossing tour this year, having pulled in $151 million over the first six months of 2017, beating out U2 and Justin Bieber.
Tel Aviv was the band’s last stop on the European tour; more concerts are scheduled in the US from the end of the month.
Saturday’s concert saw the band sprinkle their epic hits, including “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and “November Rain” among songs from the 2008 album Chinese Democracy and a number of covers. Slash and Richard Fortus had a heartfelt duet of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” while a rousing rendition of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” was a moving tribute to Chris Cornell, who died of suicide on May 18, 2017.
Like the July 4 Yarkon Park headliner, Britney Spears, Axl Rose also had a number of wardrobe changes during the show, though he mainly changed the color of the plaid shirt wrapped around his waist, and, sometimes, a hat.
Rose’s trademark screech hasn’t lost any potency, but he struggled on some of the quieter songs, including slower numbers like “This I Love.” Thirty years of constant use has made reaching some of the higher notes a stretch, as was more apparent when Rose couldn’t hide his voice behind Slash’s keening guitar solos.
The vast majority of the audience was made up of young people in their late 20s, not yet born when Guns N’ Roses released its first album, Appetite for Destruction, in 1987.
The temperature hovered around 29°C (84°F), causing Slash to drip with sweat during his lengthy solos. But the band’s energy didn’t flag for the entire show, even as audience members began to droop.
Up until the last encore of “Paradise City,” Rose was sprinting from one side of the stage to the other. As the well-known chords echoed across the park, fireworks sprouted atop the massive 1,000 square meter stage, lighting up a sea of humanity, arms raised, singing along to every word.
The Times of Israel Community.