http://dcist.com/2012/02/at_times_the_show_felt.php
Based on the YouTube video (and the article), the crowd seemed enthused early in the show.By Martin Austermuhle in Arts & Entertainment on February 24, 2012 2:00 PM
In Long-Awaited Show, Guns N' Roses Plays For Too Long
If you didn't happen to catch Guns N' Roses when they played Baltimore in 2006, the last chance you would have had locally was the 1992 co-headlining tour with Metallica, when the band played RFK Stadium. That was two decades ago.
Axl Rose seemed to want to make up for lost time yesterday at The Fillmore in Silver Spring, working his way through some 35 songs over a three-hour set featuring the band's most recent lineup. Joined by three guitarists, former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, a drummer and two keyboardists (one of which, Dizzy Reed, is the longest-surviving member of the band), Rose showed that he's still got the moves and the windpipes that made Guns N' Roses one of the world's most popular bands in the 1980s and 90s.
But much like the rock stardom excess that felled many of its contemporaries, Guns N' Roses went for a little too much last night. At times, the show felt about as long as it took Rose to make Chinese Democracy. (That's 15 years.) And while anyone thirsting for Guns n' Roses would have been pleased with such a lengthy performance, it unfortunately flowed about as well as the Use Your Illusion double-album that stands as the last recording by the band's old lineup. (Not well.)
Opening with the quasi-industrial "Chinese Democracy," the band really hit its stride in the seven songs that followed. "You know where you are?" Rose famously shrieked as the band tore into "Welcome to the Jungle," which was quickly followed by "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone" off of 1987's groundbreaking Appetite for Destruction. A trudging version of "You're So Crazy" was next, followed by a beautiful rendition of "Estranged" and driving performance of "Rocket Queen."
And that's where Guns N' Roses shot itself in the foot. The next 20 songs included some classic renditions of "Live and Let Die," "You Could Be Mine," "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Used to Love Her," "November Rain," Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Civil War," "Don't Cry," and "Nightrain," but any semblance of energy or flow was repeatedly sapped by meandering instrumentals and solos for each of the three guitarists, Stinson, Reed and even Rose. The band's new lineup features some extremely talented musicians, but over-the-top guitar theatrics by D.J. Ashba and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and Reed's solo piano cover of The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" made Guns N' Roses seem less like a band and more like eight guys who just happen to share a stage now and then.
That's too bad, because the renditions of classic Guns N' Roses songs were powerful, well-executed and as memorable as they were 20 years ago. Ashba must have known that he's got large shoes to fill, because he performed Slash's almost lyrical guitar solos with exacting, almost clinical precision. And though Rose may not be able to hit the highest notes he once could, he still remained a spotlight-deserving frontman throughout the show. (Multiple hat, jacket and t-shirt changes included.)
By 2:30 a.m., the band closed out its main set and quickly kicked into an encore. But of the seven songs, three were instrumentals and two were off of the simply mediocre Chinese Democracy. The remaining two, "Patience" and "Paradise City," were absolute classics that could well have stood on their own as a final farewell to the audience.
But as the houselights came up at 3 a.m., some members of the audience seemed relieved that the show was finally over. That's not because they want to wait another 20 years to see Guns N' Roses again, but rather that after 20 years of waiting, seeing a band struggle to find a rhythm over the course of a three-hour show was a letdown.