An American Girl in South Korea: Guns N' Roses in Seoul

Dwight's Christmas gift to me this year was a great surprise. Tickets to the Guns N' Roses concert in Seoul on 12/12. For those who do not know, I am a HUGE GNR fan.

The concert was on a Sunday so we took Monday off from work (just in case we were too tired). Concerts in Korea are handled quite differently than in the States. We had general admission so that we could try and get as close to the stage as possible. When we arrived at the Olympic Park Stadium we found huge lines outside the venue. We found out that we had to line up in the order we had bought our tickets. We found our number grouping and began to wait. The concert was suppose to start at 7 and we had arrived 20 minutes early. We thought 20 minutes of waiting outside wouldn't be bad. Wrong. Axl being Axl, the show was delayed so we were stuck waiting outside in the cold for an hour. Unfortunately, even when we finally got inside we still had to wait another hour and a half before Axl would take the stage.

But of course as luck would have it we had plenty to keep us occupied while we waited. Mainly the common drunk-jerk-concert-goer looking for trouble, and who does he find to pick a fight? Dwight and I. After trying to get between me and the stage (big mistake - I may be short, but nothing comes between Axl and me) he decided to set up camp right behind us to plan how he would make it to the front of the crowd when the lights went out. Cultural note, in Seoul, most Koreans can understand English and even speak a little if not fluently, so anyone planning to bulldoze people ought to be careful what they say and who they are around. Fast forward to 20 minutes of listening to this obnoxious ranting our friend decides he needs a smoke break and lits up right behind us. Then we hear the Korean to the right of this guy tell him that he can't smoke in the stadium, which he boldly challenges back that if they want him to quit smoking security can "come and make him." I know you can picture how this is about to play out. At that point I had had enough, I turned around and said that I was allergic to smoke and would appreciate it if he put out his cigarette. His response, a big drag off his cig and blown right into my face. Well, then Dwight had enough and pushed the guy back. He staggers backwards and falls. Takes a minute to figure out what happened and then comes up swinging at Dwight. I was very proud of Dwight for not throwing a punch back and instead played defense until security arrives and trows the arse out much to the relief and enjoyment of everyone within earshot.

After an eventful pre-show drama, Axl finally took the stage 2 and 1/2 hours late. The concert was great, he sounded amazing and I finally really took a liking to his new material off the new CD, Chinese Democracy. However, as you can see from the pictures below, Axl has aged quite a bit, even in the 4 years since I have seen him last. The Korean Times reviewed the concert and noted that even though Axl changed his outfit 4 + times, none where able to hide his paunch from the adoring crowd. Oh well, overall the best of the three times I have seen him in concert. :)