Axl And Poor Fans

Last night at the Air Canada Centre, Guns N Roses were supposed to take the stage at 9:20 pm following sets by Danko Jones and Sebastian Bach. But 9:20 turned into 10 pm...10 pm into 10:30 and 10:30 into 11, all with no signs of the band coming on.

For a club show or small venue, a wait like this isn't out of the ordinary, particularly weekends where the headliners often hit the stage at midnight or close to. But when you have 21,000 people waiting for a band, it might be an idea to start within a reasonable period of time for concert goers to leave the show after the gig.

At sometime between 11:25 and 11:30 pm Guns N Roses took the stage to the opening riffs of Welcome To The Jungle before delivering many hits and much of the material off Chinese Democracy. However, when the show ended with explosions and confetti at 1:55 am, those brave souls who stayed (and who relied on public transit of any kind to get there) were screwed if they had no wheels. The final GO Transit train eastward is 12:13 am while the final bus (which holds 45 people) left at 1:20 am. As for the final GO Transit train westward, 12:43 am with more buses leaving until 1:30.

If you took the subway, well you're screwed there too, as the last subways leaving Union leave at 1:46 and I believe 1:52...

So when the show ended at 1:55, several thousands poured out of the ACC wondering how they would get home or left with a dilemma: pull an all nighter, book a hotel room for the night or fork out about $100 for a cab back to their home. Either that or those relying on GO transit missed a chunk of the gig despite paying $89.50 for a ticket (not including the service charges which easily pushed it over 100 clams).

Might have been a good concert, but many this morning are probably wondering if it was worth the extra costs.....