Guns And Roses – Soundgarden – Faith No More 30.05.1992 Cologne. This was my first concert ever, and as you can tell from the line up, it could not have been any better! I was a sweet 14 years of age, and had only for a few years been listening more intensely to music. At that time I of course knew all the Guns’n’Roses albums, and they were on the “Use Your Illusion World tour”. Backed by two of the great bands from the 90’s Faith no More who were touring “the Real Thing”, and Soundgarden who were promoting “Bad Motor Finger”!
We were about 20 people and had rented a bus, as most of us being under 18 had no drivers licence. Luckily my brother had joined as well, as otherwise I doubt I would have gotten permission to go. We arrived around 5 pm, and set out straight to the stadium where we realized that unfortunately we had ordered grandstand seats, but wanted to be on the main floor.. We ended up sneaking past the outside fence of a bridge connecting the stands to the floor.. Luckily none of us were thickset, as we would not have made it through that space. A few others found people that gave them a used ticket to access the floor.
I was about 30 cm shorter than the rest of us, but headed out to the front with everyone else, and faith no more sure did get the crowd going already! WOW, the closer we got to the front, the bigger the pressure got, and about 50 m from the stage the crowd was just going left and right, back and forth as one large mass. The others formed a circle around me, as otherwise I probably wouldn’t have survived! But with the protective circle I was able to fully get into the music, bouncing up and down like a mad man !
Soundgarden had “Bad Motor Finger” going, which was mind-blowing as well! I had never heard these bands, but was pretty much sold for life after this show! And the main act had not even started yet! Being that I did not know any of their songs back then, but I do remember that it was one hell of a powerful concert!
Guns’n’Roses was simply staggering! I think they played around three hours, something which nowadays is very rare. The entire show, stage, and performance were Guns’n’Roses at the peak of their career, and what more can one say than it was the “Use Your Illusion Tour”! Those who were there will never forget, and those that weren’t will never know!