L.A. GUNS
Gran Salón Corferias - Bogotá, Colombia
January 24 2014

On their first visit to Colombia, L.A. Guns headlined the first night of the Car Audio Rock Festival.
This festival is held indoors at Bogotá’s exhibition Center, Corferias.

The concert was announced only two weeks before, and some 400 rockers showed up to see Phil Lewis and his band.
The cool thing is that the tickets were very reasonably priced, which is not often the case in Colombia.

The band got on stage at 7:45PM.
This might seem early for a rock concert, but the exhibiton center has a curfew. That’s probably the reason why less people than expected came. It was a Friday night, so many people were just leaving the office at that time.

Anyway, those who were there had the chance to witness a nice Rock’n’Roll night!
The band started with a great version of Sex Action, followed by the lovely Never Enough.
The stage was really large but the lightshow was rather small. Also, the sound wasn’t that good, there were too many low frequencies, but that’s because this place wasn’t designed for concerts.

But that didn’t prevent the band and the fans from having fun!

The crowds kept on headbanging and dancing throughout the show, especially during Electric Gypsy and No Mercy.
Those were to me the best moments of the show.

But some might not agree with me. If I judge by the number of cell phones, video and photo cameras in the air during The Ballad Of Jayne, I assume that this one the highlight for many people.
And indeed, they played a very beautiful version of that song.

They only played one song from the new record, Hollywood Forever, and it was You Better Not Love Me.

I was very surprised when Phil asked if we like Black Sabbath, and played the classic Fairies Wear Boots.
I wasn’t expecting that, it sounded nice but quite weird, because Black Sabbath and L.A. Guns have a very different sound.
Honestly, I would have preferred to hear another L.A. Guns tune, but anyway Michael Grant did a fantastic solo on that one.

The guys of L.A. Guns seemed really happy to play Colombia for the first time.
They couldn´t hide the smile on their faces, especially drummer Steve Riley.

Bass player Scott Griffin was more in a headbanging mood, he was totally into the show.

Phil Lewis has a great attitude on stage, with or without his guitar. He sang great, his voice is truly unique, on studio and on stage.
He didn’t speak much but he did say that he had loved the country so far.

He practiced his Spanish, but not only by saying just the usual “Gracias Bogotá”: L.A. Guns played a song in Spanish, Araña Negra!
That was a lovely detail and a nice gift from the band, even if some people seemed surprised, probably because they didn’t know the song.

And what about the new guy, Michael Grant?
Replacing Tracii Guns has never been an easy task, but he left the band more than 10 years ago (not counting the period when he fronted his own version of L.A. Guns).

Michael has been in the band for a year and I can tell you that he’s a great guitar player.
He’s young and adds a lot of energy to the band, especially because he doesn’t stop making gestures and moving around the stage.
About his look, well, he looks more like a geek than like a Sunset Strip Rockstar, but I think his style fits the band and he gives a renewed energy to L.A. Guns.


The band left the stage after only one hour, and came back shortly afterwards to play No Mercy.
After that one, they took many pictures in front of the crowds with their own cellphones, and I’m almost sure that they wanted to play another song… but a member of the festival staff started thanking the crowds and the sponsors and so guys of L.A. Guns left the stage.
We'll probably never know if they were supposed to play one more song...

The concert was short, only 1 hour and 10 minutes, but that’s kind of usual for bands from Los Angeles, like Mötley Crüe, Poison or W.A.S.P.

Short but good, it was a real pleasure to see this legendaty band on stage.

And the party goes on! Another Hard Rock legend will hit the stage of the Car Audio Festival during the same weekend: Lita Ford!

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Setlist L.A. Guns – Car Audio Festival – Bogotá, – January 24 2014

L.A. Guns Links:

L.A. Guns band Line-up:

Phil Lewis – Vocals / Guitars
Michael Grant – Guitars
Scotty Griffin – Bass
Steve Riley – Drums