FIRENZE ROCKS 12th JUNE 2025 Live Report (THE WARNING, RIVAL SONS, FALLING IN REVERSE, GUNS N' ROSES)
Dear all, here I am to tell you in as much detail as possible the highlights of the day spent yesterday in the name of Rock n' roll in a Festival very dear to me, like Firenze Rocks, which this year finally allowed me to fill my concert gap on Guns n' Roses... I immediately prevent the usual "Guns aren't what they used to be" by remembering that when they were what they used to be, I was barely in elementary school and therefore I would hardly have had the time and the head to enjoy them. But let's go in order, starting from the beginning. I must say that I cannot talk about the first group that opened the event, Dirty Honey, because I arrived on site at around 3.40 pm, so immediately after their performance, but it would have been impossible to do otherwise. As general considerations, the same as those of previous editions are valid: the location is beautiful and spacious and the acoustics are excellent, the novelty of some cashless points of sale without the hateful tokens was very welcome, it's a shame that they were practically at the entrance and therefore inconvenient to reach for those who want an easy position to watch the show; then add the absolutely prohibitive prices of any food or drink and the fact that with 36° and very limited spaces in the shade it is not allowed to bring a water bottle or have fountains to refuel, in short the usual critical issues.
But let's focus on the music and the 4 performances that I had the pleasure of attending.
THE WARNING
At 4 pm sharp, The Warning, a Mexican hard rock band formed by 3 sisters, took the stage. About forty minutes of performance, marked by a rather energetic proposal, modern but in the wake of a certain classicism. Very good stage presence and great ability to involve even those who didn't know them - see myself - for an absolutely positive and impactful show. A classy start.
RIVAL SONS
As per the program at 5.15 pm, it's the turn of these gentlemen of whom I already knew something more. We remain in the sign of Hard Rock but with blues nuances and well-marked Zeppelin influences. A beautiful, intense performance, sanguine, with great technique but never cold or an end in itself, capable of alternating the lighter moments and the more energetic ones with great balance. Not much space is dedicated to them, but enough to instill curiosity in the neophytes and give confirmation to those who already respect them. During their performance, a providential fire hydrant also arrived that gave me and the people I met a bit of fresh, albeit temporary, relief.
End of Forever
Electric Man
Open My Eyes
Tied Up
Pressure and Time
Torture
Secret
FALLING IN REVERSE
It will have been understood that punctuality is one of the strong points of this day and the positive trend was repeated also with Falling In Reverse, a band that I did not know and that, honestly, I have a hard time pigeonholing into a musical genre, which is not necessarily a flaw. After an intro video on the notes of "Highway to Hell" the band goes on stage and begins to reel off a series of songs that mix rap, rock, electronic, metalcore in a completely heterogeneous way, with an extremely versatile and charismatic singer, with great stage presence and excellent interaction with the audience. Pyrotechnic effects and videos projected on the backdrop help to give depth to an earth-shaking performance from which you emerge stunned, confused but also very curious; finally, peculiar the choice to perform one of the songs in the setlist in the backstage (which, if I understood correctly, happens in all their shows). An hour of largely successful and engaging show, they will not be my cup of tea - I don't even like it, but these are details - but absolutely to be promoted with full marks.
SETLIST
Highway to Hell(AC/DC, intro)
Prequel
Zombified
I'm Not a Vampire
Fuck You and All Your Friends
Bad Guy
Losing My Mind
Just Like You
NO FEAR (Performed Offstage)
All My Life
Popular Monster
Voices in My Head
Ronald
Watch the World Burn
We Are the Champions (Queen, outro)
GUNS N' ROSES
And here we are at the main course of the day, the long-awaited event for which, in the previous weeks, I listened and listened again over and over again to the discography, fortunately small, of these gentlemen. During the soundcheck, a video representing aliens celebrating in front of a large crucifix that largely recalled the cover of "Appetite for Destruction" marked the wait for the start of the show, again substantially on time (we won't quibble over a five-minute delay here, mindful of some of the group's less than edifying past experiences). The notes of "Welcome to the Jungle" unleashed a packed racecourse and kicked off the dances in the best possible way, with a setlist that didn't offer any major variations compared to the 2018 edition, except for the choice of the cover performed and for a couple of unreleased ones and the rest of the albums are those, for about 3 hours without major pauses. It is useless to dwell on the performance of the musicians, anyone who has a minimum knowledge of the band knows very well what a monster of technique and passion Slash is, choreographic already in his appearance and capable of flying with his thousand guitars, not to mention all the others, a perfectly assembled ensemble and protagonist of a capital performance without the slightest drop. The attention of everyone, even those who read, is only one and has a name, Axl Rose: how much weight has he gained? How did he sing? Did he make it to the end of the evening? Let's say right away that ours showed up on stage at least for me in a more than dignified physical shape and throughout the evening he proved to be anything but static, moving from one side of the stage to the other, dancing and interacting several times with the audience without ever holding back and showing a good affinity with the rest of the band. On the vocal front my friends there is little to say, just watch the many videos that circulate on YouTube to know that as long as ours has to deal with low tones he does very well but when he faces the higher parts his voice ends up resembling terribly that of Mickey Mouse and there were some struggles paradoxically on the most recent songs and on "Chinese Democracy", for the most part already not unforgettable in themselves, and at the end; it must be said however that where the voice did not arrive, the stage presence did its part, and 3 hours of concert are still a considerable workload. One could argue that 6 songs out of 30 - because Slash's beautiful solo is a song in all respects - are too many, that the "unreleased songs are negligible" as well as "Better" - for those of you speaking, the worst performance of the concert - and that in any case none of these tracks were worth the exclusion of "Don't Cry", but net of all this I feel like giving an overall score of 8 to the entire performance, averaging between the peaks of the musicians, Axl's stage presence and the magic of many songs - with a "Civil War" fantastic for me - and some choices of setlist that perhaps deserve to be reviewed.
Welcome to the Jungle
Mr. Brownstone
Bad Obsession
Chinese Democracy
Out ta Get Me
Live and Let Die (Wings cover)
Slither (Velvet Revolver cover)
Absurd
Double Talkin' Jive
Coma
Yesterdays
You Could Be Mine
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan cover)
Hard Skool
Rocket Queen
Civil War
Thunder and Lightning (Thin Lizzy cover) (Duff on vocals)
It's So Easy
Better
Slash Guitar Solo
Sweet Child o' Mine
November Rain
Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover)
Patience
This I Love
The General
Down on the Farm (UK Subs cover)
Estranged
Nightrain
Paradise City
This concludes my experience on June 12th at Firenze Rocks, but I take this opportunity to make a couple of complaints. I ask the dear spectators what sense there is in wanting to film entire songs with smartphones and the like - usually the most famous ones - if not even entire concert pieces: they are songs that we can listen to whenever we want, while it is not every day that we can sing them live. And then it is not exactly the best to force the other spectators to become contortionists to be able to see the stage between one screen and the other. Finally, I would like to point out to the organization that the exit methods should be widely reviewed, it is not acceptable that entire hordes of people - including the person speaking to you - were unable to use the nearest basin (closed in fact) and had to walk for miles to exit from the opposite side to the entrance, and since it is a racecourse you can well understand that the distances are certainly not minimal. Be that as it may, it was a great day!