Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I (Live in Tokyo 1992) Pt.1

As a fan of GnR I wasn't at all disappointed with this DVD. It's the closest I'll ever get to seeing the original boys in action and they do rock. This concert was filmed during the Use Your Illusion tour in 1992 and for some strange reason they chose the Tokyo Arena as the venue to film. I say this is strange because the crowd is rather subdued and consequently the band seems to be missing that extra energy or spark that they usually seemed to posses at other live performances. Still it's a great show and the boys give it there all, starting out slow(ish) and building to a chaotic climax. It's great to witness Axl's strutting and racing up and down the stage all the while screaming with his amazing voice, and Slash hitting the astonishing guitar solos especially the one at the end of Double talkin Jive. They have even tossed in a few short interviews with band members between songs which is good for a laugh.

The quality of the video is fine and for a price of 15 dollars this is well worth picking up. Use Your Illusion 1 also contains an excellent selection of 15 songs including; Nightrain, Mr. Brownstone, Live and let die, It's so easy, Bad obsession, Attitude, Pretty tied up, Welcome to the jungle, Don't cry, Double talkin jive, Civil war, Wild horses, Patience and November rain.

After watching this I found myself thinking with amazement and regret that there will never be another band like Guns N' Roses...Sigh.

WEAK. That sums up this offering. Visually its an OK show to watch. Sound quality is also just OK. Performance wise...very flat. Perhaps it was the notoriously reserved Japanese crowd that failed to draw the best out of the Gunners on this occasion. Its a shame they could not have recorded a US show where the crowds are more upbeat(or flat out insane)in many cases and may have possibly elicited more energy from the band. Whatever the case...this show,sadly,has very little edge and is in fact sloppy and boring in too many spots. Many bands have done it right...AC/DC,RUSH and STEVE VAI are examples of outstanding,tight live shows caught on DVD...this one is NOT.

This is a combination review of both UYI's, and the "Welcome to the Videos" DVD. I did not previously have any of these on VHS. First of all, the music itself. Of course the videos are classics, and it's great to finally have them on DVD. The glaring omission is "You Could Be Mine", which is a shame since it is a great song and video. They must not have wanted to pay to license the Terminator image for this release, which isn't surprising given the other shortcomings. I'll get to those in a minute. As far as the Tokyo concert goes, it's not bad, but it's not great either. I saw GNR twice back in the day, and even saw them again with the new lineup in late 2002 before the tour was aborted, and ALL of those shows had at least twice the energy of this one. The show I saw in the Tacoma Dome in 1991 was VERY intense, and to this day is still the loudest concert I have ever been to. The show on these DVD's just doesn't compare, but unfortunately this is probably all we are going to get of Axl and Slash era GNR.
As far as the DVD's themselves go, I am VERY disappointed. I think the entire concert and the videos could have been put on one DVD, like the Stone Temple Pilots did, or at least onto one reasonably priced 2-disc set, like the OUTSTANDING Led Zeppelin DVD. They didn't even bother to remaster any of it in 5.1. The whole thing smacks of a money grab to me, and that pisses me off. If Jimmy Page could do such an awesome job of remastering tapes from the 1970's in 5.1, there is no reason they could not have done the same with these. The other thing I hate is when concert DVD's are constantly interrupted by interviews, which completely breaks the mood of the show. Save the interviews for the special features section, dammit!!!!
So if you gotta have your GNR then go ahead and get these, because that's all you're gonna get. It's just very disappointing that no effort was put into the production, and that this was all released on 3 separate DVD's to maximize the amount of money that they could extract from your wallet. Hats off again to Jimmy Page for thinking about the fans instead of his bank account, and if you don't have that Zeppelin DVD then GET IT NOW! IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!