Customer Reviews

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I (World Tour 1992 in Tokyo) [VHS]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Night train, Mr Brownstone, Live and let die, It's so Easy, Bad Obsession, Attitude, Pretty Tied Up, Welcome to the Jungle, Dont Cry, Double Talkin Juive (MF), Civil War, Patience, November Rain.

Live from Tokyo. Axl and the band rocks. Wish I had seen them in concert in '92. Now I can over and over again. No MTV videos here, just high energy concert, from start to finish. Great songs, great sound, lots of running and strutting. Just what I wanted to see. I onl wish it had been a US concert. The audiance was not typical GnR.

This video rocks! Nightrain, Mr. Brownstone, Live and Let Die, Its So Easy, Bad Obession, Attitude, Pretty Tied Up, Welcome to the Jungle, Dont Cry, Double Talkin Jive, Civil War, Wild Horses, Patience, and November Rain. Those are all the songs they play. Plus, a few times they show them talking about other members of the band. I highly reccommend this video! Axl runs around the stage just doing weird stunts for the whole 90 minutes, Duff sings the song "Attitude", Matt pounds on the drums, Slash does AMAZING guitar solos (some with Duff, some with Gilby). Get this video, its so much fun to watch over and over!

First off, if you are going to get this tape, you might as well get the second too. It just wouldn't make sense to do otherwise. Secondly, if you really want it on DVD, check e-bay. They released the DVDs in other countries and that's how I got mine (although the writing on the case and in the menu is Spanish, it's not hard to figure out). With that said, if you like Guns N' Roses and want to see them live on video, buy this DVD set. The band plays a number of songs off of the Use Your Illusion albums, and also a few of their biggest hits from the Appetite for Destruction album. The video quality is spectacular and the audio quality is great for what you would expect from a live recording. Of course the quality is not perfect, I don't have any complaints with it. It's a concert recording, what do you expect? In fact, the only complaint I have is having to see Axl wearing those small spandex shorts the whole time. Why doesn't he put any pants on? Well anyways... just get the videos. I figure if you came to Amazon to find videos for Guns N' Roses, you are slightly interested. This is a great live set, so just do yourself a favor and buy it.

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.

Contrary to several of these reviews, I personally think this is a great Live DVD of Guns n' Roses, offering a very solid performance on their Illusion World Tour. Far superior to the Illusion 2 DVD, this shows GNR playing classic "Appetite" songs with great rock fierce, as well as doing several cuts from Illusion albums and rocking out in all of them.

The show kicks off with an electrifying performance of "Nightrain", and the band is on the mark, with good lyrical deliveries from Axl and a good solo. "Live And Let Die" is also an excellent performance with the band in good sound. "Mr. Brownstone" and "It's So Easy" are heavy Appetite tracks performed with great intensity, the latter being the better of the 2 performances. Axl gives an awesome delivery for "It's So Easy" at the end. I consider "Bad Obsession" to be the worst performance on here, but it is okay. Duff McKagan pioneers "Attitude" giving the vocals. "Pretty Tied Up" has some great moments with Slash shining on the guitar, and Dizzy Reed's background piano sounding perfect in this song. It drags on too long though. Gilby Clarke (Izzy Stradlin's replacement for the remaineder of the tour) and Slash perform "Wild Horses" by Rolling Stones. "Double Talkin' Jive" is pure fiery rock, with the whole band jamming for a good minute before gearing into the track. "Don't Cry" is a very nice performance, with the transition from Slash's guitar to Axl's voice sounding sensational. "Civil War" is one of the heaviest performances in the set and the guitar riffs are exceptional. "Patience" is definitely one of my favourite performances on here, and was probably Axl's best performance of the night. "November Rain" closes out very well, and Axl begins it with a 3 minute piano impromptu.

Overall, this is in my opinion a very solid performance from the band, however simply would not appeal to casual fans of GNR. This is specifically for diehards only. You really have to appreciate the pure raspiness of Axl's voice and the ugly playing of the group to enjoy this DVD. Recommended to big fans of the group.

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!!!

I was very glad to see a Guns N' Roses concert DVD come out. We all know how GN'R have been left in ruins,and it is always nice when an old band releases DVDS of them in concerts. This is a direct transfer from an original VHS tape that was released in 1992,and the producer of this DVD did a pretty good job at transferring the original VHS performance to DVD.

The DVD itself? Could have been a little better,but not bad. A little dull at times,but the good parts are really good. There are no bonus interviews on this DVD,but you do see an introduction that is behind the scenes before the actual concert starts and a couple behind the scenes looks after a performance. Good work there. The performances of "Nightrain","Mr. Brownstone",a cover of the Paul McCartney/Wings classic "Live and Let Die","Attitude"(a Misfits cover),and "Patience" are a little bit boring,but performances of songs like "It's So Easy","Welcome To The Jungle","Don't Cry","Double Talkin' Jive","Pretty Tied Up","November Rain",and "Civil War" are all really good good performances. Axl Rose shows off his talent as a showman during the performances of "It's So Easy" and "Civil War",and "Double Talkin' Jive" leading into "Civil War" sounds(as well as looks) just plain awesome. Don't expect the crowd in this DVD to keep up the excitement during performances of songs on here(some of which are on Guns N' Roses' "Live Era" record),and while this DVD would have been better if the crowd acted excited,the DVD itself is still alright. Don't expect to see "Sweet Child O' Mine","You Could Be Mine",etc. performed live,but a DVD that shows Guns N' Roses supporting UYI2 in Japan was also released,so buying that DVD along with this one would be a good supplement to this DVD(and both of them are sort of Guns N' Roses greatest hits--hits and fan favorites--live and in concert on a DVD). The best thing about this DVD is that even though the special feautures do pop up right after a performance of a song before you see the next song that is performed,you can go to the menu,click on the song selection,and then pick the performance of the song that comes up right after the performance of the last song you saw,and then you don't have all that much to complain about. An improvement from the original VHS release that came out in 1992.

Become a die hard Guns N' Roses fan before you purchase this DVD,but despite it's faults,this is a decent DVD. I recommend getting it cheap and used,but except for the weak parts of this DVD,this is a good purchase for die hard Guns N' Roses fans.

If you have to buy only one movie of Guns N' Roses in your life, buy Use Your Illusion. It's the best live performance i ever seen...and that geek that said that Axl's voice sucked wasn't there at that concert......

I've been a GNR fan forever it seems and this is a truly fantastic DVD and that's saying a lot since it's not so easy to please me. I'm exceedingly picky, but this DVD manages to satisfy even the toughest critic in me. The band plays great and Axl puts on a very energetic performance while giving great vocals to some of their best songs up to that time. I've owned this DVD for over 3 years so far and I still love it.

If you're a GNR fan I very strongly recommend you buy it.

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 Tokyo as the concert 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. It 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.