Customer Reviews

Night on the Strip Live

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this up as soon as it came out. As a long time Guns fan, I really love this cd. Its a fantastic mix of songs from all their Phil Lewis-era albums. The band rocks live and seemed to really be back in their groove. Listening to this cd makes you wish you were at that show!

The live act is the most often overlooked aspect of a recording artist group's career. Many times live cds are are ignored because "Oh, I already own all those songs on their other albums." But to me and a few others, a great live performance really contributes to the fine art of knowing how to play LIVE AND IN PERSON with no way to cover up their mistakes. I know of quite a few bands that are wonderful in the studio and on their production-polished-clean records but when it comes to their live shows--forget about it. The lead singer's voice cracks more than three or four times in a couple songs, the guitar solos are completely butchered, the bass too loud, one of the guitars is out of tune & the only one that sounds half-way decent is the drummer but he's missing one of the cymbals.

Thankfully, this is NOT the case with L.A. Guns first live album to date (to the best of my knowledge, it IS their first) marking Phil's return as lead singer for the Guns. Everything sounds good on this recording. Tracii plays the guitar with terrific accuracy, Riley bangs the hell out of the drums, Mick actually keeps the rhythm and Nickel's bass isn't drowning out the rest of the music. The only valid complaint that I have on this album is I don't think that Phil Lewis' mic is turned up quite loud enough and I would have really have liked to have heard them play "No Mercy" because it is one of my very favorite songs of theirs, but otherwise, a very steady performance on part by the entire band. The crowd also seems quite excited even though the Guns are playing at a small club. The group sounds
especially good on "Over the Edge", "Electric Gypsy", "Long Time Dead" and "Sex Action". If you like the L.A. Guns and can appreciate a good, honest, live performance, check out this cd. The sound quality also deserves recognition--it doesn't sound like it was recorded with an RCA handheld tape cassete recorder.

Now I keep hearing how people dont want to hear a live album and how its just a waste to go out a buy a live album and true, Its better to go actually see the band live then to hear them from cd, but still, what true rock fan DOESNT want to hear a solid live album? The only dissapointment on this album was the lack of vocals on "Nothing Better to Do" which is one of my favorite songs, and of course, the sound production wasnt all that great but then again no live album has great sound production, other then that this was A great live album, and Phil is back!

Looks like a reunion show of the classic line-up {at least the line-up from their self-titled debut CD), that took place on October 7, 1999. Had no idea this reunion ever even took place until recently, as I, myself hadn't seen L.A. Guns since the release of their 'Hollywood Vampires' CD. All their early scorchers are in full force here - like "Sex Action", "Kiss My Love Goodbye", the notorious "Bitch Is Back", the radio friendly "Never Enough", "Electric Gypsy" and their semi-touching "The Ballad Of Jane". A nice audio document to relive the glory of an under-appreciated '80's hair metal band. A definite should-have.

This is as good as any of those Japanese releases of the mid 90's (Live Vampires etc), P. Lewis's voice proves that he still has it on most of the songs. Its live its raw its good and contains top live tracks from L.A.Guns first four releases and one from Black Beauties

Now Phil is really back.

Big thanks to those who wrote that the live performance was worth having... Yes definitely,this is a band that really opens up live and throws a lot of tasty extra bits that turbo charge the songs...almost making the originals sound sterile by comparison.For a recorded live performance the sound quality is great.