Customer Reviews

All Those Wasted Years

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i remember being introduced to hanoi rocks in the late eighties by catching a blurb in rolling stone that axl rose had considered them a major influence and decided to reissue the band's entire back catalog on cd. while this was noteworthy in itself, some of the album titles in the review were attention grabbers: "bangkok shocks, saigon shakes, hanoi rocks" seemed like a bold name for a debut and painted an air of mystery and exotica around the band. i soon had purchased the entire catalog. although i have long outgrown hard rock, hanoi rocks was an important band for me. it was the first group that i listened to that was under the radar, releasing its entire output on indie labels. it opened me up to the idea that radio was a very limited outlet for interesting music and that the best music was that which required a little bit of investigation to find. michael monroe was beautiful and oozed attitude, a drag queen not intimidated of grabbing the reins for a band that had a lot of musical muscle and real swagger. their debut was unaccomplished but had a spiky, out-of-the-gutter punk attitude that kept the whole endeavor afloat. "village girl" and "stop crying" contained amazing slices of music but were bogged by their kindergarten lyrics. the "oriental beat" album was the point where they started to embellish their music with the sort of exotica in which their name implied. "motorvatin", "visitor", "sweet home suburbia", "no law or order", and the title track were gloriously diverse and rocked unlike any other glam band before or since. in fact, despite the image, hanoi was not a glam band at all. however, they did use that music as a lens to filter punk, blues, candy pop, and r&b. as for this live album, it starts off killer and then sort of slumps in the middle before delivering a fantastic finale. the opening four song sequence demonstrates that once locked into a groove the band could entertain with inventiveness and precision. the encore of covers at the end are rather faithful to the originals but are done with a hungry vitality that surprises given the band was at the very end of their career trajectory. they decided to call it quits when their drummer, razzle, died in a car crash with a very drunk vince neil. it was a respectable decision and one i stand behind since the musical direction they were heading into with "two steps from the move" was conventional and stripped the band of all the exotica, diversity, and soul that they displayed on their prior releases. unfortunately, these releases are once again out-of-print and the band's most vital and interesting work is unavailable to dot com and record store browsers.

Only my second ever title I've purchased of this '80's Finnish glam band. Originally released as a 2-vinyl lp in 1985. Great to have it mastered and reissued on CD. Tunes here I was most taken with were the rocking "Back To Mystery City", "Motorvatin'", "Don't Never Leave Me", "11th Street Kids", "Taxi Driver" and their two covers - their so-so version of Alice Cooper's "Under My Wheels" and the Yardbirds standard "Train Kept A Rollin'". Sound quality is great and as much of a live album nut that I am, I'm totally pleased with this disc. Line-up: Mike Monroe-vocals, Andy McCoy & Nasty Suicide-guitars, Sam Yaffa-bass and the extremely missed Razzle on drums. I still run across patrons that simply don't remember Hanoi Rocks. If you like '80's bands like Faster Pussycat, Motley Crue, Kix, Guns 'N Roses and L.A. Guns, you should enjoy this live CD. Glad to hear they've recently reunited with at least two original members. A must-have.

Hanoi Rocks never sold millions of albums, but they were one of the best live bands back in th 80's. They were raw, wild and most of all they knew how to play their instruments. Maybe Andy McCoy is not Eddie Van Halen, but he really kicked ass with his guitar (one thing that Ed. never did). Unfortunately this is only live album of Hanoi Rocks, but it is the best HR. There is almost every classical Hanoi-tunes and in live athmosphere these songs are even better than in studio albums. If this band would have last, we never have heard band called Guns N' Roses.

hanoi rocks were at the top of their game when they recorded this. the album is alot more raw than their studio recordings. I would recomend this album for anyone who's a fan of punk or glam rock.these guys were stars its ashame they never got bigger.

A great, alas mostly forgotten, hard rock/glam band from those distant days of the early 80s. From the raucous, rampant energy of "Motorvatin'" to the sad, heartbroken lament of "Don't Never Leave Me" (re-arranged and recorded on their final album, "Two Steps from the Move"); from the bluesy, nightmarish howls of "Taxi Driver" (no, this is no ode to Travis Bickle) to the terrific covers that end the set: "Lightnin' Bar Blues," "Under My Wheels," "I Feel Alright" (actually it's the Stooges' "1970") and "Train Kept A-Rollin'," this is a terrific CD, and a bargain! When compared to other glam rock/metal bands of the same era (you know--Crue, Ratt, etc) those other guys don't stand a chance. About ten years ago I saw the live video for this, and it's amazing; they cover "Blitzkrieg Bop" too! Rock'n'roll this straight-up is a refreshing shot that burns!

Right: listening to this CD, you get to understand clearly that this band set the foundation for this kind of fun, glam-my, in your face rn'r to make a big come back by the mid 80's, specially for a band like GN'R, who unashameledly stole their thunder... don't get me wrong, I am the biggest GN'R fan ever, but the fact remains that, without Hanoi Rocks, nobody would know who GN'R are... anyway... you might wonder why I only rated this superb record with 4 stars and not 5, if I claim to love the Rocks so much... as good as the CD is, there are a couple of glitches that I have to mention:

- Andy McCoy's guitar is extremely loud, or maybe Nasty's guitar is too low, I don't know, but take your time to listen to the record a few times with headphones on, and listen to songs like "Visitor" (my favorite on this CD, and one of my overall Hanoi's favorites...) or "Taxi Driver", and you'll know what I mean... I don't mind Andy's sound, quite the contrary (no other human being on this earth can play like him), but I can barely hear Nasty play... and once again, the GN'R comparison appears, because the exact same thing occurs with their "Live Era" CD, where Slash is all over the place and Izzy Stradlin's, but specially Gilby Clarke's playing is chocked by the volume of Slash's guitar...

-I am a singer also(for better or worse), and after listening to this record, I am led to believe that Micheal Monroe's monitors at the gig were malfunctioning, or maybe he didn't have any, because at times i get the impression that he couldn't hear himself sing, which is a terrible thing when you're a singer...Beware, i am not saying that he sings bad, I just think that the singing could've been better...

- The song selection: why so many covers? Why cover "Pipeline", an instrumental, when songs like "Village Girl", "Sweet Home Suburbia", "I want you", "Kill City Kills", "Toothing Beck Wreck" and many other classics were left out? Don't get me wrong, all songs included rock, but let's make some conservative numbers: Hanoi Rocks had 4 records released, so that's 40 songs to choose from, and every record has, at least, 4 songs each that ARE classics. 4x4=16. That means that they could have picked 4 songs from each record without any need of covers. That being said, the covers of "Lightning Bar Blues" and "Under my Wheeels" (best cover i have ever heard of this song) are great...

All in all, if you, like me, love the Rocks, Hanoi Rocks, that is, you can't go wrong with this CD... too bad some drunk jerk had to ruin it all for the whole world...

Always a visually great live band, Hanoi Rocks really delivers the aural goods here. The album was recorded at the venerable Marquee Club in London in late 1983. Hanoi Rocks were later to become a major influence on late 80's Rock bands (Guns 'n' Roses et. al.).

A great live set which runs through their best material,and more often than occasionally, is performed better than on the studio efforts.

It's really no wonder that Iggy Pop later (post-breakup) recruited lead guitarist Andy McCoy as the nucleus of his "Instinct" -touring band and W. Axl Rose and Slash (G 'n' R) have both co-operated with lead singer/sax player Michael Monroe on several occasions (Use your illusion, The spaghetti incident, Coneheads O.S.T.).

Maybe the most amazing thing about this live album (originally a 2-LP set) is that it can actually be considered a good entry point to the recorded works of Hanoi Rocks!

If you're into the rockier side of life a la New York Dolls, do yourself a favor and listen to these guys!

One of the best live albums ever! Mike Monroe & Andy McCoy are brilliant together. They sound as good if not better than on their studio efforts. A great listen.

This album is already a clasic on every healthy fan scale of values, it sound just like it should be (I mean come on, who can realy say this live album or that one has no studio overdbus at all,,, Where you there?) it has a freshness and immediacy like it was recorded yesterday, It realy it does!, every song performance's just great, every band member's giving the 150% of himself like there's no tomorrow, you can fell them through the speakers sweating bullets to perform like it's the last show on earth. Man do yourself a favor and get it while it's still available, YOU WON'T REGRET I PROMISE!!!

Hanoi Rocks' powerful songs translated very well to record, but their real strength was in their live show. some of the mix sounds a bit chaotic and it sounds like there may have been some slight technical difficulties with the vocal monitors (?), but all the trashy glam messy essence is captured very well here. the live show is hampered a little bit by some odd song choices (why open with the instrumental "Pipeline"?), and a few glaring ommissions (no "Tooting Bec Wreck?" that song is just begging for a live version!), but this is a fine addition to the mighty Hanoi Rocks catalogue. cheers!