This brief collection of videos was recorded live in Tokyo, 1992, as part of Guns N' Roses' worldwide Use Your Illusion tour. This volume (part "II") provides some songs from GN'Rs' #1 billboard hit, including "Estranged," "You Could Be Mine," "So Fine," and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." It also includes older hits such as "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Rocket Queen," "Move to the City," and of course, "Paradise City." The performance highlights also include a live rendition of the "Godfather" theme and a guitar/drum solo.
Axl Rose was a truly great frontman. One problem he did have was all the damned running around on stage. The "UYI I" video is even worse, but here he's still running about constantly, and it just makes his singing less effective. He quickly runs out of breath. It's one of the reasons I felt the intense criticism from fans regarding the 2002 VMA performance was moot - his live voice has never been a good indication of his studio vocals. Sometimes he delivers great live performances, but a lot of times - such as here - his energetics make him lose steam too fast. His voice is still awesome, but it's not as awesome as it could be if he just cut out the lame running back and forth from one end of the stage to the other.
Anyway, apart from Axl's somewhat shady vocals, for the most part this is excellent. Slash looks a bit drugged out and he's not into the guitar stuff as he could be - he's Axl's opposite, he just stands there and plays the notes. He could use a bit of energy injection.
The DVD is nice but isn't really that big a deal - in fact they could have easily combined both volumes of the Tokyo performance onto one DVD.
Axl Rose was a truly great frontman. One problem he did have was all the damned running around on stage. The "UYI I" video is even worse, but here he's still running about constantly, and it just makes his singing less effective. He quickly runs out of breath. It's one of the reasons I felt the intense criticism from fans regarding the 2002 VMA performance was moot - his live voice has never been a good indication of his studio vocals. Sometimes he delivers great live performances, but a lot of times - such as here - his energetics make him lose steam too fast. His voice is still awesome, but it's not as awesome as it could be if he just cut out the lame running back and forth from one end of the stage to the other.
Anyway, apart from Axl's somewhat shady vocals, for the most part this is excellent. Slash looks a bit drugged out and he's not into the guitar stuff as he could be - he's Axl's opposite, he just stands there and plays the notes. He could use a bit of energy injection.
The DVD is nice but isn't really that big a deal - in fact they could have easily combined both volumes of the Tokyo performance onto one DVD.