Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I

This is the first of two 'officially' released Guns N' Roses Concerts exhibiting one of their best live performances during their mammoth early 1990's world tour. The word 'official' is imperative for this band as they have very limited Geffen releases even though they were one of the most popular bands in the world in the late eighties, early nineties. This release is purely for true Guns N' Roses fans as Axl Rose does not display perfect vocals at times but is at his best in his most raw form. The set list is an excellent mix of Use Your Illusion & previous albums but must be complemented with it's sister release in Use Your Illusion II to get the full effect of this concert series in Tokyo, Japan. 'Nightrain' proves an energetic opener but it is not until 'Pretty Tied Up' that we see what this band is truly made of. Ironically this is possibly the best track on this video & it is from Use Your Illusion II. Also not to be missed is the infamous 'Welcome To The Jungle' intro & classic November Rain with Piano Solo.

I think it's funny to see Axl Rose speaking to a crowd of non-English-speaking Japanese who can't even pronounce the band's name (listen to the intro beginning: the crowd chanting "Goons and Wohses!"). It made me wonder if they knew what he was talking about every time he makes a speech before a song, and I think maybe three people could understand English out there, since every time the camera pans across the crowd they look really bored and one girl is _combing her hair while looking at the floor_. That said, the performance - for anyone who can understand English - is a lot of fun. Axl's voice is pretty good for the most part.

There are a few complaints. In particular it's not as spectacular as I had hoped. Axl running around in short-shorts gets old really quick. I mean literally, he just runs from one end of the stage to the other throughout the whole concert. His continual use of the word "f***" as an adjective might grate those who like their music but have low tolerance for swearing (fortunately I am not one of these people - I really don't care at all).

The introduction is pretty neat. Slash's guitar playing is great as usual. Gilby Clarke and Duff McKagan have a fun time singing "Attitude".

Overall they put on a good show and for those of us who weren't into Guns N' Roses back in 1992 when this was recorded, we can now view this DVD/VHS as a reminder of why they were so popular - and why their music, to this day, continues to entice new fans (myself included).

My only wish? I would have loved a live version of "Sweet Child O' Mine"...but at least we got some of the other Appetite songs, and a few Illusion tracks (including "November Rain" - the soft rock ballad, appropriately placed last in the concert as the closing song).

This is for those who could live the time Guns n' Roses were ruling the music planet in late eighties and early nineties. This is for the ones who used to listen to Guns n' Roses everyday and used to sing every lyrics by heart. Yes, HEART! This for those who just can't really believe it doesn't exist anymore. This is for the ones who hope the band comes back to the top one day, no matter how long it takes. In this video, that has recently become a DVD, we can see the band performing some of its best songs like "Welcome to the Jungle", "Patience", "Don't Cry" and "November Rain". Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Gilby Clarke, Dizzy Reed, Matt Sorum and their supporting band show how good they were. We also miss Izzy Stradlin', who had left the band four months before.