Review of Guns `n` Roses: Use Your Illusion World Tour 1992 In Tokyo Vol. 2

Introduction

If you`ve read the review of the first disc, most of the content is repeated here, but to save you ploughing through, here`s a heads up - this disc is worse than the first one - so avoid it even more. If you didn`t read the review of the first disc, here goes:-

Ahh, the Roses (as Guns`N`Roses were often called round our way - this was before the Stone Roses became just the Roses). They always take me back to being in the sixth form at school, and watching the so called "future of the country" all down on their knees in the middle of a dance floor somewhere, playing air guitar to Sweet Child O`Mine or Paradise City. Some of these people are now teaching your children or working on major engineering projects in your area. A chilling thought?

And was I one of those in the middle? Well, no, because I was the one repsonsible for playing the songs to them that caused these reactions. But the image above is how Guns`n`Roses will always be remembered for me. They`re supposed to be coming back, but with only W. Axl Rose left from the line up, it`s not the same, and he should just grow old gracefully. Do we really want to see him prancing around in hotpants or cycling shorts nowadays?

Here is the second part of the band`s concert, recorded in Tokyo in 1992. The tracklisting on the second disc goes like this:-

You Could Be Mine, Drum Solo and Guitar Solo, Theme from The Godfather, Sweet Child O`Mine, So Fine, Rocket Queen, Move To The City, Knockin` On Heaven`s Door, Estranged, Paradise City

Volume 1 of this DVD is reviewed separately (although the content of the review is rather similar to this one!)

Video

As with volume 1, a bog standard full-frame concert transfer. It`s a 1.33:1 affair, and as you would expect from concert footage filmed in the last millenium. Again, it does appear to be a fairly straight copy of the VHS release, which is a little bit of a let down.

It`s the same men on stage, playing instruments. There are some lights. There`s a crowd. And again, it`s not exciting to watch, unless you really like watching grown men prancing around in cycling shorts and hotpants, attempting to sing into microphones that have massive foam ends on them (the Axl trademark).

Audio

Oh dear (multiplied a few times for this disc). The real point of music DVDs is that they bring you whatever music it is in excellent quality, thus allowing you to replace your awful VHS copy of the concert, or to improve on your CD recording or similar.

But the sound quality here is awful by DVD`s standards. A rather muffled soundtrack, and I`ve heard better bootlegs recorded by audience members. It just sounds like they`ve transferred the VHS to the DVD without paying any attention to what it sounds like. This basically stops this DVD in its tracks, and therefore there`s no real reason to buy it.

And if that wasn`t bad enough, if you wanted to listen to Knockin` On Heaven`s Door then you`ll struggle, as for about 6 minutes of the song there is just total silence from the DVD! Quality control anyone?

Features

Given what I`ve just said do you expect any? Correct. None.

Conclusion

As with volume one, I was really hoping to be able to recommend this for those of you nostalgic for those old Guns`N`Roses days, anything to escape the awful modern day parody/tribute act The Darkness. But I can`t recommend this DVD as the sound is awful. Imagine playing a VHS tape, or audio cassette that`s a bit worn out, and you get the effect of the DVD. So there`s really no need to buy this DVD at all. If you want some Roses on DVD, you`ll have to go for Welcome To The Videos instead (and that doesn`t sound like it`s an amazing DVD either).

Add to this the fact that one of the songs presented here is replaced with 6 minutes of silence, and you get a truly shoddy DVD which you should avoid like the plague!

My advice again would just be to buy the band`s CDs instead!