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Please Tell Me The Beef With The 1992 Tokyo Show?


D-GenerationX

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I agree the Tokyo show was blah and lacked character. It looked like "just another show". Still it's better than nothing but I don't watch it much. Prefer the energy of ritz 88 or noblesville 91.

They were SO big then could have released a big outdoor concert with the crowd going nuts. It was a weird choice.

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Well I think they all spend every second of it very aware it is getting a VHS release. Their posing is without endearing casually self aware 'for them lulz' - qualities and seems forced. Almost tempted to compare them to DJ but fucks sake that'd be insulting and unreasonable. It isn't THAT bad. Other than posing being too full of it, it is a great show. I recon most people bash it as a natural fan response to how Axl spoke of it in bad light in some interview or another. "Ohh..we aren't supposed to like this it seems!" Hashtagnutswing

Band as a whole sounds pretty good. Axl's voice takes a few songs to get going. Once it does..it eventually ends up being perfect in my ears. Gripsy as fuck, little imperfect and touch broken is how I want him to sound. It is not possible for any incarnation of Axl (or anyone else obv. ) to deliver a better You could be mine than what it is/was in Tokyo. When compared to Tokyo, every other YCBM ever performed, and most assuredly the album version..) is a dickless pop hit void of danger and life.

oh and Matt Sorum's hair. It pisses me off. I don't like it how there is a HD quality version of Matt Sorum's hair now available in Internet.

Edited by LTD
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The problem is they didn't have much to work with. They obviously couldn't release anything with Izzy and they wanted to get it out while the tour was still going. All that left were those bloated 1992 shows. Tokyo is a common city to film and record concerts for some reason - quality of recording companies available? City/Arena fees for filming? I don't know why.. Also, I couldn't see the band wanting to release a show where Axl runs his mouth off for 10 minutes either. It was a pretty safe gig to release.

St. Louis was a great show. The band was unusually agressive. Figures the crowd lost it, they really worked them up. Axl was clearly pissed off at something and Slash was totally messed up on who knows what.

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I'd have released the Paris show.

I agree. (And I would have prevended Matt from crashing Jeff Beck's ear so we could have had Locomotive performed that night, too )

I think the rights to that were the Television productions... but i agree that that show was amazing. I watched that in the common room of my dorms. Only problem I have with it is that its in the daylight. For some reason I like the night shows..probably because the lighting effects are better.

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I'd have released the Paris show.

I agree. (And I would have prevended Matt from crashing Jeff Beck's ear so we could have had Locomotive performed that night, too )

I think the rights to that were the Television productions... but i agree that that show was amazing. I watched that in the common room of my dorms. Only problem I have with it is that its in the daylight. For some reason I like the night shows..probably because the lighting effects are better.

It was still daylight when the show started, The sun set halfway. It really was a great show.

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I remember a friend brought one of the VHS UYI concerts round to my place when they first came out, and it was a letdown.

It's a snapshot of GNR in it's death throes-tired and lacklustre, it seems as if most of it is phoned in.

When Duff steps up to the mic for Attitude, there is actually a surge of energy-IMO probably the high point.

Does Gilby even know the songs though?

I bought them on dvd, what a waste of dough...I love/loved GNR but these videos are not a good way to remember them.

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I've been listening to a lot of GNR shows lately because I'm working on a project and the Tokyo show is definitely among the best. The setlist is about as good as you could expect, Axl voice is excellent, Slash is top shape and the performances for many of the songs are if not the best then among the best out there. The band and especially Axl were notoriously inconsistent - and not just between shows, but also between songs in the same show. This show (as well as the other two nights) has the entire band rocking hard from the beginning until the end. I agree about the crowd, but I don't think it's big enough of a deal to drag the show down significantly.

I think their (edit: or at least Axl's) absolute best show was Noblesville '91.

IMO, you are wrong on many many accounts. Yes, they are VERY good at Tokyo, but way overstating it with these songs being the definitive performances. Thats just absolutely not true and is very much your opinion. Maybe they are the best professionally recorded live stuff YOU have heard, but most of the songs, aside from the ones that were rare that night, are absolutely nothing special.

Also, the fact that Noblesville is the show you think is best adds to that. Axl sounds BEYOND horrible at that show and while the band is good, its overall a rough recording. Another show where its fine, but there are so many better. I can give you the band is good at Noblesville, but Axl makes that night unlistenable.

Axl's voice at the Noblesville is pure perfection to me. In fact I judge all his other vocal performances by how close they are to that one.

Really? To me that (and most of the '91 shows) sound like he's struggling. For me perfection as far as Axl's vocals go is the REALLY early stuff. Axl doesn't get any better than this:

If this is better to your ears, then I guess Axl's vocals are even more of a personal opinion than I realised:

More on the topic, Tokyo had that dead crowd (it sucks the atmosphere out of watching it) and Axl's voice was a little nasal and rough. There are other shows from 1992 like Chicago, Paris, Argentina that were all better.

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I've been listening to a lot of GNR shows lately because I'm working on a project and the Tokyo show is definitely among the best. The setlist is about as good as you could expect, Axl voice is excellent, Slash is top shape and the performances for many of the songs are if not the best then among the best out there. The band and especially Axl were notoriously inconsistent - and not just between shows, but also between songs in the same show. This show (as well as the other two nights) has the entire band rocking hard from the beginning until the end. I agree about the crowd, but I don't think it's big enough of a deal to drag the show down significantly.

I think their (edit: or at least Axl's) absolute best show was Noblesville '91.

IMO, you are wrong on many many accounts. Yes, they are VERY good at Tokyo, but way overstating it with these songs being the definitive performances. Thats just absolutely not true and is very much your opinion. Maybe they are the best professionally recorded live stuff YOU have heard, but most of the songs, aside from the ones that were rare that night, are absolutely nothing special.

Also, the fact that Noblesville is the show you think is best adds to that. Axl sounds BEYOND horrible at that show and while the band is good, its overall a rough recording. Another show where its fine, but there are so many better. I can give you the band is good at Noblesville, but Axl makes that night unlistenable.

Axl's voice at the Noblesville is pure perfection to me. In fact I judge all his other vocal performances by how close they are to that one.

Really? To me that (and most of the '91 shows) sound like he's struggling. For me perfection as far as Axl's vocals go is the REALLY early stuff. Axl doesn't get any better than this:

If this is better to your ears, then I guess Axl's vocals are even more of a personal opinion than I realised:

Yes! That's precisely the song I like most, along with Perfect Crime, in fact the later part of the show as a whole, as early on his vocals are more conventional and actually quite bad on a couple of songs. Estranged from Rio is also among my favorites Axl moments, Paradise City from Ritz '88, the SCOM intros from Tokyo '92, Civil War, Jungle and Paradise City from Paris '92, Nice Boys from Karlsruhe '93. I like it most when it's full rasp and strength. There are some clean vocals Axl moments I enjoy too but they're mostly from 1986.

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^ Cause only normal, acceptable and cool way to appreciate a band in live environment involves moshpits, crowdsurfing, devil fingers and endlessly screaming WOOOOOOOO through the whole thing like some retarded college fratboy siren had gone off.

Regarding 87-91 rocket queen:


Really? To me that (and most of the '91 shows) sound like he's struggling. For me perfection as far as Axl's vocals go is the REALLY early stuff. Axl doesn't get any better than this:

Both are very good but I think Axl '87 is bit too perfect for it's own good. Song as sleazy as Rocket Queen def only benefits from things being a bit broken. I'm not some personal vocals coach of Axl or anything but I'd think his 92 voice is more taxing and takes more effort than the 87 version.

Edited by LTD
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^ Cause only normal, acceptable and cool way to appreciate a band in live environment involves moshpits, crowdsurfing, devil fingers and endlessly screaming WOOOOOOOO through the whole thing like some retarded college fratboy siren had gone off.

Regarding 87-91 rocket queen:

Really? To me that (and most of the '91 shows) sound like he's struggling. For me perfection as far as Axl's vocals go is the REALLY early stuff. Axl doesn't get any better than this:

Both are very good but I think Axl '87 is bit too perfect for it's own good. Song as sleazy as Rocket Queen def only benefits from things being a bit broken. I'm not some personal vocals coach of Axl or anything but I'd think his 92 voice is more taxing and takes more effort than the 87 version.

did I say or imply that? I don't think I did. But there's a difference between being dead and singing along, cheering and not acting like a cardboard cutout.

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I'd have released the Paris show.

I agree. (And I would have prevended Matt from crashing Jeff Beck's ear so we could have had Locomotive performed that night, too )
Sorum :max:

Almost a perfect gig. Too bad no Estranged either

Indeed, Estranged performed by the Uyi lineup in Paris would have been a dream for me.
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One of the more constant talking points on GNR forums is how the 1992 Tokyo show was an abomination and you can't swing a dead cat without finding 10 better shows to release.

What is the problem here? I see a concert with a pretty good setlist. No major hits left out, and even a few tunes you did not get every night (Pretty Tied Up, Rocket Queen).

What makes these shows so allegedly terrible?

I'd say a big part of it is that fans are territorial and snobby; therefore, this Tokyo video which was released on a wide scale, resists their control.

That said, Tokyo looks bored to us because they arent tearing each other apart. So it looks like the band is playing to a dead crowd. It's in a big dark place instead of outside and exciting like Paris. There arent any rants or Axl jumping out in the crowd. They were a well-oiled machine going through the motions (like Metallica has done for 20+ years), which isnt as exciting, dangerous, or "GNR"

I dunno, anything people can bitch about, they will.

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