James Bond

Rocket Queen from Vegas might be my new favorite performance of the song. Nice to finally hear it with the original vocals, the rhythm guitar not missing, and a longer intro than what appeared on Live Era.

Back Off Bitch has one of Slash's coolest solos ever, but it's trapped within what I consider to be an average at best song with even worse lyrics.

After some interruptions I'm up to Paradise City.

It definitely has some minor differences in the vocals. Listen to the first "take me home" in the intro and it's completely different from the Live Era version. It seems like the Live Era version took his best/least breathy take of the chorus and pasted it to the other choruses and likewise with the best "take me home" variants.

Unreal. I always assumed Paradise City was left alone.

30 minutes ago, gavgnr said:

Good reviews of the Blu-ray are arriving like TORRENTial rain. Can’t wait to see it  

Torrential downpour - like one might experience on the high seas.

30 minutes ago, t-p-d-a said:

my blu ray gets stuck after YCBM, It's unplayable to watch Patience. It's like 4fps. Played on the PS4.

I had no problems with other BR like Queen Montreal 81, Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Rolling Stones Atlantic City played the last days with no problems. This is very annoying


can somebody help me? It's not really a good first expierence for THAT MONEY

The PS4 has a notoriously bad Blu-ray player which is perhaps ironic considering the creator. I found DVD playback in particular to be very spotty when I had a PS4. I ended up buying a standalone Blu-ray player and all my problems went away.

I've long been an Argentina 1992 kind of guy, but I think Vegas has knocked that off its pedestal. What a fantastic gig. Great set list, the band is firing on all cylinders, Axl's voice has settled after the chainsaw rasp of 1991, and the mix is excellent.

6 minutes ago, UncleJosh said:

Someone posted on another site that Slash's guitar is out of tune for the first 4 songs in Vegas which if true would mean the Live Era version of Nightrain was either completely overdubbed or another lead guitar track from another show was flown in.

Yeah I haven't done a side by side yet, but I'd say from about halfway through the main solo onwards. You can hear his guitar go out and then he's flat for the outro as well as the next couple of songs. I suspect on Live Era that the main solo onwards was just lifted from another performance. Tokyo maybe?

Another note for Live Era:

The source of Welcome to the Jungle on Live Era has long been debated and many even suspected it was somewhat of a cut and paste version - we can now definitely confirm it's the Vegas version. So cool to hear it in its unaltered form here. It sounds amazing.

7 hours ago, LandOla said:

I'm not able to find the new UYI III album anywhere. Wasn't it released today?

Oh it did. If you pick the Deluxe version of UYI II on Spotify and squint a little bit you can just about turn the "II" into a "III" and enjoy the live tracks as our new album.

Honestly, hearing how good this sounds is making reconsider how soon I purchase it. The Super Deluxe is currently $300 Canadian which is still far too much, but honestly if it dropped to around the $200 I'd probably just pull the trigger. The live stuff really does sound terrific and the Blu-ray is definitely needed in my collection.

I have never found that Better intro to be anything special. They just stuck the bridge at the front of the song and Slash does some unison bends over it.

I'd say it's Chinese Democracy itself that benefits the most from the current line-up. It sounds a lot more raw with the "lean and mean" arrangement. Even at that, having them as some live bonus tracks would be enough for me. I don't think we need yet another re-release ahead of new material.

Other than the high seas it would seem the only option would be to wait for some eBay seller to part out the box set and sell the Blu-ray by itself.

28 minutes ago, UncleJosh said:

I figured that was a lie.  Nikki Sixx said the same thing about their live album. Lol

Oh 100%. Not that I didn't expect that things were fixed, but I just assumed from Slash's quotes that he wasn't really involved.

I meant moreso that Axl's re-recorded vocals are such a talking point among the fandom but this shows that there was quite a bit of guitar tinkering as well.

1 minute ago, UncleJosh said:

I thought it was well known Slash did a lot of overdubbing on Live Era.  Maybe as much as Axl?  Wasn't he flying the tapes back and forth since they weren't speaking at the time?

I could be misremembering but I always thought he maintained he hadn't really contributed to it and that it was "as honest as it gets" or something to that effect.

I just posted this in the UYI discussion thread as well but now that we've got the unaltered takes of some of the Live Era tracks we can do further comparison.

From about the end of Slash's main solo onwards Nightrain, it's clear that a different performance was spliced on the Live Era version. On the unaltered Vegas version in the box set, Slash's phrasing is different and his guitar goes a little out of tune. Not complaining mind you - I love the rawness - but it does go to show that there was further tinkering beyond Axl's new vocals.

Starting off with Vegas on my listen today (I'll save the Ritz for the Blu-ray). It's nice to hear that Nightrain unaltered. Interestingly it would also seem that Slash's guitar was overdubbed on the Live Era version from about the end of the main solo onwards. Not that I think Slash hit the studio to re-record like Axl did (it was probably taken from another performance), but having the unedited version for comparison is really neat. Shows how much tinkering went into Live Era so it's amazing to finally have a raw recording, and one that is presented and mixed so well. Loving it so far!

Also shout out to Spotify for having the albums neatly organized and for leaving the originals up for those who still wish to listen to them.

What about Hank Hill? Would it be Hwisdom?

3 minutes ago, TheSlashrose said:

I confess that when I bought Live Era at the time I didn't imagine it had been re-recorded.

I was the same with AC/DC Live At Donington which basically got me into music. I just assumed it was as honest as it gets. I first experienced it on DVD when I was 11 or so. It wasn't until I got my hands on the VHS version (which had overdubs of its own) that I realized the full scope of it just from comparing the differences between the two. Later on it was the audience shot version which revealed even more.

Granted, for the most part it's just mistakes that were corrected or tweaked for a cleaner presentation, but then in some instances like Fire Your Guns on the DVD they've patched in a completely different solo from what Angus' hands are doing - presumably from another live take of the song. The VHS version kept the original solo. In some songs its reversed where the DVD has more original audio. It's seemingly as complicated and head scratching as the Live Era sessions. 

29 minutes ago, darkside259 said:

if only axl have a liam kindalike comeback 

You mean re-learning the live set to suit the current parameters of your voice, dusting off deep cuts, and releasing three brand new studio albums, two EPs, and two live albums - all in the span of five years?

We'll have to keep dreaming.

46 minutes ago, Spiritual_Chaos said:

Noel didn't like that Liam improvised the lyrics to Wonderwall, so he switched out that part for their 2000 Familiar to Millions release with another concert's take. I guess that is similar in that it's not noticeable. But it still irks me a bit. 

As Liam let the audience sing the choruses of "Wonderwall" and also changed the words to other parts of the song ("By now you should have somehow realised not to sniff glue" / "And all the lights that light the way are doin' me fuckin' 'ead in!") at the 22 July gig, the version on the various audio formats features a different vocal track to the original one recorded at Wembley. This also applies to Noel's backing vocals. Most of these overdubbed vocals were recorded at Oasis' gig at the Yokohama Arena, Kanagawa, Japan on 5 March 2000. Only one line ("I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now") in the first verse is from the actual Wembley gig, as Liam failed to sing this line correctly in the Yokohama performance.

Funny enough that's probably my most listened to version of Wonderwall. I like how it sounds with the electric guitars and the piano cuts through nicely on the end. Have you ever listened to the botched Wembley night? Liam is completely off the rails. It makes for a wild listen.

I think what makes it stand out so much more on Live Era is that by 1998/1999, Axl's vocal tonality had changed so it makes it obvious when a new section is punched in. It's probably less noticeable for a casual listener on some songs, say Nightrain and Rocket Queen, since those songs are re-recorded from top to bottom. The giveaway is the nearly flawless take on those tracks and how he just didn't sound like that on the UYI tour. Plus, we have so many 1999 vocal sources (thanks Pele) that it's an even easier comparison. Sweet Child is another obvious one. That is definitely not what he sounded like on Paris 1992 where it's sourced from (and Duff's bass flub in the intro is fixed too - probably just grabbed from another show). Not at all uncommon practices for commercially released live albums, but somewhat of a strange mash-up on Live Era.

A funny one to me is Welcome to the Jungle where there's a mix of re-recorded vocals and bits that were left alone so you go between crystal clear 1999 Axl vocals and some of the signature UYI era chainsaw rasp. Used To Love Her is one where only the last verse is re-recorded. Estranged might be the biggest anomaly in the process. If you compare to the Tokyo 1992 source nearly the entire thing is re-recorded, but the line "Well I jumped into the river..." is left from the original. I get that touch ups will be punched in here and there, but it seems so bizarre to go through the effort of doing the whole song but leaving one line alone. You can generally tell the sonic change between the new vocals and old vocals on any of the touched up tracks if you listen closely - particularly the ones that have a mix.

For comparison's sake - Hells Bells from AC/DC's Live At Donington. Brian Johnson flubbed the entire second verse (check out the audience recording) and therefore had to punch it in on the video release. It's far less noticeable than anything on Live Era because it was done at the time so 1991 Brian still sounds like 1991 Brian. Back In Black from that show is what made the cut on the AC/DC Live album and even that is basically re-recorded from top to bottom. But again, less noticeable because it was done at the time and not several years later as Axl did. Imagine 2008 Brian going back and looping a show from 1981.