Review Summary: The review that was already done is very complete, and i wanted to add some more stuff that were too long for a comment, but enought for a short review !
This live album, which retraces the 87-93 era for the band GN'R that we all know, is all in all a good approximation of what the real live performances were. Of course, some have seen GNR perform recently, but the original line-up and what it used to be is very different from everything you can see. We cannot compare to Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones or other. What you can do is compare other bands to the Guns ! In addition to being real geniuses in studio, the live performers are not left for dead.
In this review, i wanted to highlight on some songs that are often underrated, like Yesterdays and the way i see some classics that everybody knows .... I'm not going to make a linear song review, but just try to tell you why you should own this live if you don't yet ! Also, i will try to explain the songs, not the text of the songs, but the context, so this is a little bit of a live biography o GNR.
What makes this live so unique, compared to others, is the proximity Axl creates, and also all the fact that the others members are not left. For example, we could think that Axl owns the performance of Yesterdays, but Slash manages to impose his presence, and he does it good, with his awesome solo.
At the beginning of Yesterdays, the talking of Axl just dress my hair up (i don't know if it's the right expression ;)). The version of Yesterdays is very unique, the guitar solo, along with the noise that we feel really re-creates the atmosphere of the live scene. The riff, which i qualify of "Happy" along with Axl screaming creates some contradiction which can allows us to go deeper in the band, but that's the subject for another talking ;)
We can notice that in terms of sound quality, other bands have done better, but the mixers have had the great idea to put some noise to try to put us back in the show! The public is not left also, it's presence is unforgettable and gives some great weight to the performances. Some could notice that Axl's voice is somewhat different, very screamy, from studio albums. A lot of bands, almost all, are different singing live, but we can all in all say that Axl's live singing is really great, if you consider the number of shows done by the lone period of the Use Your Illusion Tour (91-93), he's still here !
Another highlight would be he talking on Estranged which makes it very personnal, and allows us to distinguish between the songs that are very personnal to the members, from the songs they have wrote because a good riff sounded in their head. Even if Axl appropriates the performance of Estranged by erasing the presence of all others, we can understand that by the fact of what this one song means to him. As always, the second part (as i call it) of Estranged is a classic, and sometimes it even makes me cry, specially the last sentence where Axl starts screaming and the whole crowd is up and down.
Also this version of Knockin' On Heaven's Door reminds me the one of the Freddy Mercury Tribute at Wembley 92, i even think it's the same or it was done in that time.
We can conlude that Guns N'Roses had and has an incredible capacity to personnalize live songs, just like Led Zeppelin used to do, and this is truly a criteria to be classified between Huge bands (even higher than Great band and close to Anthologic bands).
Sorry i forgot to talk about November Rain. The It's Alright intro was used from mid-92 to early 93, at a time GN'R were closing rank of gods in temple of music. It's alright on itself and the way it is singed is enough to give this album 5 stars for my opinion. But to make it more realistic, please pay attention to the 3 minutes of intro solo of November Rain, and try to realise how much love was put into this and the alchemy that reigns on stage. As always, November Rain, whenever and however it's performed is still a CLASSIC amongst the CLASSICS, just as Estranged.
I have seen the new GNR live and i can say that even the new version still rocks !!!!!!
Until now, i have highlighted on classics or maybe very personnal songs, but if you want to know a little bit of what the real GNR was, like when you hear your parents talk about them live, and you want to have a real idea of the beast of scenes, please take a look at Paradise City !!! At the real beginning, the crowd starts screaming "Guns N' Roses", and then the bands enter and rocks the place upside down !
For sure, i could keep like that for the whole album, but i just wanted to highlight on the songs i usually listen if i have 15 minutes only (not enought to listen to the whole live).
Not many are the bands that are able to jump between personnal, sometimes Slow (meaning the genre Slow) performances, to Hard Rock performances, and all of that by keeping the crowd on his nerves, not knowing what they may come up with, and also not knowing how this one performance is gonna be. Never twice the same! Considering the band in it's history, the very first years were some indecise years, between Hard Hard Rock from 88, 89, with Sweet Child O'Mine, Welcome To The Jungle, or the acoustic live in NY in 87, which is closely related to the Lies album. The Use Your Illusion albums (91) are a sign of a very fast earned maturity, both in writing songs, that are meaningful for the writers and also better knowing of the needs of the public. The Use Your Illusion Tour from 91 to 93, is for me one of the most important of the tours, all bands considered, of the 90's. The tours began with Hard performances, and gradually, the band became to get fame, but re-invested this positive energy into giving fans what they deserve. If you listen close to the live, you'll understand that it's not just a matter of singing great, playing great instruments, and being able to improvise, neither be close to the public (any DJ can do that good), but the transformation, and the growing from hair-metal-rock-stars to Rock Stars in all senses of the term. Thinking about it, i start to tell myself that the secret that makes the live performances, specially the last ones of the UYI tour, is maybe the fact that the members felt that the end was closing, even if nobody wanted it. But the reality is here, and even if behind the scenes, some discords may have occured, sometimes right before the live show, they still managed to give the best of themselves, and tried to be remembered through the ages. This is a truly a mark of a huge band.
Technically, the producers done a good job, by doing a selection that reflects well the good songs, or at least, the songs the band was good performing. They could have done a linear setlist, but that would have been a little unrealistic, considering that until 93, the bands still sang, half or third of the Appetite For Destruction album ! Songs like WTTJ, SCOM, OTGM, Nightrain, Paradise city were always sung. That's a good point in understanding the band. I guess it was hard to select which live performance they were gonna use, between soundboard recordings, of very good audience performances, the band did a good choice and the live performances are all in all very representative of the real live band. We should not forget that the live was released in 99, 8 years after the last album, and 6 years after the last tour (Spaghetti incident was a cover album, and is not considered in the tour), and the producers wanted to give the public some hope, and also try to record a biography, instead of all books that exist, that could explain to the new generations, what a great band lived a few years ago. As i said, sometimes the sound is very noisy, in addition to public screaming all the time, but THIS IS WHAT WE WANT! For me, listening to Live Era, is nothing like listening to the studio albums, it's completely different, and i can say that since i own it, i almost never listen to studio albums, except for songs that are not on Live Era. It's also the first GNR album i have owned, and without knowing the band at all, i mean really at all, i was attracted into the field of those giants.
I own almost every single GN'R concert that exist both on audio quality and dvd, and i can say that this live is a good average look at what the real performance were. The interaction with crowd is here, the energy is here, the relation with songs (very personnal, not only sing songs and go) is conserved. What we could demand, would have been a 3rd disc with acoustic performances, which was very common at the end of the Use Your Illusion Tour (mid-93). The last concert in argentina, on july 17, both acoustic and electric is an Anthologic performance, and believe me, i have seen of live shows, and i know what i say! Live acoustic performances of You ain't the first, November Rain, Yesterdays ......
IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT, GO BUY IT RIGHT NOW ! (or download it ;) for sure over paying music sites !)
