ASIA IN ASIA - LIVE AT THE BUDOKAN, TOKYO 1983

Well ..... first the positives; (my comments refer to the box set) It is an impressive lavish box w/perhaps a few unnecessary items such as some printed memorabilia like posters, pictures, replica tour ticket, back stage pass ....

The audio is surprisingly good on the "new Remixed" version on the Blu-ray. You can choose between the original MTV satellite telecast and the remixed versions. The CD in the box set includes two extra tracks "Cutting It Fine " & "Daylight" which do not appear on the single CD issue.

The not so great: The box set is somewhat misleading, offering the 2 CD's, Blu-ray, & 2xLP's. The Cd's according to the packaging, are supposedly two different performances. One being the MTV telecast, the other, the previous night's performance for the Japanese audience only. I find it somewhat redundant, it is the same show effectively one is a dress rehearsal for the main event. I was under the impression since they are offering two CD's it might be a little longer overall performance. I apparently misunderstood the description on the box, my bad. If the whole performance fits on one CD, so be it. What I did not misunderstand however is the "The road to Budokan" band documentary. It should have been included on the Blu-ray, it is nowhere to be found! I looked at other reviews on a few different sites, I'm not the only one with this issue. In fact it looks like it is a misprint on the box. The Blu-ray offers two mixes of the main event, the original laserdisc version, and the new remixed one. Both the audio & video are considerably superior on the remixed option. There is one major flaw however. The audio while it is very good, it is slightly off sync w/the video on the better, remixed version (I hate when this happens). The original (inferior) laserdisc version audio is in sync.

The other missed opportunity; there's only a 2 ch. stereo mix, no 5.1 option! It is quite a shame since the performance is very good, Lake does a very good job on a fairly short notice.

All in all it is a somewhat disappointing experience, had I known about the misleading misprint re: the documentary and the off sync audio, I would have just purchased the single CD version, the two additional tracks are not going to change anyone's life in my opinion.