LIVE IN MOSCOW 1990 (DVD)

I hired this from the local video store much anticipating a great concert, most Russian gigs are good aren't they? Upon forcing a second viewing over the next week the whole show left the viewer completely disappointed with the quality of the musicianship and material on offer. There were maybe 20 or 30 enthusiastic people in the crowd but that was about it.There are moments where both John Wetton and Geoff Downes either go out of tune or miss the keys or is it the shoddy sound system? Hard to tell really as it was so bad. One endearing quality to the show was Carl Palmer's prescence. Two memorable tracks were the opener " Only Time Will Tell" and the nostalgic ' The Smile Has Left Your Eyes". Truly for completionists only.

I don`t know how many tour dates Asia played in Moscow in November 1990, but the source from this DVD version is another concert, as I found the performances of all the songs in this DVD (apart from the very brief introduction of the band done by a Russian MC) being different than in the CD of the same name. Also the sound mixing in this DVD is better than in the CD, with particularly the keyboards sounding much better than in the CD version. There are also some other differences: they included in the video some songs which were not released in the CD (a different keyboard solo by Geoff Downes called "Cutting It Fine / Baby Blue" , "Days Like These", "Rendezvous 6:02", and a video clip for "Prayin' For A Miracle" recorded in the Red Square in Moscow while snowing). Also, some songs which were released in the CD were not released in the DVD ("Time Again", "Don`t Cry", "Rock and Roll Dream", "Starless", and the studio recording of "Kari-Anne"). There are also some brief interview excerpts shown between songs, plus some scenes taken in the streets of Moscow with the Russian people, this while some songs are played. Also Carl Palmer appears singing backing vocals in "Days like These". This is good concert video done in collaboration between some Russian and English technicians which is also like a brief documentary of the tour dates the band played in Moscow.This concert video was previously released in the 90s in the VHS and LaserDisc video formats.