Search - Asia :: Night of the Rising Sun

Live at Budokan

Richard Kendall | Westlake, OH USA | 07/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Be aware, this is a reissue of Asia's "Live at Budokan" under a different name. For Asia fans, this is a worthwhile disk for the collection, especially for the Steve Howe keyboard solo and the Geoffrey Downes keyboard solo, which of course are not found on studio albums."

Asia in Asia Concert

P. Mc Hugh | New Jersey | 09/13/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a bootleg quality recording of the MTV special "Asia in Asia". This reissue is slightly better than the Live at the Budokan initial issue. It is like a really bad soundboard recording. But, for fans of Asia it may be an essential recording to have. The reason for that is it is the only release with Greg Lake taking the place of John Wetton, shortly after the Alpha album was released. My understanding is that things went so well at this concert that Greg was asked to join permanently, but differences arose quickly as Greg wanted to write longer tracks and the real strength of the band was that they could write short, sophisticated pop-style songs and still be a factor in the changing music scene of the early 1980's, though their pedigree was definitely from the progressive / symphonic rock arena.



The bonus on this release is that there are four tracks at the end that feature John Wetton in the group and at least one of these tracks was recorded after Steve Howe left the group. The quality of these tracks is horrible but clearly of interest, anyway.



While Amazon has listed the tracks as mentioned on the CD, there are actually 15 tracka, not 12 to be had. They are:



1. The Heat Goes On

2. Here Comes the Feeling

3. Eye to Eye

4. Steve Howe solo

5. Only Time Will Tell

6. Open Your Eyes

7. Geoff Downes solo

8. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes

9. Wildest Dreams

10. Heat of the Moment

11. Soul Survivor



The above tracks are with Greg Lake. The remaining tracks are with John Wetton.



12. Without You

13. Don't Cry

14. Cutting It Fine

15. Heat of the Moment



Many of us who were listening to Yes, King Crimson and ELP were taken aback by what was a clear change in course. It was like the Buggles were thrown into the mix and what came out was unbelievably good. I only wish that Asia really put out a high quality release of this concert. I know that it marked a bump in the road with John Wetton, but this concert was one of the highlights of their early phase and if you saw the concert you could see all the musicians were happy and relieved that it went so well. They were pumped!! A video would be great, too."