[SciFi-ActionMan]

OK guys, here's some icine unique content - a Concert DVD review thread

This is pretty wide open, and can include everything from large shows like Monterey Pop Festival, individual bands, or even movies like the Blues Brothers that also end up being a concert inside of a movie. I've got about 50 or so Concert DVDs, and will start reviewing them. Hopefully others will do the same with theirs. As the thread gets going, I'll update the opening post to hyperlink to the reviews.

Ratings: The Tomatometer is used as follows:

= 10/10
= 7/10 - 9.5/10
= 5/10 - 6/10
= 4.5/10 or below


Concert DVD Movies
Here's a list of the movies reviewed so far, with the best coming first in each category:

Single Performers
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense (1984)
Led Zeppelin (2003)
NEW: Rammstein: Live aus Berlin (1988)
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at the El Mocambo (1983)
Sade Lovers Live (2002)
Paul McCartney, Live at the Cavern Club (1999)
An Evening with the Dixie Chicks (2002)
Albert Collins - The Iceman at Mount Fuji (1992)
Tori Amos - Welcome to Sunny Florida (2004)
David Bowie - A Reality Tour (2004)

Festivals
Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival (2004)


Concert-laden Movies
Blues Brothers (Landis, 1980)


Documentaries
The Last Waltz (Scorsese, 1978)
YESSPEAK

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival. (2004)



Overview: Organized by Eric Clapton as a benefit to support his alcohol rehab clinic, this 2-Disk DVD set could have (and probably should have) easily been a 5 disk DVD set. Still, we have some truly awesome performances by cream of the crop guitarists in virtually all music forms.

There are old-timers like BB King, Buddy Guy and Herbert Sumlin, folk guys like James Taylor, a tun of blues artists including Robert Cray, JJ Cale, Jonny Lang, Bluegrass specialists like Dan Tyminski (Man of Constant Sorrow in "O Brother Where Art thou) and Jerry Douglas (also of Allison Kraus' band), Jazz greats like Larry Carlton and John McLaughlin, Rock artists like Joe Walsh, Carlos Santana, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and ZZ Top, and Heavy Metal artits like Steve Vai. On top of this, house band has folks like Donald "Duck" Dunn (Bass) and Steve Cropper from the old Blues Brothers band, Booker T on keyboards and Al Jackson on drums (Booker T and the MGs).

The Good: For highlights, I'd say there were many:

* Clapton and Santana's dueling guitar solos

* an AWESOME rendition of Sweet Home Chicago, where Buddy Guy schools Clapton, Robert Cray, and Jimmie Vaughan (S.R.V's brother) in dueling solos (Truly, Buddy Guy was just too phenomenal to describe here)

* B.B. King, Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Jimmie Vaughan doing Rock Me Baby

* James Taylor and Joe Walsh on an ultra bluesy version of Steamroller - they truly are awesome together.

* Clapton absolutely unloading on "I shot the Sheriff" and "Have you ever loved a woman"

* Dan Tyminski doing "Man of Constant Sorrow" from O' Brother Where Art Thou, and then following up with a terrific acoustic piece (he has this ancient Martin guitar which just sounds Butta!)

* Vince Gill, a terrific country guitarist who absolutely rocked on two songs called Oklahoma Borderline and What the Cowgirls Do (his Dubro guitarist was just phenomenal

* Steve Vai and his band putting on a speed clinic.

* This indian dude who designed his own sitar-like guitar

* Walsh doing Rocky Mountain way

* And and awesome finish by ZZ Top, who, being a legend in Texas, closed the show (held in Dallas)

The Bad: My only complaint is that there's clearly like another 16 hours of this stuff that's not included. Again, this clearly was only brief snippits from a 3-day show. They really need to make a criterion of the whole show. Its that good.

Also, I generally hate interviews interspersed with the performance. For some reason, I didn't find these as annoying as most. They are short and are generally right on topic with the song performed.

The Sound and Visuals: The sound and visuals were generally very well done. We're not talking Eagles Hell Freezes Over or anything here, but it was clearly filmed in widescreen, and the sound spreads nicely across the various channels. Most importantly, as a musician, I really appreciated the various close-up finger shots of the artists. Some day soon I'm going to try learning Man of Constant Sorrow by watching this DVD!

The Extras: I'm watching these today...I'll let you know

Bottom Line: if you like guitar music, this DVD is a MUST HAVE!!!

Score: 9/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Paul McCartney, Live at the Cavern Club (1999)



Overview: DVD Back Cover Description: On December 14, 1999, 300 people squeezed into the Cavern Club in Liverpool to watch Paul McCartney perform at The Beatles' legendary venue for the first time since 1963. Paul's band, which includes David Gilmour from Pink Floyd and Ian Paice from Deep Purple gets up and plays straight 50s Rock & Roll. This was simulcast on the internet, with millions attempting to access it. The DVD gets better and better as this talent-filled Band literally gels on stage. While they aren't as tight as "real" bands, the energy from this performance is both electric and riviting. Paul McCartney, Live at the Cavern Club is a great DVD, albeit with Flaws.

The Good:This DVD easily represents the best work Paul McCartney has done in years. He attempts things he hasn't done with his voice in over 20 years. As the performance goes on, Paul's singing starts to hit its rythm. His screams, especially on "Shake a Hand," take you back to the Paul of yore. When Paul breaks into "I saw her standing there" an absolutely electric feeling takes over the joint. But part of the best part of this DVD is watching these most awesome instruments in action. Paul's Hofner Bass with the worn spot below the G string where his picking motion has worn through the finish along with two vintage, very worn pre-CBS Fender Telecasters are absolutely mouth watering to watch in action.

Paul also drops fun little tid-bits during the performance such as the fact that he got an audition for the Beatles just because he knew the words to Twenty Flight Rock. Additionally, any fan of Pink Floyd will LOVE seeing David Gilmour do a completely different style of lead guitar.

The Bad: The camera work is the worst part of this DVD. There are way too many "jumpy" shots that serve to distract from the performance. While this isn't unbearable as with some of his other DVDs, I'm a big believer that when you have magic occuring on the stage, you don't need to distract it. Ian Pace has a fish eye camera on him, which gets disconcerting after a while.

The Ugly: The worst part of this DVD is the camera shots of Gilmour's leads. When David is jamming on this leads, we often get to see close-upos of the camera panning to Mick Green playing Rythm guitar or Paul giving a goofy smile. This alone drops this DVD at least 3 or four down. The only time Gilmour's fingers are highlighted is during "Shake a Hand," and this is due to a double stop layover of a close up of his fingers on top of a far shot of this playing.

The Sound: The sound comes at you from the front speakers as you would expect from a "Club" DVD. This works as it really has a feel of watching the band on stage. The quality is somewhat messy, but again, this is recorded in a small venue, so this is expected. Still all instruments are clearly heard, and the lead instruments are highlighted appropriately. One minor issue, the default setting for this DVD is "Stereo" instead of Dolby Digital (It also has DTS, although I notice no difference between DD and DTS here).

The Extras: The extras include interviews with Paul talking about how he loves early Rock in Roll and stuff about the Vavern Club, along with a bunch of back stage footage of the band preparing for the Run Devil Run Album and two music videos. The best part of the extras involves the making of the Devils Run album. We learn that their approach to learning the songs just like bands do covers everywhere - they stuck on the CD and picked them out by ear. Also we learn that it was Paul finds out it was his second cousin who is heckling him during the concert, including asking him to play "Satisfaction."

The Band
Paul McCartney: Bass
Guitar: David Gilmor (Pink Floyd), Mick Green (a solid guitarist in a Chuck Berry style)
Drums: Ian Paice
Pete Wingfield: Keyboards (terrific R&B lead on "Shake a Hand")
Chris Hall: accordian

Bottom Line: If you want to see Paul McCartney or David Gilmour back in their Rock Roots, this is the DVD for you.

Score: 8/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

An Evening with the Dixie Chicks (2002)



Overview: Recorded at Kodak Theatre, the same place the Academy Awards are hosted, this concert is stupendous from start to finish. I'm normally not a country afficionado, but even if you aren't, literally anyone can appreciate the absolute terrific band, wonderful visuals and great ambience.

The Good: The Music and the setting are absolutely top notch. This whole band is both tight and awesomely talented. The Dixie Chicks themselves are very talented musicians. Martie Maguire has some terrific fiddle sequences and Emily Robinson plays a mean banjo and slide Dubro while pregnant. Natalie Maines has terrific vocals, is very funny and is completely comfortable working a crowd. The rest of the band is appropriately highlighted in many spots. The best of the crowd include Adam Steffey on Mandolin, Glen Fukunaga on Double Bassist and Bryan Sutton who's so fast on acoustic guitar that Doc Watson would even raise an eyebrow.

The visuals of the Kodak Theatre, as you probably know are just awesome. What a great place to play. For the most part, the shots of the theatre really add to the ambience. The close-up focus on the instruments, for the most part is superb.

The Bad: While the Kodak is gorgeous, the same fast "swoopy" shots we see at the Oscars just don't work as well here. There many are times where the shots feel like you've just come out of a commercial break after the best screen play award. The slow, wide angle shots are done well, but again, the swoops in this at times made me dizzy. Also, while the crowd sounds wonderfully fill the rear speakers in your surround sound system, giving you a feeling that you are among them, unfortunately they also serve to muddy the instrument separation in the front speakers. This is dissapointing as the band is obviously so tight. There are some Concert DVDs that have absolutely clear instrument separation - this one does not. Also, there aren't really any extras to speak of.

Bottom Line: If you aren't that familiar with the Dixie Chicks, and want to learn, you will love this DVD.

Score 7.5/10

[astor]

I've never seen a concert DVD But wow, this is awesome!

_________________
CHEESE

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at the El Mocambo (Recorded in 1983)



Overview: Sometimes camera's capture something magical that would have otherwise been lost for all time. This DVD is one such occaision. This is just an ordinary night in the life of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who, in a tradition highlighted by the likes of Albert Collins, became the undesputed master of Texas Blues before his untimely passing. It just so happend that for some reason they decided to record this night's performance. The camera work is not magical, nor is the sound clean, but it is clear from the first track that you are honored to watch one of the best talents to every pick up a guitar in the small Texas club venue he excels at the most.

Stevie is simply AWESOME playing "Number One," his hot wired '59 Strat and probably the best known guitar behind Clapton's Blackie and BB King's Lucille. After Hendrix, there is simply nobody more creative with a guitar. This DVD lets you experience the magic that is SRV first hand. By the second song, you stop noticing the rather cheap camera and single input feed (this DVD is best matrixed to 7 channel stereo, if you have such an option) and become completely mesmerized on the performance.

If you're a guitarist, you'll find that at least 2 or 3 times per song you become completely floored with SRV's improv and pyrotechniques. For this reason, the "moments" are too numerous to mention. SRV's rendition of Vodoo Chile is simply the only version besides Hendix worth watching (I actually like it better!). Mary Had a Little Lamb absolutely rocks, as does virtually every track. As the show goes on, the pyrotechniques increase, including some of the best behind the back playing you can imagine.


Double Trouble: Although you hear about it, watching SRV, it is absolutely obvious that every song is merely a shell for improvisation. This makes SRV's rythm section, Double Trouble all the more impressive. Chris Layton, the drummer, absolutely drives the songs, and rare for a drummer, is able to change the mood to keep pace with where SRV's solos are heading. Tommy Shannon, who along with Donald "Duck" Dunn of Blues Brothers fame, is known as among the best "In the pocket" bassists in Rock. He has some terrific walking bass lines that also magically change in tone with SRVs leads. His attacks to the strings are both incredibly varied and completely subdued. But truly the most impressive thing about double trouble is how tight they play - they are ROCK SOLID the whole performance long. They fit SRV like a glove, which allows him to fly where few have ever gone.

Extras: There is a terrific interview with Double Trouble in 99. They give real insight in what SRV was like, and how it felt to hang out with the guy.

The Bottom Line: Truly, this is a magical performance, which somehow ended up being captured on film. Bottom line, if you've only heard SRV on a CD, you don't know SRV.

Score 8.5/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Tori Amos - Welcome to Sunny Florida (2004)



Overview: In this DVD, we get a very mixed bag. On the one hand we find a wonderfully tight band, well recorded and full of energy, while of

The Sound (The Good):: The highlight of the performance is definitely the sound. While the recording itself could have been better, Tori's voice is flat out superb. You truly get something far far better here than just listening to her CDs. The band is tight and energetic, and while you don't exactly get SRV improv here, you can notice the band adjusting to changes in Tori's "in the moment" changes in play.

Tori Amos has hit the wall (the Bad):: I hate to say this in a review, but Tori used to look very cute. From this performance, its pretty clear that she's hit the wall. Although this is to be expected from a 40 something rock and roll chick. But not only are her looks just not there, visually, they do absolutely NOTHING to either enhance her current looks, or more possibly, make the backup cast seem more insteresting. Truly, the band themselves are not going to wow you if you put this on mute.

The Cinematography (The Ugly):: Truly you have to look high and low to find a more amatuerish production for such a large star. The low quality cameras almost indicates that this concert was shot almost as an afterthought. On top of this, its nigh impossible to imagine them coming up with more rediculous camera placements. One of their "staple" locations is strategically placed right behind to stage sound monitors, so the bottom part of the screen is covered by two ominous blobs. Worse, the editor has the "idiotic fast shot switching" syndrome that just truly shouldn't happen in a post Stop Making Sense concert movie era.

The only shot they seemed to give any thought to is the straight on shot of Tori. There at least we get lighting and a clear view of the action. Unfortunately, this too is amateurish. The only non-white spotlight appears to be a saturating purple floodlight, which serves to completely wash out both Tori and her clothes. While you don't necessarily expect every performer to turn in a Sade like masterpiece of cinematography, it would have been nice had they given more than an afternoon's thought about how they planned to record this.

The Extras (Really Good!): For extras, in addition to a very good Tori interview, they included a six song CD called "Scarlet's Hidden Treasures." These are all songs cut from the Scarlet's Walk CD, which is scary considering how absolutely terrific they are.

Bottom Line: If there were a CD offered for this, I'd say you're probably just as well off getting the CD of this performance. Unfortunately there's not. The only reason to get this is if you want the interview or you want to hear a great performance of Tori live. Again, Tori and the band sound terrific - its just everything else that sucks.

Score 6/10 (extra point given for most awesome extras)

[Cult Icon]

I haven't seen any concert DVDs either. Oh wait, I do have The Doors Collection. The one segment, Live at the Hollywood Bowl is the full concert I believe.

I'm dying to see the Stones doc, Gimme Shelter.

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[Cult Icon]

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[Cult Icon]

Wow. 10+, eh?

I'll definetly try and check it out Sci-Fi.

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[spikethebloody]

Have you seen Rage Against the Machine Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium?

It is their last two shows. I loved it personally but that may be because I love the band. It may not be for the casual fan.

_________________
I figured I could get a job at a filling station somewhere, putting gas and oil in people's cars. I didn't care what kind of job it was, though. Just so people didn't know me and I didn't know anybody. I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life. Everybody'd think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone.

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Blues Brothers (Landis, 1980)



Overview: The Blues Brothers movie became one of my all time favorites the within minutes it starting. Its THAT good. The whole thing is a complete riot! This is without a doubt John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's best work ever.

I'm guesing most of you know the plot by now, but if not, Jake (Belushi) has just gotten out of the slammer, only to find out his brother has sold the caddie for a microphone and lost contact with the Band. On top of this, the orphenage that raised them is about to be shut down due to a tax lein. As the Penguin will have NONE of that dirty money stuff, its up to the Blues Brothers to earn 5K the honest way. In short, their on a mission from God. And to get the money, they're gonna put the Band back together.

On top of this, Jake's ex-fling who he left on the alter is trying to kill them, along with eventually, most of chicago.



The Sound! But the reason Blues Brothers makes it to this thread is because we get some of the best blues and soul music ever to grace film. The Blues Brothers band is made up of from of the best session musicians around, with its make up a merging of the electric Chicago Blues sound with the Memphis R&B sound. In addition to this incredible band, everyone from Ray Charles, to Anita Franklin, to Cab Calloway, to James Brown comes up BIG. And as any musician will tell you, their band was simply top notch. Donald "Duck" Dunn is recognized as one of the best "in the pocket" bass players there is. But from Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, to Blue Lou Marini, to Alan "Mr Believe me when I tell you that Matt "Guitar" Murphy did NOT get in this movie based on his acting skills.

For the highlights I'd list many:

- Cab Calloway singing Minnie the Moocher (God I love this song!)
- Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Some Body to Love
- Ray Charles - Shake a Tail Feather
- John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom Boom
- James Brown - the Old Landmark
- Blues Brothers - Rawhide (with the chicken wire and broken beer bottles!)
- Aretha Franklin - Think

Here's a personal story concerning Matt "Guitar" Murphy regarding his scene with Aretha: I got to talk to Matt "Guitar" Murphy after a concert he put on at my college in the 80s - he considers having Aretha singin to him to be among the best moments in his life.

The Bottom Line: The Blues Brothers are one of the few movies I consider absolutely perfect. Truly, I cannot imagine it getting any better. As a comedy, its flat out terrific, and for listening to great blues, you just can't go wrong!

Score 10/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[spikethebloody]

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Sade Lovers Live (2002)



Overview: While Sade no longer has the bod to do the cute belly shirts like she did in here 1994 concert DVD (Sade - Live Concert Home Video), this concert provides one of the best mood setting DVDs out. Throughout, the wonderful choreography gives you the feeling you are watching something maticulously planned and executed. Sade is simply sexy. Her CDs are known to be used both easy relaxing or for background music to passionate love making. Lovers Live successfully transfers both uses wonderfully to a DVD setting.

The Visuals: Sade's Lover's Live DVD has some of the best use of lightingI've ever seen. Sade's dress is a shimmering silver, which, when different colors are shown on it, actually changes colors and patterns. Every song has a different color theme, and Sade's dress becomes magically matched to fit the background. The overall effect is masterfully choreographed. Interesting mixes such as orange backgrounds and blue shadowed musicians along with a yellow lighted sade in the front make the color as important a mood setting vehicle as the incredible sound coming out of this band.

Sound: On some tracks, the sound could be cleaner, but as a basist, I notice the bass is highlighted heavily (which I like) and comes out clean, as does the percussion. On a few of the songs, the guitar does get lost a bit, but overall the sound quality is good, but not outstanding. Also, the crowd noises usually only come up only at the appropriate times.

Sade does light jazz better than anyone, and this band she has put together simply excels at this. The percussion session is top notch, as is the basist and horns. Everyone knows their place, and all contribute to highlighting Sade's sulty and sexy performance. My favorite songs in this are probably Sweetest Taboo and King of Sorrow, but truly, this DVD is wonderfully paced throughout. The order of the song selections really adds to the experience.

The Wierd: The opening menu is just wierd. First off, there is no sound, which makes you think you haven't turned your receiver one. Second, God help you if you have to change options, as you have to go through a very slow progression of choices.

The Extras: For Extras we get an interesting behind the scenes video, a Sade home video, boring fan messages to Sade, and a terrific King of Sorrow video.

The Bottom Line: If you're looking for something to set the mood for a wonderful evening of love making with your significant other, do yourself a favor and pick up this DVD. The mood all the way through is uplifting and sexy. Or, if you just want to relax to some wonderful visuals and soothing music, you'll have a hard time finding a better DVD.

Score 8.5/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

YESSPEAK



The Bad: Every now and then you come across a DVD that simply has false advertising - there's no other way to say it. Being someone who loves Yes, and is always on the lookout for a good price on an interesting DVD, I'm afraid to say I got hoodwinked. The front of the disc advertises a two-disc set in "DTS", with the caption, "Recorded during the 35th Anniversary European Tour On Stay and Off Stage." This leads you to believe you'll get a mix of both interviews and music.

The Worse: FAR worse is the back of the DVD, which takes up ONE FULL HALF with a list of all the great YES songs you love and want to hear. The intention is clear - if you're into hearing YES play live, this is the DVD for you!!! On top of this, they also boast an "Audio Only" feature, which often means you essentially get a CD of the music IN ADDITION (as opposed to "in lieu of") to the live performance.

Now here's what this DVD actually has. It ONLY has interviews. Worse, the interviews are crappily done (even though Roger Daltry is involved) on low quality, cheesy film shots. Truly, you get the feeling that you're watching a low quality knock--off of a playboy chick vignette - unfortunately the 50 something Yes band members just don't come off as well as a nubile young chick in the same setting.

"So where does the that wonderful music they advertise on the back of the DVD come in," you ask? Oh yes, they have all those tracks, but they PLAY IN THE BACKGROUND while the fucking interview proceeds.

You might say to yourself, "Gee, if the music is playing and the people are talking, doesn't that mean you can't really hear either very well?"

ANSWER: Very good Grasshopper! This is exactly what you get - A muddy, jumbled mess of an interview that is lost in the background music. Literally they are both at the same volume!!

The Truly Poor: You see the concert shots, and realize they have this audio only feature, so the most FRUSTRATING part of this DVD is that you have the feeling that somewhere, buried deep within a chapter, you'll be able to find a song untarnished by asinine interviews. WRONG!!!

But OK, so maybe this audio only thing means something useful, right? I stupidly thought this was just a CD of the live performance that accompanies a live viewing of the show. Here's what you get: A live audio performance of the show with a SLIDESHOW RUNNING!!! Truly, who the fuck thought this was a good idea??? OK, so you have the fucking footage - you wanna share with the ripped off viewers why this wasn't included???

But OK, so all I get is basically an audio CD. At least we get wonderful DTS sound matrixed to all the channels, right? I mean, if this is all the DVD has, I'm sure its phenomenal, right? Um....NO...

The Bottom Line: Unless you're an absolutely insane YES fan and like seeing old guys sitting around looking tired, complaining about being tired because they're too old to go on tour anymore, I suggest you look elsewhere for your YES fix. Its DVDs like this that are tucked away inside of unsuspecting good concert DVDs which turns people off from ever considering getting these. Truly, the congress should take up action of false advertising like this. Hopefully I can fool the used DVD store as well and get some store credit back for this.

Score 1/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

The Last Waltz (Scorsese, 1978)



Overview: the Last Waltz is "The Band's" final Farewell Concert. What started off as a nice show, turned into one of the largest Rock-n-Roll events of the 70s, which a parade of stars coming to pay homage to Bob Dylan's old Back up band. The Band is joined by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Honie Mitchell, Van Morrison, Emmylou Harris (a music video stuck in between), Neil Diamond, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfoield (an absolutely awesome blues harpist) and a bunch of others to put on a farewell concert to end all farewell concerts.

While this has often been referred to as the greatest Rock Concert movie ever, this may have been true in 1978, easily blowing away Zepplin's Song Remains the Same and similar ilk, this was no longer the case after 1984. In the post Stop Making Sense era, we have come to realize the stupidity of many of the earlier Rock concert films. Although Scorsese does a fantastic job with the then tried and true formula, including such innovations as NOT showing the crowd, we still get incredibly annoying "interview" breaks between each song. The shots of the musicians, although well positioned, have virtually no close up shots of the instruments. In short, the performance itself takes a back-stage to Scorese' cleverness. And while he's indeed clever, he ends up building something that takes away from the rhythm and pacing of this truly historic concert.

The Good: You want to get this DVD for two reason: the quality of the music, and some absolutely stunning individual performances by members of the Band and the Guest musicians. The Band is an incredibly tight band - this comes out clearly on their own songs. Neil Young's performance with the Band was magical - the building of the music and dynamics between The Band and Neil Young was a joy to watch. Terrific singing performances by Muddy Waters (GOD is his voice awesome), Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan are simply a joy to watch. Everyone obviously loves being on stage. The traditional closing with all the musicians on stage provides a satisfying finish.

The Bad: the Sound Quality is slightly worse than one would expect from a 70s recording in this sense - you expect the sound to be muddy, but they apparently use omnidirectional mikes, which means when Levon Helm is singing solo and playing drums, his drum playing his as highlighted as his singing. Additionally, its clear a number of the parade of musicians had not opportunity to get "their" sound. They simply plug-in to the free Fender Amp sitting on stage and feed directly to the PA. You get Clapton sounding different then he ever does, same with Ron Wood, etc. But still, as long as you skip through the annoying interviews (the DVD nicely allows this), the music is for the most part phenominal.

The Highlight: The highlight of the concert clearly comes duing the Clapton song. The Band is obviously jazzed to have him on stage and "Kicks it up" a notch. This song, by pure accident, is also where you find the true tallent that is Robbie Robertson. Clapton, playing "Further Up the Road" starts into his first lead, and as he's playing his guitar strap fall off, and he looks pleadingly at Robertson. Robbie Robertson picks up perfectly, almost as if it was planned all along and proceeds to deliver his best solo of the night. We'll never know if it was planned, or not, but Clapton and Robertson continue trading off leads. Again, Robertson goes toe-to-toe with Clapton, turning this into simply an awesome song. But again, nothing beats watching Clapton in his prime jamming away on Blackie (he has retired Blackie at this point - now its simply a museum piece) - this alone is worth the price of the DVD.

The Most Annoying: Aside from the annoying interview shots (can you tell I hate these?), the most annoying thing about this concert was the Muddy Waters song, Mannish Boy. Muddy delivers the performance of a lifetime while the Band practically sleeps through the song. Yes, its repetitive, but they couldn't even stay awake enough to continue in time. Only near the end do they wake up and take notice of Muddy's awesome performance. Again, this is the only song that I found fault with.

Extras: The Last Waltz has some of the best extras ever put on a Concert DVD. In addition to commentaries, there is this absolutely incredible Jam session that eventually runs past the film time. Neil Young, Ron Wood, Ringo Star on Drums and Paul Butterfield on Blues Harp make this one of the best parts of the DVD.


The Bottom Line The Last Waltz works very well both as a documentary and as a concert. Even if you've never heard of the Band, I'm positive you've heard their songs. Scorese makes the interviews interesting enough that you'd actually want to listen to many of them. More importantly, the concert delivers.

Score 9/10 (Point added for the most awesome extras)

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Led Zeppelin (2003, Page and Carruthers)



Overview: What do you do when a long time dream of yours finally comes true. I never got the chance to see Led Zeppelin in concert, as Bohnam died just as I was getting into Rock. I've always heard they were one of the best performing bands of all time, but up until 2003, could only dream of what they were like. And then along comes this absolute gem that has incredibly rare and wonderful footage from not only their earliest shows, but their middle "established period and finally one of the last concerts ever performed, in front of 400,000 people! This DVD is simply awesome in every sense of the word. More than anything, this gives us all hope that similar archives will be found from the Stones, Fleetwood Mac, the Who and other great in concert bands and be given similar awesome loving and care.

As a Bassist I simply salivate over John Paul Jones's 1961 Fender Jazz Bass (To those with some familiarity, notice the Thumb rest is on the bottom of the instrument, not the top, this is because the first electric basses were "supposed" to be played by resting your four fingers on the "rest" and then plucking it with your thumb). In one of the awesome extra clips we get to see Jimmy Page, the king of the Gibson Lez Paul playing an old 50s telecaster which looks like the remnants of a green and red dragon was painted on it. But truly, their extreme talent awesome improvisational creativity oooze from every pore of this 2 set DVD. In the 1970 performance, we see a band that still communicates visually with one another to tell each other "where they are going" with the song, while in the later concerts, its all automatic. Truly, this concert DVD allows you to see the progression of one of the greatest hard rock bands ever doing what they do best.

Disc One
Live at the Albert Hall (1970): This concert is the highlight of the DVD. Here we see a band already dominating the music scene but still immature enough that we can actually "See" it still feeling its roots. Dazed and Confused, one of my favorite Zep songs ever comes out like a tour-de-force. Page is simply awesome with the violin bow, and his duo with Plant is innovative, edgy and stunning all at once. And Bonzo's drum solo in Moby Dick is simply terrific. Truly we see a band with no inhibitions totally dominating a venue like few have done. This performance is pure raw energy at its finest. Finally, Page and Curruthers should be given an award for the quality of the sound that comes out of this performance - its outstanding considering this is just "spare footage" from 1970.

Extras on Disc One: There are some awesome clips of a teenage looking Plant in 69 doing some awesome Jams including another rendition of Dazed and confused to a half empty small school auditorium. Although the sound quality sucks, this some is a gem - we get to see the vast majority of the audience clearly "dazed and confused" - I doubt many had ever seen such a performance.

Disc Two:
The Immigrant Song (1972): This is the only part of the entire set I hated. Here we get a video from one concert spliced with the sound from another. Worse, we have quick fading, fast moving weird camera shots. Just pass this after the first watching.

Madison Square Garden - (1973): This is from around the same timeframe as Song Remains the same, and may even be from the same concerts (although the songs are different). The Band clearly has come into their own, being fully familiar with one another. The sense of exciting experimentation that characterized the Albert Hall is replaced by a confident and awesomely tight band. Again, even though you may have seen similar footage on Song Remains the same, the DTS track especially has quality that simply has to be heard to believe. Literally, Page's guitar is coming out of the right front and back, the Bass the left front speaker, while the drums and singing come front and center (Not much comes out of the rear left). The quality and separation among the instruments here is simply stunning.

Earl's Court - (1975): Here we get awesome up close camera work accompanied by full featured surround sound. Again, I don't know how they get this quality from this time period. Their acoustic set here has the feeling of the early 90s craze with "unplugged" performances, while still retaining the 70s lighting shots (greens and reds, etc.). Also, the editing is simply top notch. There are some loser crowd shots, but even these are acceptable. Truly fun here is watching Page play "In my time of Dying" on an Rickenbacker guitar. The high treble these guitars give off really works for this song. Page's slide playing is a thing of beauty here.

Knebworth - (1979): Watching a "mature" Zeppelin absolutely rock 400,000 fans into crazed screaming is simply awesome to watch. We get to see songs played live from in-through-the-out door that simply never existed before this. Again, watch this performance right after Albert Hall to truly see the changes. Whole Lotta Love is simply a completely different song. One gets the clear feeling here that based on Plant's cadence, Paige gets more funky, which is immediately followed by Bonhams drums - again, we see instant understanding and meshing with what each band member is doing. I also love the pirated footage that sprinkles throughout this performance (especially considering the Manager "Baseball Bat" scene from song remains the same). The editing is simply superb, even though some of the camera shots are a bit overworked. Strangely enough, the quality of the sound here really is no where near as crisp as some of the earlier performances. But this is OK considering the increased echo really works to show the larger arena.

DVD Packaging/Extras: Simply superb. Two booklets accompany this that go through each concert in wonderful detail.

Bottom Line: If you have a high quality system, you simply won't believe how good the sound is on this DVD. I cannot say enough about the engineering work that went into this. At this point, Leppelin's Song Remains the Same should only be seen in order to get all the Spinal Tap jokes. This DVD so far outshines that and most others out, that really, this should be a mandatory buy for everyone unless you truly hate the Led Zeppelin. Again, Great job Jimmy!

Score 10/10

[SeeleJames]

This thread is great.

I have to say though, the Cure's video of Trilogy, three albums played back to back, is one of the best concert videos I've seen.

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[SeeleJames]

[SciFi-ActionMan]

[SeeleJames]

[SciFi-ActionMan]

David Bowie - A Reality Tour (2004)



Overview: If you want to see an example of a good show that suffers greatly from over-production and MTV-style "ultra-hype crappy-ass camera work, this is your DVD. Truly, I don't know why producers thing people want concert DVDs that mimic a music video. Maybe I'm just different, but I prefer my Concert DVDs to mimic a SHOW!! I want to feel like I'm there. Never do you get this with David Bowie's "Anything but Reality" Tour.

The Sound: Overall, the sound mix for this show isn't too bad. Aside for the extremely low woofer track, I can actually recommend this as the best part. There isn't much deviation from the album versions of his songs though. Still, if you're looking for David Bowie live, you do get him here with a decent voice.

The Visuals: Truly, I can't answer how good this concert really comes across because the editing precludes it. What does come across in the editing though, is an attempt to cover up for a tired sounding performance that lacks energy by doing bizarre video splices. Whether this is true, or simply is horrid production, I simply can't answer. On top of this, we seem to get shots of the background players almost as frequently as Bowie himself.

The Bottom Line: In short, David Bowie's Reality Tour Live is a great example of what not to do if you ever plan on producing a Concert DVD. This production does everything possible to take away the artist's magic in order to provide a tightly scripted and choreographed show. While this isn't itself bad, the cinematography selections do everything possible to make this come off as a B-grade music video. But at least the music itself is decent. Enjoy.

Score 6/10

[SciFi-ActionMan]

Albert Collins - The Iceman at Mount Fuji (1992)



Overview: Who is Albert Collins, you ask? If you don't know of him, you might have seen him in the Blues club in Columbas' Adventures of Baby Sitting starring Elizabeth Shue. Well taped performances of Albert Collins are rare. This is a decent, but relatively low-budget one. We don't get high quality shots, but as an extreme positive of this, we don't have crazed spotlight cinematographers doing the "MTV quick-shot camera dance." What you get are LONG focusses on Collins, or members of his band, the Icebreakers, during their solos.

The concert was filmed at a Jazz Festival in 1992 at Mount Fuji in Japan. It takes place over two sets - one in the day time and one in the evening. The day time set doesn't go over nearly as well though, partially because Collins is the type of artist who really feeds off the crowd, and the crowd just pretty much sat there the whole time looking partially bored, right up until the end of his performance.

The night time set was far better though. Collins' regular bassist came back, and the energy of the crowd was electric in comparison to the day time show. But throughout, you get what you paid for - a chance to hear and watch the majesty that is the Iceman of Blues.

The Good: Again, we see LOTS of closeups of Albert Collins, including LOTS of finger work. He's known as the "Master of the Telecaster" and this DVD shows you why. Following in the footsteps of T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown,, Collins is one of the Roots of Texas Blues - a progenitor for greats such as Stevie Ray Vaughan. As a plus, because this is low budget, we don't get interrupted with asinine interviews.

The Bad: Again, the day time crowd really coulda been just a tad more into the show.

The Highlight: Collins' instrumental, "Frosty" of course. This was his closing song on the nighttime show, and truly brings home the flavor of Texas blues. Also, the sound quality isn't great, but that's to be expected for a sound recording like this.

The Interesting: Collins plays with a Capo on the 7th fret the entire time. While this would normally suggest he's playing all the songs in a B pentonic blues scale, in fact, he has a non-standard "Texas blues" tuning that makes every song played in a D pentonic blues scale. I also LOVE his finger picking - truly unique stuff!

The Bottom Line: If you want to see one of the great Blues Artists who's no longer with us (He died about a year later due to cancer), Iceman at Mount Fuji is a good choice to catch Collins in his prime.

Score: 7.5/10

[skitch]

Fan of the band or not, this performance must be seen to be believed. If this doesn't rock you, you are dead.

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