Concert dvd recommendations - Page 55

Maybe I should take you up on that Norah Jones one - I have been having some problems with insomnia lately. Yeah, I just watched "The Last Waltz" on IFC a few weeks back. What a great movie. Probably the best musical/concert film ever made. I can't wait to see that new Neil Young one when it comes out on DVD. It's supposed to be excellent.

Can you please fill me in on this?

Ed

It's called "Heart of Gold" and comes out in June, directed by Johnathan Demme.
I'm sure Amazon has a listing of it.

Sounds like a keeper based on what I've heard about it.

I saw it in the theater and if the DVD is any decent quality this will be a great DVD. The movie has a few interviews at the start but the rest is the concert. Awesome acoustic set in which Neil does his entire new Prairie Wind album and then follows with a collection of old classics even dating back to his first album. It was filmed just after his aneurysm operation and he talks to the audience a lot during the show. The recent brush with death is obviously on his mind and you can see the relief and joy he has knowing he still can play music. I can't wait for this one (but then I am a NY fan from back in the 60's).

Watched "An Evening with the Dixie Chicks" yesterday and it was awesome. Great PQ/SQ as well as performance. This will definately be a re-watchable Concert DVD.

One thing I noticed though was they kept switching from super clear almost HD quality video in full widescreen, back to somewhat grainy video with slight bars at the top and bottom. My wife wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't pointed it out. It's almost like they had only half of the camera's in HD. Maybe they did this on purpose, but I would have preferred to have had all the camera's in the high quality.

Did any of you that have seen this DVD notice the switching back and forth?

Yep, occasional shots in a lower resolution. I think they used mostly HD cameras, but had a couple non-HD.

I was suprised how well their material compared with some of the covers they did, like Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide". What did you think?

I have owned their Home cd for a few years, and I always liked the whole thing. After watching the DVD, I like it even more. What other covers are they doing besides Landslide?

I can't believe it hasn't been mentioned, but Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow Live should be on anyone's Top 10 list.

Picture & sound are impeccable. The disc has both 5.1 and stereo mixes, each of which are very well done. It has a background interview track, a few music videos, and comes with a companion CD containing 15 live tracks from the concerts.

Whether you appreciated Mirrorball or not, there's a lot here for almost anyone. The material covers the range from slow, intimate & acoustic, to powerful rock/dance levels.

The best concert DVD's incorporate the crowd and on this DVD you can feel the crowd prescence and excitement throughout. It's been well blended to feel mostly like a continuous concert than a series of tracks that have been assembled.

Like I say, whether you are a fan of her or not, this disc is a good showpiece for most any home theater.

Neild,

I added Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow Live to my list on pg 52.

Keep em coming.

Her Surfacing album was one of my favorites. Which concert would be more recommended Mirrorball or Afterglow?

MirrorBall I thought was waay too slow, poor video, poor performance, although her incredible voice stayed impeccable.

I am a huge fan of her voice, and watched her performance on Live 8 closely. She must have some of the most difficult material to sing ever written, although some opera listeners may argue that point.

She nailed all the notes in Angel ( you know that song that goes"in the arms of an angel, far away from me ...") although Josh Grobham did an excellent job helping her.

We may need to give her another chance Afterglow, I will put it in my queue

Actually i am not sure they are covers, but they do 2 songs from another female artist, Patti (?)?

If I remember correctly, I think that Patti (?) was the writer of the songs. My take on it was that these were written by Patti not sung by her.

I will be on the lookout for the Afterglow DVD. Anyone have a line on a really good price for it?

Has anyone seen/heard the Lillith Fair DVD? I'm just curious as to the quality. Looks like it can be had for cheap, which leads me to believe it's probably crappy.

Just picked this up a couple of weekends ago. It is a DVD of the first live performance of Demon Days. It was shot in 16:9 at an opera house in Manchester, England as part of a festival. Lots of guests appear on stage and there are some neat twists, like using a live children's choir and a string section. The production qualities are first class (sound, camera angles, etc.). The music may not be to everyone's taste but for somebody looking for a DVD with some similarities to the sorts of things Bjork is known for, I would strongly recommend this somewhat avant garde piece of work.

Boz Scaggs is another good one, but you have to like Boz Scaggs of course.
Audio is good and its another HD-->DVD transfer so it looks sharp also.

I just read a review of "Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow" DVD and the reviewer said the image quality was poor.

So which is it, poor or excellent? Who has seen this DVD on a large screen?

I was looking at buying this DVD, but if the image quality sucks, I will pass on this one.

Deron.

"Sony Music has announced the long-awaited DVD release of Pink Floyd: Pulse, the 1994 concert performance, for 9/12 (SRP $24.98). The 2-disc set will include Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and tons of extras."

Taken from 3/24 article @ http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa117.html#syr

I know, I know...when it's in the stores on that date, I'll believe it too!

I too am interested to hear if the video is good or bad. I think though, I will probably pick up Mirrorball first as it has all (or most) of her songs from the Surfacing CD. I had that CD in my car cd player for over a year when it first came out. I think I would enjoy it more due to knowing and liking all the songs.

Even though some of these recommended Concerts may have awesome PQ/SQ, if you don't like (or know) the songs/performers themselves, for me it is risky. I need to get in the habit of renting DVD Concerts first before blind buying.

So far I have blind bought the following:

Eagles Farewell I ***FRICKIN AWESOME*** The Eagles are also my favorite band.

Alison Krauss and Union Station **Very Nice** This one is definately re-watchable

James Taylor Beacon *This one is nice, but I couldn't get into it. Would rather listen to greatest hits CD.*

Norah Jones 2004 *I liked the songs I knew (not too many) otherwise not my bag.

Evening with the Dixie Chicks ***I liked this alot, but I also listened to the Home CD a ton.***

Collective Soul's "Home" **I watched this on HDnet, I wouldn't purchase, but I enjoyed it.

These I have purchased, but haven't watched yet:
Clapton One More Car
Eagles Hell Freezes Over **This one came as a PAL disc, I am waiting on an exchange**
Queen We Will Rock You

On the way:
Jewel: Live at Humphries
Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park
Live Eight: 4 disk set

What review is that? My vote is that PQ is good, certainly much better than the average concert DVD. Maybe they were thinking of Mirrorball or Fumbling?

We have all her discs, and Mirrorball gets played a lot less than Afterglow.

If video matters to you, it's no question, choose Afterglow, PQ is way better than Mirrorball.

There are a lot of edits, a lot of shots of band members, audience, instruments, etc. Some have criticized this visual style as too fast paced, but for me that helps make it a good demonstration DVD. While appreciating the sound, there is a lot to see.

Video does matter to me, Audio as well. What's the audio quality on Mirrorball compared to Afterglow?

I saw a David Bowie DVD in the store today, I believe it was called "Serious Moonlight". The track listing looked great with all the classics. Naturally the cover did not indicate the aspect ratio or available sound options. Has anyone seen this??

On the Netflix site it states.....David Bowie Serious Moonlight
Screen Formats:
Full Screen 1.33:1

Language and Sound:
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

I posted a long time ago in this thread that Lilith Fair was, in my opinion, quite good. Some excellent female artists and great performances. Picture quality pretty good as well. I'd recommend it.

Then why do you keep asking about Mirror Ball? everyone keeps saying its subpar ... I owned it around 2000, and it was pretty bad by the standards of 6 years ago.

It is interesting you equate price with quality. The two are not always directly related. I picked up my Roger Waters - In The Flesh for under $9.50 and find it to be far and away my favorite DVD in my collection when I consider production, PQ, audio and performance. PQ and audio are at least adequate, the production doesn't do anything annoying (zoomy-cam, shaky-cam, fast-cam, ADD-cam etc.) and I enjoy the show (subjective opinion only, many/most don't). Regardless, I have a bunch of higher priced DVD's that are inferior in production, PQ, audio and performance.

Exactly, "Not Always Related". That's why I said "Probably". I was just asking about lillith fair, cause I hadn't heard anything about it. Looks like I got my answer from Hibeta. Thanks!



I kept asking cause I realy liked Surfacing. I was hoping that maybe the audio was really good, and I could get past the video. I just got my new system setup a couple months ago. Both audio (Athena .5 MKII, ONkyo 503, Dayton 12") and Video (50" Vizio Plasma) are new to me and I am seeing and hearing everything as if it was new. My last setup was sooooo crappy compared to this and I find myself enjoying both audio and video alot more. I could just listen to the CD, but the DVD's are in 5.1, which I am really enjoying.

I saw a stack of "The Last Waltz" in our local Safeway for $9.99 each. Too bad I already paid $25 for mine. I may pick one up for a gift though.

Just watched part of this last night that I recorded from HDnet. I am enjoying it.

I recently bought "Duran Duran: Live from London". I was browsing at Borders, had a discount coupon expiring that weekend, saw this was filmed in High Def, and recognized two of the songs (View to a Kill and Girls on Film) so I purchased it on spec.

I've only watched it once so far, skimming through until I came to a song I recognized (maybe 2 or 3 others besides the 2 I already knew), and then listened to those in their entirety / repeating.

It's dated 2005. Video is 16:9 and very good. If I remember correctly (not at home to check), audio includes both DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1. The DD was very good, but I did not care as much for the DTS- sounded a bit muffled to me. From a PQ / AQ perspective, I would recommend this.

Thanks
Bruce