I needed to do some Web stuff this evening, so came home and, somewhat by chance, popped the Peter Gabriel concert DVD _Growing Up_ into the player for "background music".

Lomg story short, I quickly abandoned my Web work and just sat watching PG.

It dawned on me that I need *more* music/concert DVDs, but which ones??? I have a few kicking around:

Price/Purple Rain (best club scenes, evah.)
Prince/In Las Vegas
Lou Reed/Live at Montreaux
Richar Thonpsons/1000 Years of Popular Music (instant classic...and Judith Owen!)

...and maybe 1 or 2 more).

But what else I am I missing??? I need suggestions. No sign of Squeeze _Around and About_ yet on DVD. What do you suggest???

FYI, we went to see _It Might Be Loud_ a few weeks back. Some *great* Zeppelin footage.

Eagles DVD Concerts are always good. Saw them on their tour this year.

Paul McCartney, James Taylor are good picks too.

Ross

Hell Freezes Over

You can't go wrong with Peter Gabriel. My all time favorite concert film is the Peter Gabriel "Secret World" tour. The DVD pressing of it (even the recent remaster) is a bit grainy, but it's awesome to watch. Absolutely captivating. Having actually *attended* that concert tour, I can say that the film accurately captures what it was like to be there.

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense. Among the best concert films of all time, but not quite as high on my personal fave list as the Peter Gabriel one.

Pink Floyd: The Delicate Sound of Thunder. I only ever owned this on VHS but it's really good (better than later ones IMHO). A completely different take on the concert film style than the Peter Gabriel one, this does *NOT* make you feel like you were there (I saw that tour, too). Something about the way it's shot, though fascinating and captivating, doesn't give you the feeling of being there. (Damn, just looked, doesn't appear to be available on DVD.)

Not a concert film, but equally captivating to watch, is VH1 Classic Albums: Dark Side of the Moon. A documentary about the album's creation with modern interviews with everyone involved. The best bits are watching Alan Parsons and David Gilmour sitting at the mixing desks in their studios going over the tracks and showing you how each one was layered together.

What.. no Rush ?????

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense (now on Blu-ray as well - I'm with Tony on this)

Blue Man Group: The Complex (DVD) or How to be a Megastar (Blu-Ray)

The Police: Certifiable (Blu-ray, well-mastered)

Yup, I have Secret World and agree. You get Manu Katche (sp?) too.


I neglected to remember that I have SMS. On VHS

Maybe time to update this part of my collection.

But you have caused me to Google and that is good. Even better that the entire movie Stop Making Sense is the theatrical trailer for Stop Making Sense and now thanks to the magic of Google and Youtube I was able to find the original trailer. I forget what movie we were going to see that night, but whatever it was it was totally eclipsed by that trailer.



I have never considered myself a Pink Floyd fan exactly, but I am not a hostile audience either. I'll have to goive that some thought.

One little fun side note was a few weeks ago watching some Woodstock footage on cable TV. Santana nailing soul sacrifice with their drummer who was all of like 18 years old. Man.

For more eclectic tastes, Sessions at West 54th Street was a long-running PBS series with some truly brilliant performances. You can get it on DVD, but not Bluray. (Yet.)

If you want something more on the jazz side of things, check out Ramsey Lewis short-lived TV series, Legends of Jazz on DVD.

For that matter, the PBS series Austin City Limits is great. I don't think that there's a lot of it on DVD, but it's worth checking out every week if you're so inclined. I know that their Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff is on DVD, and those were some great performances.

Actually, here's their DVD store, and they have a number of shows for free online.

Heh. I thought about that. And although they are a fantastic live band, and although I love watching their concert films, I stop short of recommending their concert films for a few reasons:

1. Musically, they are an acquired taste.

2. Their concert films are good, but unless you're already a Rush fan, you probably won't be engrossed by the film in the way a fan would be.

3. If you're already a Rush fan, you already own their concert films anyway and don't need the recommendation. Rush fandom tends to be like that.

Conversely, Secret World and Stop Making Sense will always captivate even a non-fan of those artists. On multiple occasions, I've put those films on the TV for the purpose of just having a background playing while we all worked on our laptops or some such, and without exception, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and couldn't take their eyes off the screen.

YES. Especially considering that the DVD version is an especially well-done widescreen transfer of the movie, much higher quality than Secret World, with a new 5.1 audio remix.

Gah, how could I forget BMG. Yes. Complex Rock Tour is one of the most fun things to watch, ever in the history of mankind. Another one where you can't take your eyes off the screen because it's so theatrical.

And it comes with 100% less sewage too.