Concert Blu-rays (rock and pop) you recommend (1 Viewer)

[David Wilkins]

When Blu-ray was introduced, I expected big things from the concert genre, since the format seems a natural fit. But it seems to me that there were comparatively more and better releases during the DVD era. What happened, or was I expecting too much? Seems that in addition to the usual trials in bringing any given title to disc, there's the added stumbling block of record label interference, and insistence upon controlling the product from any given artist.

A short list of some of my favorites are:

Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's (2009)
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Radio City (2007)
Roy Orbison Black & White Night (2017)
David Gilmour Live at Pompeii (2017)
Peter Gabriel Secret World Live (2012)

How about your favorites and recommends?

 

[JohnRice]

Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's and Peter Gabriel Secret World are two of my favorites also.

Off the top of my head...

Diana Krall - Live in Paris
Jewel - I forget the title, but it has two concerts on it. I can check when I get home.
Within Temptation - Black Symphony

 

[titch]

Ah - well, Stop Making Sense. Probably the best concert film ever made. The studio mix on the blu-ray is sensational. I ruin my hearing a little more, every time I screen this.

 

[meli]

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
Roger Waters - The Wall (2014)
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged

These are some of my favorites partially because they are all good, almost audiophile, recordings.

Also, not to my taste, but lots of people loved Beyoncé: Lemonade

 

[Stephen_J_H]

No list would be complete without Stop Making Sense, so glad to see it here. Also:

• Shut Up and Play the Hits - LCD Soundsystem
• Peter Gabriel - Secret World Live
• Muse - Live at Rome Olympia Stadium
• Queen -Live at the Rainbow [SD Blu-ray, but the sound is solid]
• Queen - Hungarian Rhapsody
• Peter Gabriel - New Blood Live 3D
• Saga - Spin it Again - Live in Munich
• Jeff Lynne's ELO - Wembley or Bust
• Jeff Lynne's ELO - Live in Hyde Park

I have more, but I'm not sitting in front of my collection right now.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Here are the concerts I own on BD. I would recommend any of them.

Roy Orbison: Black & White Night 30
The Police: Certifiable
Heart: Alive in Seattle
Heart: Dreamboat Annie
Sheryl Crow: Soundstage Live
Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theater
Jeff Lynne's ELO: Live in Hyde Park
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: London Calling -- Live in Hyde Park
Eagles: Farewell I Tour -- Live from Melbourne
Diana Krall: Live in Rio
Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day
Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013
Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music -- Director's Cut (40th Anniversary)



I do have quite a few concerts on DVD, some of which are now available on BD but I have not upgraded. Off the top of my head, The Last Waltz is one I would highly recommend.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Good thread. Mine are:

Jeff Beck Rock 'n' Roll Party
ELO Wembley or Bust
ELO Live in Hyde Park
David Gilmour Live at Pompeii
The Moody Blues Lovely to see you
The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed
Justin Hayward Live at the Buckhead Theatre
Gary Moore Live at Montreux
Gary Moore & Friends One Night in Dublin
Steve Hackett Genesis Revisited
Peter Frampton FCA35
Eric Clapton Slowhand at 70, Royal Albert Hall
Eric Clapton, Planes, Trains and Eric
The Berlin Concert (Domingo/Netrebko/Villazon)
The Opera Gala (Netrebko/Garanca/Vargas/Tezier)

DVDs (impatiently waiting for blu rays):
Genesis When in Rome
Glen Campbell in Concert (Sioux Falls)
Neil Finn 7 Worlds Collide
Eric Clapton Live in Japan

 

[bugsy-pal]

Concert for George
Cream Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2005

 

[titch]

Last year, Prince's Sign Of The Times was released in Germany. It is an awesome package.

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07YTCDZCY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=R7E67AEJRKTX&keywords=prince+sign+o+the+times+bluray&qid=1578635385&sprefix=prince+sign,aps,165&sr=8-1

I first became aware of this release on Sight & Sound's poll of the best blu-ray releases for 2019

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-sound-magazine/best-dvds-blu-rays-2019

 

[DennisBassi]

I would like to add that ELO Live in Hyde Park is great, but seek out the UK version with Roll Over Beethoven, which was left off of the US release.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Most of my BD selections have already been named. Stop Making Sense is a must.

I'll mention one early DVD concert disc that I really wish would make it to BD...

James Taylor Live at the Beacon Theatre.

- Walter.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Missed Concert for George off my list.

 

[Sam Favate]

I was thinking about this recently, and before the days of VHS, concert films were events -- movies that the faithful could flock to and a way of documenting significant moments in rock and roll. Think of the early, theatrical concert films:

The T.A.M.I. Show
The Big T.N.T. Show
Woodstock
Don't Look Back (Bob Dylan)
Monterey Pop
Otis at Monterey (Otis Redding)
Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones)
The Concert for Bangladesh (George Harrison and Friends)
The Last Waltz (The Band and Friends)
The Song Remains the Same (Led Zeppelin)
Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young)
Rockshow (Paul McCartney)
U2 Rattle and Hum

Can anyone think of other theatrical concert films?

Once VCRs were in every living room, all the bands started putting out concerts -- which is not to say many of those weren't good, but the status of a concert film being an "event" was gone.

That said, there are many good concert films from the last 35 years. It really depends on your taste in music. I would recommend any of these:

The Beatles - Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Live in New York City (not on blu-ray), also Live at Hyde Park
U2 - Under a Blood Red Sky (not on blu-ray)
U2 - Innocence and Experience, Live in Paris
Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul - Soulfire Live
Roy Orbison - A Black and White Night
The Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll Circus
The Concert For George
Live Aid (DVD only)
The Amnesty International Concerts (DVD)
The 30th Anniversary Bob Dylan Celebration (the single greatest night of music I ever witnessed)
Jackson Browne - I'll Do Anything
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - High Grass Dogs (I'd include TP's Pack Up The Plantation Live but it is only on VHS; same with his 1991 film Take The Highway)
The Ramones - We're Outta Here!
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The 25th Anniversary Concerts


The list is pretty endless.

 

[titch]

I just saw Western Stars - it's a magnificent concert film. Bruce did pretty well with his Broadway show, but here he performs last year's excellent album with 30 musicians in his barn. The 7.1 mix is lovely. But order this from Amazon.co.uk - it's almost half the price of the disc on Amazon. com, for some reason.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-St...80762973&sprefix=western+stars,aps,175&sr=8-2

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s priced high due to Amazon’s ongoing feud with Warner on new releases; any other domestic retailer will have it for less.

The 4K UHD version is streaming only but is available for less than the disc, for those that it might benefit.

It’s a fantastic film. It’s not a greatest hits concert and is only songs from the newest Springsteen record, but these songs are different from much of his earlier work, and there a handful that rank among the very best he’s ever written. It’s a quiet, introspective work that uses western movie themes and imagery to speak to what it means to be an adult, and to the choices we make that either bring us closer to community or drive us deeper into ourselves. It’s a refreshingly mature work coming out at a time when the most popular things in our culture are either celebrations of past glories (last night’s Super Bowl halftime show was awesome but was also a celebration of two pop stars who made their most significant contributions to pop culture two decades ago) or focused on the experience of youth (exemplified by a 17-year old winning all of the major Grammy awards this past week). There’s just so little out there today targeting the biggest and broadest canvases of the mainstream that acknowledges that we won’t be young forever, that yesterday’s success doesn’t guarantee tomorrow’s prosperity, and that no one makes it out of this life unscathed. Many of the characters in these songs are people that would be familiar to movie fans like us - the b-movie actor doing commercials after Hollywood lost interest in him; the loner stuntman discovering that opening his heart to love is as dangerous and thrilling as filming any car chase scene; the writer who realizes that he’s traded every personal moment of consequence for professional glory. Springsteen weaves these songs with interstitial segments that quote the imagery of John Ford and John Wayne, with narrations that deepen our understanding of the songs and how they fit in these landscapes.

I haven’t had time to be able to formerly review the film on HTF but it was one of my very favorites from 2019.

 

[jcroy]

I have very little to no interest in modern concerts filmed in recent years. Apparently too many aging rockstars look like a shadow of their former selves by the time 1080p video was easily available (whether 24/25 progressive frames per second or 60 interlaced frames per second). Too dreadful and embarassing to look at. Completely cringeworthy and sad to watch.

With that being said, I mainly look for older classic concerts during a band's/performer's prime era which appear they might have been filmed on 16mm film or better. These might look respectable on bluray but unfortunately I don't have too many: an old AC/DC concert and a Doors concert at the hollywood bowl.

 

[jcroy]

One concert which might look spectacular on bluray with a decent restoration, would be an Iron Maiden concert in 1984 at Long Beach (in California). This was released on vhs back in the day, which looked like it might have been shot on 16mm film.

 

[jcroy]

Otherwise most concerts I want to watch, are largely junk that was recorded using a camcorder back in the day. Sometimes the camcorner was standing still on a tripod, while other times it was somebody carrying the camcorder inside the crowd in front of the stage without a "steadycam".

This type of junk is almost never released on dvd. (Not even vhs back in the day). A lot of this stuff has ended up on youtube over the past decade or so.

 

[Ruz-El]

Chuck Berry Hail Hail Rock 'N' Roll is half concert, half documentary, but I think it fits?

 

[Peter Neski]

Cat Stevens:Yusuf Roadsinger Live in Australia (need region free player)
Yes Live at Montreux
Paul Simon The Concert in Hyde Park
Paul Mcartney Rockshow
The Sound of Jazz/Jaz From 61/Jammin The blues/The Sound of Miles Davis