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There's a long and uneven history of live music performances captured on film for posterity. I vividly remember the crushing boredom of The Song Remains The Same, the Led Zeppelin concert film we waited breathless to come to town. And who can forget the slightly less boring presentation of The Who in The Kid's Are Alright -- from the band that has consistently been touted as one of the best live bands ever to grace the stage. Woodstock has its moments, though I always find the audience material more interesting than the band footage. For all it's accolades, I'm not a huge fan of Stop Making Sense either, though it is certainly the first step in the direction of figuring out how to make the concert experience translate to the screen.
MTV and more recently the flood of readily accessible concert DVDs has not improved the quality as much as one might hope. Certainly the production values are higher, but the presentations still struggle with bridging the gulf between the live experience and the film archive of that presentation. Part of the energy of a show is from being in a crowd of similarly excited folks - without that component, you're left with the music and a visual that may or may not be terribly interesting (watch any concert footage with the sound turned down and what do you see? -- a couple of guys walking back and forth, posing, and doing something not unlike the pee-pee dance of a two year old.)
I, like many fans, will pick up the offered Concert DVDs from my favorite bands and I wish I could say they are all brilliant, but I can't. But there are a few that really stand out to the point that I think they might be of interest to a non-fanatic.
Porcupine Tree: Arriving Somewhere (2006) - Porcupine Tree's first DVD takes a wise tact - the concert footage was edited and processed by Lasse Hoile, a visual artist/video director who has long worked with the band , including designing and producing the stills and films the band uses on tour. Hoile processes and cuts the footage like an old home Super 8 movie, adding film burn, grain, emulsion scratches and tinting the footage sepia. This processed material is inter-cut with the actual color footage of the show, providing an extra visual dimension beyond the usual multi-angle cutting. I saw this tour twice and while this doesn't capture the experience of the live show, it creates a unique document that stands up to repeated viewings nicely. Well conceived bonus material helps, especially the inclusion of the films projected during the show as stand alone chapters.
Wire: The Scottish Play 2004 (2005) - I suspect the reason I like this so much is the fact that these guys are in their late 40-50 and the show rocks with a relentless punk energy that many young bands couldn't begin to match. Besides the ferocious 66 minute main event, there is a four song excerpt from an earlier installation done at the Barbican in 2003. Es Devlin, a theatrical/dance/installation designer, enclosed the band in a set that is both a series of light boxes and projection surfaces and monitored their individual vital signs - projecting them onto the boxes. And again, the music blazes like a napalmed gorilla.
John Paul Jones, Steve Hackett, Paul Gilbert, Nuno Bettencourt: Guitar Wars(2003) - This was really hard to get hold of being that it is Japanese and astronomically priced. I ended up getting a good deal on it but it's worth noting that now having seen it, had I paid the high price I wouldn't have regretted it. This is a show put together for the 20th Anniversary of the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo and features four extraordinary players sharing the stage dispensing the sort of guitar-porn dreams are made from. Surprisingly, there appears to be no ego on the stage, just a bunch of guys who can really play having the time of their lives. They team up in various configurations doing a "solo" set by each, an acoustic set by each and finish off with everyone on stage doing Led Zep songs. Worth noting that the drums are handled by the always welcome Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, Tuner).
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