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(More customer reviews)For a variety of reasons, this video is a must-own for avid fans of Neil Young. The setting is the final show of Young's 1982 European tour preceding the December 1982 release of 'Trans'. In contrast to other Neil Young video recordings, the European venue offers a minimum of crowd noise (unlike Red Rocks Live) as well as an opportunity to watch Neil and Nils Lofgren work the runway jutting into the audience. And, thankfully, we have only a few shots of audience members, often an editing nightmare threatening to destroy the integrity and impact of the performances (see 'Weld'). One also wonders if Young ever wore a tie on stage again, after watching him competing with it to pillage the six strings of Old Black on 'Like a Hurricane'.
The sound quality is excellent, while the film quality is very good... spoiled by today's standard, you will notice times when the filming blurs a bit, or the camera moves too fast to manage the light. Nevertheless, there are several stunning images captured that more than make up for the deficiencies of 1980's technology. In particular is a hypnotic 'drummers-eye-view' scene during 'Hey Hey My My', looking out over Neil's back as the audience throbs to the numbers incessant driving beat. Neil's personal appearance is as 'clean-cut' as you will ever see him... quite a contrast to his overriding 'Grandfather of Grunge' image.
The personnel surrounding Young, and the song selection make this video quite unique. Nils Lofgren brings an unbridled energy to the visual performance that is simply priceless. Ralph Molina, Bruce Palmer and Joe Lala are an unassuming, solid backbone of rhythm for Lofgren, Ben Keith and Neil as they trade places on a variety of instruments. Larry Cragg offers an understated banjo on 'Old Man', while Joel Bernstein adeptly manages the vocoder and synthesizer.
The hard rock numbers, 'Cinnamon Girl', 'Like a Hurricane', and 'Hey Hey My My' manage to sound simultaneously clean n' dirty in classic Young style. If there is any weakness in the show, it would have to be the acoustic renditions of Needle and the Damage Done and After the Goldrush, which feel a bit strained and plodding. The cuts taken from Trans, 'Computer Age', 'Transformer Man', and 'Sample and Hold', produce a compelling flashback as we witness Young perceptively addressing the embryonic advance of digital technology into Western culture which is rapidly becoming our second nature. 'Computer Age' and 'Sample and Hold' rock out, while 'Tranformer Man' is thoughtful, and features some theatrical miming from both Young and Lofgren. Another Trans cut, 'A Little Thing Called Love', is a bouncy, effortless foray that seems out of character for the Trans LP, but nicely supplements the overall song selection for this video.
The concert, and the tour, is capped off with the completely appropriate 'After Berlin', seemingly written for the moment of its performance, and not performed since. It's the only blues-rock number in the set, and Young's guitar is crisp and wailing throughout. Seeing this rare performance was worth the price of admission for the fortunate few in Berlin, and owning it is well worth the price of the video or DVD for the rest of us.
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