The Rolling Stones: The Biggest Bang Review

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(More customer reviews)The previous DVD release, a Best Buy exclusive, had the same title and cover art, but included three discs, including footage from three different concerts. This Blu-Ray release contains only one concert (which accounts for the lower price).
If you have the Best Buy edition, you'll probably want to hang onto it, as the Blu-Ray only has about one-third of the footage.
The concert presented here, from Austin, Texas, is a good one; although at 90 minutes you know there's a fair amount left out. It's rare for videos to include an entire concert but I'd prefer to see the whole show and pay a bit more.
The picture quality is what you'd expect from a high-definition broadcast, but the DVD release looked pretty good, so the difference is not stunning. The DTS 5.1 sound mix, however, is a big improvement (uncompressed PCM stereo is also available). I cranked this up good and loud and it's the next best thing to being there. If you're considering getting the Blu-Ray, the audio is the best reason to do so.
And if you're a Stones fan who missed the original release, this is a no-brainer. The Stones perform "Sway" in concert for the first time (Keith and Ronnie had to learn the song, as Keith didn't play on the original and Ronnie hadn't joined the Stones yet). A few other oldies ("Get Off My Cloud" and "Under my Thumb") are added to mix up the otherwise standard playlist. At this low price, it's well worth it.


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Disc 1: Zilker Park, Austin, Texas Opening (intro) 1.You Got Me Rocking2. Let's Spend The Night Together 3. She's So Cold 4.Oh No, Not You Again 5. Sway 6. Bob Wills Is Still The King7. Streets Of Love 8.Ain't Too Proud To Beg 9. Tumbling Dice 10. Learning The Game 11. Little T&A 12. Under My Thumb 13. Get Off My Cloud 14. Honky Tonk Women 15. Sympathy For The Devil 16. Jumpin' Jack Flash17. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 18. Brown SugarBonus Features:Austin Mini-Documentary Disc 2: Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Opening (intro) 1. Jumpin' Jack Flash 2. It's Only Rock 'n Roll 3. You Got Me Rocking 4. Wild Horses 5. Rain Fall Down 6. Midnight Rambler 7. Night Time Is The Right Time8. Happy 9. Miss You 10. Rough Justice 11. Get Off My Cloud 12. Honky Tonk Women 13. Start Me Up 14. Brown Sugar 15. You Can't Always Get What You Want 16. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Bonus Feature: Rio de Janeiro Documentary Disc 3: Rest Of The World Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan Opening (intro)1. Let's Spend The Night Together Sapporo (segue) 2. Rain Fall Down Tokyo Dome (segue) 3. Rough Justice Cherry Blossoms (segue) Shanghai Grand Stage, Shanghai, China Opening (intro) 1. Bitch 2. Midnight Rambler 3. Gimme Shelter 4. This Place Is Empty That's What I Do (segue) 5. It's Only Rock 'n Roll China, A Slow Process (segue) River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina Opening (intro)1. Worried About You Football Chant (segue) 2. Happy 3. Miss You Ronnie & Audience (segue) 4. Paint It Black 5. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Featurettes:1. Bonnie Raitt featurette "Shine A Light" 2. Eddie Vedder featurette "Wild Horses" 3. Dave Matthews featurette "Let It Bleed" Duets: 1. "Shine A Light" featuring Bonnie Raitt2. "Wild Horses" featuring Eddie Vedder 3. "Let It Bleed" featuring Dave Matthews 4. "Wild Horses" featuring Cui Jian Jukebox FeatureDisc 4 Salt Of The Earth A Bigger Bang Tour Documentary

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Yes - Symphonic Live (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)On November 21st and 22nd 2001 Yes visited the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam and gave 2 concerts ... the 2nd one ... was filmed and is now available on video and DVD. ... the DVD version [has] a beautiful mix of band and orchestra ... The DTS sound gives it all an extra dimension .
The concert starts with an overture by the orchestra, that is not visible at that moment. The background is a Roger Dean-like landscape.
After the intro the band starts with the epic Close to the Edge and, immediately, you sense the asset the orchestra is for this song. It brought tears in my eyes from emotion to see young orchestra members with such dedication to music that was written before they were even born. Also on screen there appear icons for animation in the background and there are multiple camera-angles in this song possible.
Next is Long Distance Runaround from the Fragile album with a beautiful orchestra opening that is really an asset to the song.
From the new album Magnification they played Don't go first. I think it's not their most powerful track of the album and it surprised me the song did it live very well.
In the Presence Off, also from their latest album, are, together with Dreamtime, my favourites. In arrangement and length it's a 2001 Yes semi-epic.
Then, oh my God, finally, after all these years, Gates of Delirium is been introduced. Together with C.T.T.E this is the mother of all Yes epics. Tom Brislin really showed his craftsmanship in the "war" part of the song. This is a perfect song to play with an orchestra and you can hear that they do a perfect job in the changeover from the "war" part to the "peace" part of the song .Soon oh Soon let's the song end in a sea of tranquillity. Multi-camera angles and animations of war are also visible during this song.
After this epic we are attended by maestro Steve Howe and he entertains us with his guitar virtuoso by playing two songs of his solo albums.
Another golden oldie is Starship Trooper from the Yesalbum. During this song the orchestra has leave of absence and immediately you get an "unplugged" feeling when they are not there. The harmonies are perfect in this song and the only drawback is the shifting from the 1st layer to the second layer on the DVD and the lack of the Wakeman solo on his moog during the end of the song because Brislin played it a little thin in my opinion.
Anderson states that the day before they played the next song for the first time live and he introduces the title track of their last album; Magnification. One of the highlights of their album and played perfectly on stage.
It's back to 1972 with And You And I. Played live a zillion times but never lost it's charisma. In the multi-camera angle you can see animation with 2 robots.
If you haven't seen this, you ain't seen nothing yet ; Ritual, from the "Tales" album is one of the four tracks of this double album and one of two, for me, accessible tracks. The drum part in the middle with Anderson, Squire, Brislin and White makes it an attraction of the first order. What an energy pours out of that song!
From the time of it's first release on the Yesalbum "I,ve Seen All Good People"has always been a great rock song that survived decades of rock history. So get up and boogie: as Anderson says in the intro to the audience.
... with all the cameras rolling, Steve had to make concessions and "Owner" was played before the last song from this evening; Roundabout from the Fragile album. During this song the stage is filled with all the members of the orchestra waving and dancing on the music and expressing their joy of being part of performing in timeless music by a timeless band.
Yes, what a wonderful, magical evening it was. Every bit of it captured on a perfect DVD.

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With a Symphony Orchestra: Universally admired for their considerable studioprowess, British Supergroup, Yes have also been most famous for their unparalleled live s hows.Yes pioneered the use of lasers, elaborate fantasy art inspired sets, "In-the-Round " revolving stages, the best sound engineering in the business and of course, their extrao rdinary musicianship.They've been blowing audiences away for over three decades.

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Stones in Exile (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a very good DVD release, although it doesn't seem like the Holy Grail of Glimmer Twins releases we fans have wished for all these years. It's interesting to see footage (and there's a lot of it) from this time period, with snippets of C-S Blues and more of Ladies and Gentlemen thrown in. I could have done without the interviews with Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill, Jack White, Liz Phair and probably Sheryl Crow. White's comments seem to repeat themselves, and while Crow and Phair are OK in the main movie, their cutting-room floor segments on the DVD's bonus features really starts to drag, especially Phair, who comes across as self-absorbed and almost desperate for attention.
On the plus side, the interview with Don Was is good, probably the best of the non-Stones interviews, and Black Eyed Peas' Will I. Am gives a decent interview. Much of Mick Taylor's and Bill Wyman's comments are relegated to the bonus features area, but they are seen and heard in the main film, also. And speaking of the main film, it's only 61 minutes in the length, unfortunately. The bonus features bump up the running time on this release. I was hoping for a 2-hour documentary, "25 X 5"-style, with maybe 30 or 40 minutes of bonus interviews. Not so. It is a short feature, but what is there is pretty cool. To hear Keith Richards reveal why he did heroin in that time period (and presumably for another five or six years) is a revelation, and Wyman's playful jibe at Taylor's comatose-like stage presence during the 1972 shows is hysterical and ironic. Wyman does finally utter something like, "I'm one to talk." "In 30 years with The Rolling Stones, I maybe took three steps on the stage," Wyman says while laughing.
"Stones in Exile" is a good release, but it falls just short of being an immaculate document of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Maybe Eagle Rock's upcoming DVD release of "Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Rolling Stones" will be packed to the gills with extra goodies.

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In the spring of 1971 the Rolling Stones departed the UK to take up residence in France as tax exiles. Keith Richards settled at a villa called Nellcôte in Villefranche-sur-Mer and this became the venue for the recording of much of the band s masterpiece Exile On Main Street . Stones In Exile tells the story in the band s own words and through extensive archive footage of their time away from England and the creation of this extraordinary double album, which many regard as the Rolling Stones finest achievement.Bonus FeaturesExtensive additional footage including interviews with all the band members, footage from C...sucker Blues and Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts returning to Olympic Studios and Jagger s country house Stargroves where a lot of the early work on the album was done.

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The Police: Certifiable - Live In Buenos Aires (2-DVD + 2-CD Set) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Bad: The packaging is weak because the discs keep sliding out.
With that out of the way this CD/DVD package is a miracle of great mixing and whatever post production fixes they did. I saw them twice on the '07-'08 tours and own bootlegs of them playing in various countries on this tour. This package sounds better than anything I ever saw live or heard in a bootleg format. They also play their set list better on this DVD package than they ever did from what I heard. It was recorded live in Buenos Aires over two days so the editors had some brilliant performances to choose from.
This piece of product is everything a TRUE Police fan would want them to sound like. They're not arrogant, ambitious and faux punk-rock-reggae guys hungry to make it anymore. They're mature, famous, top-notch musicians, playing excellent songs.
The overall sounds, guitar tones, bass, drum sounds and mixing is top of the food chain. The video coverage and shot composition is superb. Purists who still think it's 1983 may not dig all the song modifications such as the lowered keys, modulations and new-fangled textures, but they can bite me. Sting isn't 27 anymore and he sings those old songs with the honesty of a guy in his 50's the way he should.
Summers got raked over the coals on guitar forums for playing too much outside stuff during his solos on this tour. It was like he forgot what a pentatonic scale was. He was also hitting a lot of clams (bad notes) and sounded under rehearsed. In this package he brings it all together and wails with precision, great ideas and wild abandon. His patented shimmering chord textures are ungodly. Whoever helped him design his pedal board needs to get The Nobel Prize. He fades in perfect synth parts over muted guitar lines and gets great dirty tones. He's a joy to listen to on this package. He is a true guitar innovator. It doesn't even matter that he rarely played his trademark Telecaster. The Strat/Whammy combo gives him a lot more expression and he expresses a lot on these discs.
Copeland has calmed down in his maturity and refrains from rushing, speeding up, or over playing like the old days. I miss the old Copeland. It's what made The Police such a rhythmic force of nature. He still replicates a few of his signature reggae/ska/rock fills but he's much more in service of the singer these days. He plays wonderfully but I miss the tension and shameless virtuosity he use to create. The days when Summers would scream at him on stage to, "Slow down!" are long gone. Today he sounds like a normal drummer imitating Stewart Copeland on Xanax. His current style of drumming works much better musically and it's not like Sting is demanding him to "rawk" harder either. It's a different band. Sting lost the rawk long ago as well. This is a smooth rawkin' band.
Sting is a Golden God. His voice is in rare form. He hits all the high notes (Thanks to some lowered keys.), holds them forever, improvises vocal passages and plays perfect bass. He actually sings high parts while improvising funky melodic lines at the same time. He plays bass like a songwriter; tasteful and always in service of the song. His bass tones are rich, full and never muddy. His ideas for filling out some of the songs with Taurus pedals and pre-recorded backing tracks works like a dream. It compliments the songs while still maintaining the spaciousness that is part of the Police sound. It all works!
If you're a true Police fan you deserve to pleasure yourself with this package. The accompanying documentary of the behind the scenes rehearsal stuff is great. If you missed the tour, it's ok. This package sounds a lot better than actually being there. It's The Police the way they deserve to be heard.


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DVD 1: 109 minute concert presented in surround and stereo.
DVD 2: Bonus features: "Better Than Therapy," directed by Jordan Copeland, 50 minutes of exclusive content detailing the Police's historic reunion tour with interviews with the band and crew. Also contains two photo galleries of the Police on tour, one by guitarist Andy Summers and one by Danny Clinch. Includes 2-CD set as well.
2-CD Set Track listing:
CD 1:
1. Message In A Bottle
2. Synchronicity II
3. Walking On The Moon
4. Voices Inside My Head/When The World Is Running Down
5. Don't Stand So Close To Me
6. Driven To Tears
7. Hole In My Life
8. Truth Hits Everybody
9. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
10. Wrapped Around Your Finger
CD 2:
1. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
2. Invisible Sun
3. Walking In Your Footsteps
4. Can't Stand Losing You/Reggatta De Blanc
5. Roxanne
6. King of Pain
7. So Lonely
8. Every Breath You Take
9. Next To You

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Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird The Movie / Tribute Tour (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow, this DVD is incredible and a gift from the Heavens. How can anyone complain about this. People like Perbes from Spain and Kevin from Missouri need to shut their mouth about audio quality this, video quality that. Listen, if you are sitting on anything better we can watch of the original Skynyrd, then by all means start whining. But last time I checked, this release contains probably the best video and audio of the Ronnie fronted band around. So that makes me happy to see. Lastly, the video is from 1976, 28 years ago. If you're a true fan, you take what you can get, and leave the bitching to the losers with the $10,000 TV's and Audio systems who can't get this in 16:9 picture ratio and 5.1 dolby surround sound! Long Live Skynyrd.

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FREEBIRD:THE MOVIE:Even though they recorded only for four short years, Lynyrd Skynyrd left behind some of rock'n' roll's most enduring classics.Go back in time and experience the band's true spirit, raw power and three-guitar attack in blistering live performances, revealing interviews, rare photos and home movies. TRIBUTE TOUR:After ten years, Lynyrd Skynyrd fans are treated to a long-awaited musical reunion.In this sensational live concert, Lynyrd Skynyrd performs favorites "Workin' for MCA," "Simple Man," "Gimme Three Steps," "Free Bird," and the classic southern anthem, "Sweet Home Alababma."This musical documentary traces the band's roots from Jacksonville, Florida, through the tragedy and triumph that makes the Tribute Tour a celebration.Join the original band members along with Johnny Van Zant, Randall Hall, Dale Krantz Rossington and Carol Bristow.The spirit, the magic, and the music continue!

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Compilation of Warped Music (Warped Tour 98) Review

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(More customer reviews)This was a good album and it potrayed alot of what the vans warped tour is about but it left out some of the best bands that were on tour with them (Deftones,grinspoon,rancid,reverend horton heat...) i think they should have been mentioned in this cd.

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2008 Warped Tour Compilation Review

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(More customer reviews)I have bought all the Warped tour compilations since early 2000's and I have been pleased for the most part. 50 songs ranging from crunchy punk to melodic catchy pop for the price of a Hamburger, fries and a Coke, isn't a bad deal. I have seen these sets on sale for $5.00, but even are full price your bound to like more than you do not. It's also a inexpensive way to learn about bands you may never hear of. I know I didn't know any of these bands before buying these sets. I own 8,000 CD's and I'm glad to have some obscure, but good new material to check out. The Warped Tour sets are worth looking into!

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The official soundtrack for the Vans Warped Tour is a double CD featuring 50 new, rare, and unreleased tracks from the biggest names in rock. It's the eleventh installment in this highly successful compilation series. Artists here include Gym Class Heroes, The Academy Is..., Motion City Soundtrack, Goldfinger, Bedouin Soundclash, Greeley Estates, Horrorpops, Beat Union, Alesana, Mayday Parade, and many more. Tour runs June 19 - August 17.

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2006 Warped Tour Compilation Review

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(More customer reviews)Here is yet another compilation of little known bands with a big crunchy punk sound. If you like to explore different music on a budget this is a pretty decent 2 disc set. It's got mostly heavy thrash punk on this one. I would have preferred it to have some more catchy pop punk tunes, but the for the price, it's hard to resist!

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The official soundtrack for the 2006 Vans Warped Tour contains 50 tracks from the biggest names in rock, such as NOFX, From First To Last, Flogging Molly, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Anti-Flag, Slightly Stoopid, I Am Ghost, Bouncing Souls, Gogol Bordello, Helmet, Hellogoodbye, Maxeen, Crash Romeo, The Fully Down, and many, many more.

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Vans Warped Tour: 2007 Compilation Review

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(More customer reviews)Again Warped Tour made an amazing compilation! It hits every band that america should listen to on the mainstream but refuses to listen to because of truth...we americans hate truth. I love this tour and these CDs so much because they remind me of all the great bands out there! now if only america would be more like me...kidding. But seriously, No seriously, These songs, Bands deserve tons of respect everything single band is worth listening to even if there "best" song isn't on the compilation.

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