Rating: Summary: I have seen Bruce 65 times in concert Review: and was still absolutely blown away from this performance. Give to this to any nonBruce fan for Christmas and they'll be converted within the first 3 songs. The crowd is amazing... into every single song. I am from New Jersey and I have never seen a Bruce crowd like that, hats off to Barcelona. I had no problem w/ the second disc as many have - I'd be upset too. The sound was fine for me (Sony Dream Theater). I loved it so much I watched it 2 times in a row. 5 hours on the couch Brucing out like I was 15 years old again.
Rating: Summary: Definite Audio problems Review: I have to agree with the reviewer who raised issues about the audio, I've been listening to the 5.1 track and it definitely seems to fluctuate badly, which is very disconcerting and completely spoils the enjoyment of the DVD, the stereo soundtrack seems fine which is really not good enough. It will be interesting to see if other people also feel that there is a problem with this, again it shouldn't be the Home Theatre system which is high end. As for the other aspects of the DVD it acts well as a companion piece to the "Live In New York City" one offering the rising songs, although the omission of "Further on up the road" is a big disapointment for me. Also although the picture quality is extremely good the rapid editing is annoying ( a fate also suffered by Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder), maybe the lesson is that you should never give a director too many it's not even a patch on the far superior Live In New York City DVD. 3 Stars as it's Bruce but an extremely poorly executed DVD, for such a major artist, in fact 2 stars as I'm listening to it now and I can't bear the 5.1 soundtrack.
Rating: Summary: Less Than Stellar Sound But Still A Great Concert Review: You sometimes have to feel sorry for Bruce- for having such a devoted following, he rarely pleases the majority of his audience. Part of that is the perhaps unfair standards to which he's held- even he can't be THAT good ALL of the time, and no recorded material could ever capture the glory of his live performances. On the other hand, he does make strange choices with his products, especially with his archival releases: B-sides to singles that contain previously released songs rather than unreleased cuts, discs of unreleased material like "Tracks" that contain empty space and leave off fan favorites, live albums that are edited and overdubbed and never contain an entire show, and his overall infrequent, excrutiatingly slow output. Of particular frustration to many fans is the way he handles live material- when other artists like Pearl Jam, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Buffett and of course The Dead are releasing "official bootlegs" of many or virtually all of their concerts, Bruce still refuses to release a complete show, much less a bunch of them. His fans will go to great length to obtain inferior sounding bootlegs of the performances, yet Bruce oddly refuses to address the obvious demand.So here we finally have a "complete" Bruce Springsteen concert. It's on DVD, which is arguably even better than on CD (although I'd like both, since I rarely have time to rewatch a complete DVD but can always listen to music in the background). This should be great news, and to an extent it is. But once again, for a number of reasons, there's cause for us ungrateful fans to complain. Here's why: 1) Part of this show was already aired on CBS and European MTV- not a huge deal, but parts of it have been seen already. It also repeats a few songs from his last DVD, making this one seem not quite as essential. 2) It's been known for a while that Bruce filmed his later stadium shows. There's some concern that THIS Barcelona release would cancel out the release of the later filmed shows, which have different (not necessarily better) setlists with material from Tunnel of Love, Human Touch and Lucky Town. Releasing these later shows would address the problem of redundancy from his previous DVD. 3. There's the already discussed problems with disc 2. Mine works fine on a Toshiba DVD player, but apparently many people can't access the menus on Disc 2. That's a manufacturing problem and shouldn't be attributed to Bruce, and this will certainly be addressed by Columbia. Small comfort to those who can't view disc 2, I know, but at least no one should be stuck with these faulty discs. 4. This is MY main complaint: the sound quality, while good, doesn't match that of many other concert DVDs, including Bruce's Live in NYC. The sound is less crisp, the keyboards and drums sound muted and tinny, and, well, it just doesn't sound as good as a DVD should in 2003. I really don't believe it's my system, because some concert DVDs are just mind-blowing in their sound quality. Not this one. 5. The editing is jumpy and sometimes headache inducing. There's too much focus on Bruce and not enough on the rest of the band. This shouldn't be some hyper MTV video. Sure, our focus is on Bruce, but part of the fun of seeing him in concert is focusing on the other members of the band, both playing the music and interacting with one another during and between songs. So those are the complaints. But let's talk about the good stuff. This IS a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. That IS a good thing. Even though the setlists later in the tour might have included more interesting rarities, you still get stuff like the piano Incident and Spirit, Night, as well as live renditions of The Rising material. Bruce sitting solo at the piano is truly something unique and special, and you get two doses of it here. Complaints about the setlist being "standard" aren't that valid anyway- I'm glad that Bruce didn't cater to the minority of fans who were "bored" with these songs after having seen dozens of shows on the tour. This DVD gives a good document of what the majority of setlists were like throughout this tour, and it's not our problem that a few people burned themselves out on these songs by seeing too many shows. Life's tough when your biggest complaint is that you saw too many Springsteen concerts and you're tired of the songs he performs regularly. The majority of fans see one, two, maybe zero shows on a given tour, and this is a great remembrance if you were there or a close-to-being-there experience if you didn't make it to an actual concert. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to see the Fenway and other stadium concerts- hopefully Bruce will follow the lead of the Stones and release a multi-DVD (and CD) set of the various concerts that ended this tour. So while it's great to have a full concert from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, you also can't help feeling that this, like his Essential CD, was a rather rushed job. Hopefully it's just a preview of bigger and better things to come...
Rating: Summary: This is in your face Rock N Roll concert!!!!!!!!! Review: Oh man! What can I say... and from where should I start talking about this concert. The Boss's performance is unbelievable, the band's performance is excellent, and last but not least THE CROWED was phenomenon. I saw Bruce at Providence for the Rising tour and I have to agree that the crowed at Barcelona make the US audiences look very lazy, and boring!!!!!!!!!! I think this concert is one of the best that I ever saw!! BUY it and you will remember me. I am giving it 6 stars!! THANK YOU BRUCE!!
Rating: Summary: GREAT PERFORMANCE, SOUNDS GREAT TO ME Review: I don't know why so many comment on the audio quality - on only a reasonably decent audio system, this sounds clear with no distortion. I also have problems with the second disc, but can play it on many players with taking a few extra steps to directly choose the chapter. No matter, the PLUSES (Incident, She's The One, Promised Land,,,) make this a MUST HAVE!
Rating: Summary: The Legend Continues. Review: The Man is a living legend....how lucky we all are that we still have him and his music in our lives....Articulate,Inspired, Brave,and without peer.My Personal favorites are "You're Missing, She's The One,and "Worlds Apart.but it's all good..it's all Bruce. Personal note to my first girlfriend: How could you not forever love the woman who turned you on to Springsteen,taught you how to drive a stick,and didnt give you a hickey all in the same summer...you couldnt....I havent. Thank you Brandy.
Rating: Summary: Bruce Doesn't Dissappoint ... Audio Does Review: Caught two shows during the Rising Tour... these DVDs accurately reflect the energy of the latest tour... video jumps around with multiple camera angles that while I found it really distracting in the NYC disks, for some reason it just didn't bother me as much here - I'm thinking the shot choices were better... However, I hate to say it - but the audio really has problems in 5.1... I've cranked it through a substantial HT and noticed distinct fadeouts of volume levels at sever junctures in the show...in particular the L and R front channels becomed under powered and the Center Channel fades in and out in a few spots (trust me, it's not the HT equipment)... I'm cautiously optimistic that perhaps this can be remedied in future releases of the product... I may try it in standard 2 channel to see if it sounds any better...
Rating: Summary: Amazing show but sound could be better Review: The show itself deserves five stars, it's truly incredible. The ecstatic audience are the kind of crowd performers dream of. They make the US audiences look very lazy indeed, maybe we drink too much beer! The sound quality is not as good as it should be. It lacks the clarity and fullness of the Live In NYC DVD. For this reason I'm only giving this DVD four stars. That said, I still loved this DVD and it's better to own it than not. Crank it and sing your heart out.
Rating: Summary: great D.V.D of a great preformer. Review: Hay guy's! Bruce is a master peace of a performer. In his new D.V.D he showes together with the E street that they are still in a great shape & that their music is still realevent I love Bruce I will always love him. your's yo....
Rating: Summary: Sounds like an audience bootleg recording Review: Disappointed to say the least, the mix sounds like a "decent audience tape." I can't believe it. It's disgusting. I compared the broadcast version against the "real" DVD and the broadcast sounds like a soundboard. The "real" DVD is a disgrace. My guess is that Landau and Co. wants the fan to feel like he's at the show. Well duh, I'm not at the show, I'm in my living room, where I have close-ups of his nostrils and overbite. I should have a soundboard to go with those close-ups. Ranting? Yes! It's a good thing it only cost me $12 bucks. On a positive note the video looks good.
|