David Bowie - A Reality Tour

Rating:
Summary: 3 stars for the setlist, but...
Review: ...Minus two stars for delivery and overall feeling. Even after being put off by the obviously nipped & tucked/airbrushed Ralph-Lauren Polo ads and the somewhat Never Let Me Down-era Bowie that is among us right now, I still decided to pick up the Reality Tour dvd just because it has tracks like Fame, Sister Midnight, Fantastic Voyage, The Motel, Life On Mars, Be My Wife and All The Young Dudes. The disappointment is that the songs feel kinda hollow and half-hearted. Yes, everyone is playing spectacularly, but it wouldn't make a difference if robots were in their place. There is an insincerity in Bowie's performance from the way he carefully looks over his shoulder at the crowd to the way he carefully points to the crowd to the way he carefully touches his face, all carefully done in order to look just perfectly so. this, in turn, makes everything seem awkward, staged, laboured and just not very spontaneous/real. everything is so cautious and calculated. i was kinda disappointed that there were no Station To Station songs on the setlist, but then after watching it i don't think i could have bared a watered-down and carefully paced version of Golden Years or TVC15. The fact that they keep cutting to Mike Garson's sheet-music LCD screen keeps reminding me that everything and everyone one on stage is probably synced thru Pro Tools or Logic and every sound is tweaked just so so that everything is clean and audible and everything that's supposed to be distorted and noisy isn't too distorted and noisy, i.e. nothing is left to glorious and wonderful chance. the amount of control and processing just sucks the life out of the songs. God forbid anything real or spontaneous to happen. and i know that when musicians play live the audience expects to hear the songs from the albums, note-for-note, but this is just sad. it's kind of ironic that he made Low, embracing technology & experimenting, adding a detatched iciness to pop and rock only to later embrace technology and become totally detatched from the music. i don't even connect today's Bowie with the 1978 Bowie who sang 'Heroes', and this dvd sadly reinforces that sentiment. and the video sequences are so boring and generic(like car commercials?). i thought Bowie was an engaging artist. where are the challenging visuals?

trust me, this is all coming froma huge Bowie fan. no one was more revelatory to me than Bowie. But now he comes off just as processed as Avril or Ashlee Simpson. it's probably the modus operendi of the music industry now, but still depressing all the same. I will say, though, Fame is interestingly updated and Life On Mars? and Bring Me The Disco King have hints of humanity about them...but they're *just* hints(and fleeting at that).

I bought this DVD purely for the tracklist. Casual fans of Bowie might enjoy this for the "what's-he-up-to" factor, but hardcore fans should just stick with the Ziggy Stardust Movie and the Best Of Bowie videos until Stage and Live are released in the next month or so. It's a good thing A Reality Tour is priced less that $20 because it's really not worth more than $25 or $30.

Rating:
Summary: heroic accomplishment
Review: an extremely powerful and exhaustive masterpiece of sound and vision that proves all the reasons for why this was the most impressive live show of 2003/2004. Bowie is a hero indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Great show!!!
Review: I travelled from the US to Dublin for this show. The DVD shows all the excitement and enthusiam from the audience. I've been to 12 Bowie shows during this Reality Tour and to have one of the best captured on DVD is awesome. Some have complained about the audio, they don't know what they're talking about, it's an incredible DVD.
A must have for any Bowie fan!!!

Rating:
Summary: A solid buy
Review: One of the best concert DVDs I've seen in the past year. I was initially put off by the setlist, with its heavy reliance on very recent material and only a few classics, but my disappointment was erased after my first viewing. Bowie is still as cool, enigmatic, and theatrical as ever. His backing band is clearly a group of seasoned pros, and they're great fun to watch. The concert's production isn't for everyone, but I'm a fan. Yes, the director loves to try all sorts of filters and digital effects, however he never goes overboard. Most of the concert is crisply and beautifully shot.

My only complaint is the audio mix. It's not horrible (and I do like the prominence of the bass), but at certain points Bowie's voice literally dips down a few notches in volume as he's hitting a powerful high note.

Bottom line: if you're a Bowie fan, even a casual one, this is an essential piece, giving us all an updated look at how one of rock 'n roll's icons can bring down the house even today. and heck, with such an insanely low price, why not get it?!

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT reality
Review: One of the import versions of David Bowie's REALITY cd includes a bonus dvd disc of a concert from somewhere in Asia. The bonus dvd on that import is just a straightforward multicamera shoot, with no fancy special effects. And yet it is a thousand times better than this A REALITY TOUR dvd! Granted, the A REALITY TOUR has a more extensive set list, but the editing of this video - the processing of every minute of the video to make it look unreal - ruins the experience by distancing the viewer from the performance. One complaint about the performance is that I'd rather have seen Bowie have a full range of backup singers rather than employing whatever tricks were employed to flesh out the sound. That probably would not have seemed a problem if the rest of the video (the visual treatment) had been more honest. But altogether, it is as if the real show is hidden from the viewer.

Rating:
Summary: STAY AWAY!
Review: Stay away from this one!
The Dolby digital sound track is one of the worst I have ever come across!
No base in the sound track at all! And why do the manufactures keep on putting
out concert dvd's without DTS? Big Disappointment!

Rating:
Summary: Bowie in top form
Review: This is really a very good concert DVD. It chronicles Bowie playing to a large, adoring, wildly enthusiastic Dublin crowd in November, 2003. I caught the Atlanta stop of the Reality Tour and enjoyed it very much. It's wonderful to be able to revisit it in my living room with this DVD. If you are a Bowie fan, this is an essential purchase. Casual fans might be put off by the large number of recent songs Bowie performs. His new stuff is good, but of course everybody likes to hear the classics. These are well represented in the show, but they don't predominate.

I didn't find the DVD to be spiced with too many video gimmicks, as some have complained. In fact, far from being intrusive or distracting, I found that they helped translate what was obviously a dynamic concert to the flat screen.

I was struck by how young the Dublin crowd is for the concert. Most performers Bowie's age have mostly middle-aged fans who show up to relive past memories. Far from being a nostalgic review, however, Bowie's show pulsates with the energy of a still vital performer. His new songs make insightful observations on contemporary life while his classic songs have not aged a day since they were recorded. It's hard to believe that songs like Changes and Life on Mars (a real magical moment in the concert, btw) are now more than thirty years old! And yet here's a packed arena of young people going crazy for them. Bowie is a remarkable and unique artist. If you ever have an opportunity to see him live, jump at it. In the meantime, this DVD is the next best thing.

Rating:
Summary: My first ever live DVD
Review: This is the first ever live DVD, so there's a special place in my heart for that. The disc shows a 2004 concert in Dublin, Ireland. The setlist:

1. Rebel, Rebel (3:06)
2. New Killer Star (4:43)
3. Reality (4:10)
4. Fame (4:00)
5. Cactus (2:30)
6. Sister Midnight (4:23)
7. Afraid (3:21)
8. All The Young Dudes (3:15)
9. Be My Wife (2:46)
10. The Loneliest Guy (3:40)
11. The Man Who Sold The World (3:44)
12. Fantastic Voyage (2:56)
13. Hallo Spaceboy (5:11)
14. Sunday (6:27)
15. Under Pressure (3:55)
16. Life On Mars (4:23)
17. The Letter (4:36)
18. Ashes To Ashes (5:18)
19. The Motel (5:32)
20. Loving The Alien (4:31)
21. Never Get Old (4:07)
22. Changes (3:35)
23. I'm Afraid Of Americans (5:04)
24. Heroes (5:42)
25. Bring Me The Disco King (7:37)
26. Slip Away (5:48)
27. Heathen (5:36)
28. Five Years (4:01)
29. Hang On To Yourself (2:34)
30. Ziggy Stardust (3:36)


Backing David are a strong band from his 30 year Rolodex, including keyboardist Mike Garson(one of the Spiders From Mars) and guitarist Earl Slick(who looks like a young Keith Richards). But David is clearly the star here. He went out of the way to make this DVD unique, so there are numerous MTV style camera tricks, so in some songs it's almost like you're watching a music video for that song. Cool feature, but I can see how it can get on someone's nerves. David is as charismatic as ever, and from a song standpoint, highlights include an extended version of Sunday, featuring a David Gilmour style solo, and the older songs(Changes, Under Pressure, Life On Mars, etc) which have a new energy to them. Obviously, David's voice is still in great shape, and he shows off his range by doing an Andrew Eldritch style croon on Sister Midnight. The only gripe would be that some of the songs have a stripped down feel to them, in that the more experimental numbers have been altered into more straight ahead rock songs. Consequently, the Nine Inch Nails style guitars are no longer on the Outside songs and Heroes feels a little bit neutered without it's electronic sensibilities. As a fan of the proto-industrial stuff, this disappoints me a little bit. Overall though, it's pretty solid. Not the best show that David has ever done, but it will do.

Rating:
Summary: Maestro
Review: Un concierto increible de un músico sensacional.
Totalmente recomendable para los seguidores de Bowie y los que disfrutan la buena música.

Rating:
Summary: STUNNING AND ELECTRIC
Review: Wow, double wow and triple wow. Having been a fan of this man since first seeing him at the Boston Music Hall in 1972 when he only filled half the seats, I'm totally BLOWN AWAY by this DVD and couldn't offer a negative word about it. The only way it could be improved would be if it was in 3D and Julie Christie was sitting on my lap. My most intense rock rush of all time was seeing Bowie at Radio City Music Hall in 73, as Aladdin Sane. When he and the Spiders opened with a ferocious, high flying "Hang On To Yourself" it just took the top of my head off. Well, this show, live, hit that peak about ten times in the course of the evening. This DVD transmits the excitement of a live show like very few are able to do. Beyond Bowie himself, his incredible, incredible band is something to behold, the best he's ever had. The material is exceptional, a beautfully balanced song list, great audio, great camerawork, great editing, and a wild audience that's totally plugged in. You either get Bowie or you don't. This audience gets it, and fuels him. What's particularly satisfying is that the performance gives blood and beauty to some of Bowie's recent songs which may have been less that satisfying on CD. All in all, you've got to bow down to the magnitude of this guy's artistic accomplishment and credibility. Rock for smart people, rock as art. A two hour shot of adrenaline, a STUNNING video experience.