Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: The performance is five stars, the song selection is five stars (even without Radio Free Europe). The color on this looks incredible on my hdtv and sounds pretty good on the surround. So why three stars? The camera work. I swear they show every face in the crowd lipsyncing. They also flash around and can bring on a case of vertigo. This is a GREAT dvd to keep on in the background, but to me is very irritating to watch because of the camera work. Stipe gives a great performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Crank up the volume!
Review: This DVD is a fantastic concert from R.E.M. and I recommend it to absouletly anyone, especially the fans! It has a good (and interesting) mixture of songs that would please absolutely anybody!It kicks off with the hard hitting Begin The Begin, which is a great, and rarely heard song. Others like Permanent Vacation, Maps And Legends, and She Just Wants To Be are all seldom heard greats. They sound so good live! It has all the classics you want to hear, like Man On The Moon, Imitation Of Life, End Of The World, Country Feedback and Everybody Hurts, all beautifully well done. Surprises came in the form of the quality of the performances of Daysleeper and Orange Crush. Both great songs, but they sound WAY better live! And the band are all great on stage! Dancing and jumping around, it looks like they're having the time of their life... and why wouldn't they? They're one of the biggest bands in the world, with thousands of fans to cheer them on! The additional documentary is interesting as well, and provides a good distraction after you watch the concert a thousand times, like I did! This DVD is great, all music fans should definatly pick this up.
Rating: 
Summary: Crazy What You Could Have Had
Review: This DVD is worth getting just for the intense versions of 'Walk Unafraid' and 'So fast, So Numb' that crush the album versions like a grape. During most of the other songs, everyone seems like they're just kind of doing the old-timers tour, but on this one song it's like they pulled the safety off and shot it off for real. It's not that their old quite yet. Michael Stipe is energetic and even walks down off the stage near the safety barrier where the front row of fans eagerly greet him, arms outstretched. He's not crowd surfing or anything, but there's a nice connection there. 'Man on the Moon' was the song that seemed to hype the crowd up most. My only major complaint about this DVD is the stock repetition of a camera shot that comes out of a fountain at the venue. The first couple times this shot is repeated it's not so bad, but it gets really cheesy after that. Note: This DVD contains footage from actually one concert and a half. One is the concert film shot in Germany. The 'half' is included in one of the DVD extras shot in Scotland as part of a documentary. Unfortunately, the three dates shot for the documentary in Scotland lacks the same audio quality as the Germany show and most of it is chopped up. Would've been cool to get a little more from that bit in terms of performance. Otherwise, the documentary about Scotland was really cool, but though they speak English, I do better with the subtitles on.
Rating:
Summary: blast from the past
Review: This DVD reminded me why I was an REM fan in the first place. Recorded in Germany in 2003, the concert features plenty of hits (Man on the Moon, One I Love), some obscurities (Begin the Begin, Maps & Legends) and some recent songs I hadn't paid enough attention to (Electrolite and Imitation of Life, which sounds like a lost classic)
All three band members look like they're enjoying themselves, but the real focus is of course Michael Stipe. Stipe's in good spirits , interacting warmly with the crowd, and making you wonder why you stopped listening to this band. REM is a band that has been nothing but themselves for over 20 years, and this DVD shows they're still capable of rocking hard and making great new music. The disc also includes a charming documentary about REM's concerts at Stirling Castle in Scotland in 1999. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: blast from the past
Review: This DVD reminded me why I was an REM fan in the first place. Recorded in Germany in 2003, the concert features plenty of hits (Man on the Moon, One I Love), some obscurities (Begin the Begin, Maps & Legends) and some recent songs I hadn't paid enough attention to (Electrolite and Imitation of Life, which sounds like a lost classic)
All three band members look like they're enjoying themselves, but the real focus is of course Michael Stipe. Stipe's in good spirits , interacting warmly with the crowd, and making you wonder why you stopped listening to this band. REM is a band that has been nothing but themselves for over 20 years, and this DVD shows they're still capable of rocking hard and making great new music. The disc also includes a charming documentary about REM's concerts at Stirling Castle in Scotland in 1999. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Live in Germany.....R>E>M>
Review: THis is the best live concert of R>E>M>
Rating:
Summary: Great gig, well filmed
Review: To say that R.E.M did not have an album to promote during this tour is a little inaccurate, since they were of course promoting their "In Time" record, featuring the best of R.E.M's Warner Brothers tenure. That is not to say however that their set consists only of their most recent hits (I say recent, being the last 15 years!) including 23 songs from "Maps and Legends" right up to "Animal" and 'end-of-the-world-alike' "Bad Day". It is fair to say that the crowd makes an R.E.M concert as much as the band, both in terms of atmosphere and to some extent enthusiasm for the more oft-played songs like "Losing My Religion". But the whole band (and especially Michael) give their all and prove that musical excellence and rock star performances are not mutually exclusive. This tour included for the first time an online request form, so that fans could possibly have the band play their favorite song. Not surprisingly, one of the most requested songs was "Country Feedback", the best song from the "Out Of Time" album. And from this rendition you can see why. Another top request of course was "Man on the Moon", which is always played with such gusto that the uninitiated may be forgiven for thinking is the last song of the night (those of us at the Hollywood Bowl were lucky to see Tony Clifton duet with Michael, which is sadly missing from this gig). But the crescendo of course is "It's The End Of The World As We Know It..." If ever there was the perfect concert-goers finale, this is it! This DVD is not just for those who saw the tour, or dedicated R.E.M fans (although the bonus feature of the build up to the band's Stirling Castle concerts will keep the die-hards particularly happy). A quality performance of their best songs (not just greatest hits), well captured and well directed: this film will have even those with the vaguest interest in the band saying to themselves, "I didn't know [song title] was R.E.M..."
Rating:
Summary: Great gig, well filmed
Review: To say that R.E.M did not have an album to promote during this tour is a little inaccurate, since they were of course promoting their "In Time" record, featuring the best of R.E.M's Warner Brothers tenure. That is not to say however that their set consists only of their most recent hits (I say recent, being the last 15 years!) including 23 songs from "Maps and Legends" right up to "Animal" and 'end-of-the-world-alike' "Bad Day". It is fair to say that the crowd makes an R.E.M concert as much as the band, both in terms of atmosphere and to some extent enthusiasm for the more oft-played songs like "Losing My Religion". But the whole band (and especially Michael) give their all and prove that musical excellence and rock star performances are not mutually exclusive. This tour included for the first time an online request form, so that fans could possibly have the band play their favorite song. Not surprisingly, one of the most requested songs was "Country Feedback", the best song from the "Out Of Time" album. And from this rendition you can see why. Another top request of course was "Man on the Moon", which is always played with such gusto that the uninitiated may be forgiven for thinking is the last song of the night (those of us at the Hollywood Bowl were lucky to see Tony Clifton duet with Michael, which is sadly missing from this gig). But the crescendo of course is "It's The End Of The World As We Know It..." If ever there was the perfect concert-goers finale, this is it! This DVD is not just for those who saw the tour, or dedicated R.E.M fans (although the bonus feature of the build up to the band's Stirling Castle concerts will keep the die-hards particularly happy). A quality performance of their best songs (not just greatest hits), well captured and well directed: this film will have even those with the vaguest interest in the band saying to themselves, "I didn't know [song title] was R.E.M..."
Rating:
Summary: Way, way better than Roadmovie
Review: Wonderful show! The performances are excellent, and the song selection is great, spanning their entire career. (Some of them were selected by fans via their website, which was a feature throughout their recent tour.) They even do a performance of "Permamnent Vacation," which is a song about as old as the band that they haven't played for years, and was previously only available on old bootlegs of their earliest shows & demos. Beautiful shots of a beautiful location with excellent picture quality. (Watch it with component video if you can, or, failing that, S-video -- WOW! But, don't worry -- the composite video still looks very good, too.) This is a huge leap forward from their disappointing Roadmovie, but not as classic as Tourfilm (but that'd be a tall order indeed!) I would've liked to have the lyrics in the subtitles as they are with the Roadmovie DVD, but I consider that a pretty trivial complaint -- they probably didn't have the publishing rights lined up properly to do that. (Besides, the Roadmovie subtitles often got the lyrics wrong, anyway!) The bonus documentary is fun, too -- it documents their performances at a castle in the relatively small town of Stirling, Scotland during the Up tour, and the preparations for the shows. Overall, you will NOT be disappointed with this concert film, as you might have been with Roadmovie (as I was).
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