Live In Barcelona

Some artists are great songwriters but their live performances are either pedestrian, predictable, or uneven. They may be great if you catch them on the right night, but may phone it in for other shows. Bob Dylan is in this category. Other artists or bands put on an exciting show, but their catalog of truly great music is limited. This will raise some disagreement, but I see The Who in this category - while I certainly acknowledge that some of the greatest hard rock ever written comes from Pete and the boys, their creative flame burned brightly for only a few years. Of course, there are the Dinosaurs, the once great groups that haven't produced any good music in many years, yet tour and tour as tribute bands to themselves. The Rolling Stones top this list.Then there is Bruce. His live performances have been legendary for over 30 years. There are no mediocre Springsteen concerts - there are great shows and the shows that are better than that. If you were to see Bruce perform for the first time you would think that surely he was playing his last show ever. He saves nothing for the next night. No one puts it all together better - he is simultaneously one of rocks greatest writers and performers. In their biography, VH1 matter of factly refers to him as "the world's greatest living rock n' roll star." His records are arguably among the greatest in rock history (a recent poll in Rolling Stone ranked Born to Run (1975) as rocks greatest album). His range is astounding. His concerts are a lot like a Broadway musical, with much better (and louder) music. The audience leaves a Springsteen show having experienced the important human emotions. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll feel the sheer exhilaration of being glad you're alive.Rock and roll doesn't come across well on television. It is meant to be experienced live and loud. However this DVD (which was released in November, 2003, not 2000 as your Amazon date indicates - the Barcelona show was in the late summer of 2002) brings the viewer about as close to live Bruce as the medium allows. It probably does about as well as Saving Private Ryan in creating the feeling of being in combat without having to actually deal with imminent death.The crowd response is enthusiastic and very much like many of the 43 Springsteen shows I have attended. The show was performed toward the beginning of the hugely successful international tour in support of his 2002 album, "The Rising." Unlike the Dinosaurs, about ten of 24 songs are from that album. You'll enjoy the show more if you first listen to "The Rising." Bruce and the E Street Band performed 120 shows on the tour, which were attended by over three million people.It speaks volumes of his stature that he sold out arenas and stadiums all over North America and Europe a full 18 years after his popularity peaked with the album and tour, Born in the USA, which was released in 1984. In 30 years of international touring, this is the first complete Bruce Springsteen show ever released. I recommend getting a large screen TV, with a great sound system, and for three hours, "turn it up, turn it up, turn and up," and watch and listen to one of the greatest shows on earth. (Its worth noting that $14 is a GREAT price for a double DVD when single CDs can cost as much.)

For as longs as I have been a Springsteen fan (some 20+ years), I have always been craving for Bruce to release a full concert performance. Although the release of "Live in New York City" came close to fulfilling the wish, the DVD was still not the full concert experience.With this new release Springsteen finally comes through and releases a full unmodified concert--warts and all. And what a concert it is. The energy, the enthusiasm, the focus, and all the other "elements" of a Springsteen concert are in full force on this 2 1/2 hour, 2 disc DVD set. From the first notes of "The Rising" to the final encore of "Thunder Road," Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band power through an impressive set list and maintain an intestity unequaled in today's rock concerts. If you haven't experienced Bruce in concert, this is as close as you can get it. But it isn't all perfection either, Springsteen even allows his onstage "mistakes" to make there way onto this set, creating an even more intimate and live concert experience. Bravo for letting the show stand on its own without having to modify in the cutting room.The video is once again directed by "Live in New York City's" Chris Hilson, who manages to pefectly capture Springsteen's performance. Unlike a lot of video concerts, Hilson lets the songs (and the performance) guide the cutting and camera choices. Though I found some of the editing and camera choices to be lacking on a few of the songs, overall this is a surprisingly well done production. The PCM audio is somewhat bland while the 5.1 Dolby Digital audio really opens up and provides the full sound of the band while not minimizing the audience's participation. If you don't have a 5.1 decoder, chances are you'll find the audio more than lacking.Aside from the concert video, there is an all to brief documentary "Drop The Needle and Pray" that offers snippets of interviews with the band and a bevy of video clips. [Side note here: Why do all the documentaries included on DVDs always contain mostly clips of the film/video you just watched? If I just watched the movie, I don't want to see a whole host of scenes and moments repeated ad naseum just to fill out a running time!] There is also a montage of concert highlights accompanied by the band's rendition of "Diddy Wah Diddy". The extras are nice, but nothing to rave about.All in all, this is an excellent DVD. However, the 4 star ratings is due to the enourmous amount of complaints about the second disc being defective. I have 4 players at my home (1 professional and 3 cheapos) and the disc plays on only half the players. Sony has a lot of explaining to do on this one. So if you do get this set, be prepared to have the second disc not work in your player. (Perhaps a more apt title for the disc would have been "Drop The Laser and Pray"?)

Well, Bruce and the band are certainly noisy. This is one of three videos ordered after noticing B.S. as a sideman working with Roy Orbison in a video featuring "End of the Line" and "Pretty Woman." Observed was B.S. as not only a confident and competent guitarist, but a performer who blended in and became a natural part of the "show," and who looked like he was enjoying it. When I was out in the Pacific riding around in a submarine, Bruce was home in New Jersey (gasp!) learning the licks and developing the poetry which would eventually propel him to stardom and international acclaim as a bandleader and premiere entertainer. Have to say, I can't tell if he ever sung on or off-key, or if the words of any songs were audibly legible but, no matter, twenty or thirty thousand of his closest fans crowded around the stage and sang along on cue, when he would thrust his mic towards the audience and encourage them to join him in a singalong, sometimes pretending he forgot the words and encouraging attendees to hep him out, which they always did. The noise is great, can't tell about the songs, but who cares? What a delightful video!

I will put my hand up and say I am a Bruce Springsteen fan, but that is a relatively recent conversion. I, probably like many, had a copy of Springsteen's Greatest Hits in my CD collection, but rarely played it. Then I bought, on a whim, the "London Calling" DVD - it might have been on sale, can't recall - and watched it right through. What struck me most was i liked practically every song, but unlike the crowd who knew every word, I didn't even know the names of the songs, most of which were NOT on Greatest Hits. This resulted in my purchasing, over a couple of months, every album Springsteen had made, and I was hooked. My absolute favourite was and still is "The Rising", and this concert in Barcelona is part of The Rising tour. Once again, like "London Calling", the atmosphere and energy are almost overwhelming, but the music is sublime - the live versions of "The Rising" album tracks that are played are vastly superior and more moving than on the album. Just watch the 1st 5 minutes - the E Street Band coming on stage and the 1st song, which is "The Rising" - and you will be hooked. And like all Springsteen concerts, he puts on a live show of just under 3 hours, double that of most other artists. Exceptional.

There was lines running through the DVD very disappointed amazon let this out for sale

Built around the release of The Rising this is the culmination of Springsteen's reunion tour with the E-street band. In a slightly pointless special feature Springsteen discusses how quickly people seem to have taken to the new material and this is reflected in the set. As ever with Springsteen live it deftly switches between new material from Springsteen's musical response to 9/11 with both traditional and innovative renditions of Springsteen's classic hits. As ever Springsteen forms an impressive bond with the crowd, despite his fairly limited Spanish. While there are the expected number of rollicking numbers personal favourites where some of the more reflective and melancholic pieces, such as Empty Sky with Scialfa on awesome form on the backing vocals or You're Missing. By far and away the highlight for me was Incident on 57th Street. Already a much loved number from his second studio album, simply playing it on the piano without any band members highlights the beauty of the lyrics and of Springsteen's voice.

Brilliant concert

A great DVD