London, England (29-Mar-95)

DISC D123
SOUND An unusual hybrid (D543.psu is another) with lovely, clean, five star audio laid incompletely over the original somewhat murky original camera track. Non-upgraded are all of opener Flood, Watchtower, T Man (a shame, but even the unimproved doesn't sound too bad) and closer LARS, plus just the last minute of Tangled. All else is fine and dandy.
IMAGE The screenshots tell the tale. Tonight's camera is back in the left-side balcony. Excepting just a few brief skid/skew lapses, it catches consistently steady, head-free film, much as per the third Bob/Bucky/Tony s/s, but most everything is gloomy, a bit fuzzy and just barely coloured. A combination of poor lighting, copying and distance between lens and stage have conspired to give us a rather dowdy and unexciting watch - but passable still. Well done that taper.
RUNNING TIME 101 minutes. Though there are between-song cuts, all of the performance is here.
PERFORMANCE I hadn't intended to see this DVD and it was just luck that I came to it fresh from D734.su. But I'm glad I did, for it confirms me in my low opinion of mid '92 Bob. Fronting essentially the same band (though now one drummer light) we see here on D123 a confident and charismatic D not just better but light years better than his troubled former self.
HIGHLIGHTS Plenty, though a delicately sung Boots is extra-special, tonight's loose but funky Lot To Laugh is fine, Dignity - really, what you will.
COMMENT Towards the end of Flood, Bucky whips a string off his lap steel in about three seconds flat. Oddly, it doesn't seem to be broken, so you work it out.
THANKS Dan the Man
STARS Another shining Spring '95 performance. Shame about the moderate film and incompletely upgraded audio, but still lots here to enjoy. (If you've seen D182, you'll have a good idea of what to expect - and, if you haven't, what are you waiting for?) A solid four.

NOTE For same show with better audio, see D123.su / D123.su2

***Please note I originally wrote this review before the sound upgrade details were posted at the top of the page, so the details on the amount of stars given for audio are no longer relevant, although the review itself is still accurate in my opinion....

If you're already a fan of the 1995 shows then don't overlook this one. Although it's quality is probably eclipsed by others in the catalogue, this DVD has moments of being up there with the best of them. The picture, besides being a little dark and lacking in colour (more to do with the lighting I guess, rather than the tape), is excellent, very few "out of control" moments, hardly any heads. Focused mainly on Bob, Tony and Bucky throughout, but everyone has there moments on screen.

For much of the time the sound is very good, worth 4 or probably 5 stars. However, there seems to be a switch between recordings, before and even during some songs, at which point there is a severe decline in sound quality - hence the two stars given for audio. Levee, Watchtower, LARS and Tangled suffer from this, among others. For the most part the sound is fine, so don't let that put you off getting this DVD - the highlights outnumber the disappointments, in terms of value (who really needs to hear another 90's version of Watchtower or Rolling Stone?), and even the 2-star portions are listenable at least.

In terms of performance, I'll leave that to others more experienced to judge (now done so by Jim). Not to go into specifics, but it seems a very strong performance to me, on a par with the others from this tour I've heard at least. Certainly worth checking out.