London/Hammersmith (12-Feb-93)

I've a dodgy scart connection on the back of my TV. Scart-leads just don't take well to being taken in and out,- not that I do, but the kids ???. After ruining their own TVs with plugging the Playstaion in/out they moved through to my set. Told not to, warned against, threatened, all to no avail, (they've never paid me any heed these last 20+ years anyway so why should this be different ?). Now I'll have to attack the innards of the set with a soldering-iron, for every time I try and play a DVD I've to fiddle with the Scart-lead 'till I can get some 'Blue' onto the screen, (and sound and stereo....)
Now all of you who watch this DVD can see just what I've to put up with, (empathise even), for without Blue the Reds just take over, or everthing turns various shades of Green. Early '90's Video technology wasn't just that great, nae bad outside, but inside with low light levels ? There's no subtleties, if it's dark it comes out black, and with the 'Low-Light' settings on the cameras, all colours are enhanced way beyond normal.
So it is with this DVD, all Black except where the spots are aimed, and there it's all strong Reds/Blues/Greens. No shades it's all-or-nothing.
Now that we have the Sound-Upgrade, lets have a Picture-Colour-Downgrade. Save twiddling with the colour/contrast knobs on the TV everytime we try and watch this.
Anyway, once you've donned your dark glasses, what do you see ? It starts off bad, very bad. Cameraman and/or camera bouncing about all over the place, but it's worth persevering, leave it playing, make a cup of coffee, for when you come back you'll find that the picture has settled down, the taper's got a fine view of the stage and although there's still the odd 'shakey' moment, by and large it's very watchable. You don't get to see much of the rest of the band as he mostly concentrates on Bob, and thankfully only a couple of times focus' right in on his face, for the camera can't take it. Like every time Capt. Kirk set eyes on that weeks 'love-interest' the camera goes slightly out of focus, (she's so beautifull that we've got to fit a screen between her and the lens... but of course she'd either be transfered away for good or die horribly - such is the way-of-life in Star Fleet).
Nothing wrong with the sound, and the up-grade matches fine, so no complaints there. Just a pity that it's only another bog-standard Bob performance. He seems happy enough, just nothing stands out, no track that makes you want to hit the 'back' button.
Rating ? I'd give it a solid three & a half, but as there's no 'half' option, I'll go up to 4. You won't be disappointed.
Just remember when you've finished watching this, return all the colour/contrast settings back to where they were, (and you did note them down of course ?) it'll save all the cries of "The TV's broken", or worse - the kids getting into the controls to do it themselves.

DISC D210.su
SOUND Sweet and clean five-star hooch.
IMAGE Tonight’s taper occupies an 99% unobstructed right-centre balcony berth. His instincts are good and, on high zoom he follows the action round the band to bring us a close, bright, active, sumptuously (and sometimes garishly) coloured film of a solid night’s work. Apart from focus problems (second screenshot) in T Man and Cat's In The Well, images are, if not quite razor sharp, still keen enough. So far, so good? Yes, but sadly, like D233, the only other of its kind I can think of, this film is unwatchable. Why? Because it's shot through, palsied end to end with shakes. I’ve grown to be tolerant of a certain amount of jag and jiggle, dip and dance - it goes with the territory and can be worth putting up with (D167.su or D390.su, for example, and there will be others). But this one is beyond the pale, beyond the horizon, beyond a joke. Though it looks better than the screenshots suggest, it plays hopelessly badly.
RUNNING TIME 123:20. With set opener Maggie’s having gone unrecorded, we start deep into second song JLAW, the first of seven clip/cut victims (toggle blue link above for details). Though an eighth - Tangled - has missing video also, its audio is complete, playing for the song's last 2:40 under a black screen insert (which makes you wonder why this same welcome patch-up technique wasn't applied throughout).
PERFORMANCE With audio so fine, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this. Some of the songs are stretched out to interminable lengths - Tangled and Fate, the two from BOTT, both clock in at almost eleven minutes, with the second withstanding the stretch rather better than the first. Despite all the missing bits, a DVD running time of over two hours tells its tale. But this seductively gorgeous She Belongs To Me didn’t last nearly long enough (although there's always a replay button, I suppose). I was really savouring Tomorrow Night, too, when, on 3:30, it cut. Worse, Jim Jones then began with the trial over, sentence passed and the judge warning Jim he'll surely hang. If there must be cuts, I could forsake a chunk of Tangled or Mobile without too much regret, but two of the choicest picks from his then latest all-acoustic album... Enough to make you spit, isn’t it? If I had any hair, I’d pull it out.
HIGHLIGHTS I Don't Believe You, She Belongs, Simple Twist and a mellow, introspective (but cut - again!) closing Me Babe.
COMMENT Further to Jim Jones above, why are judges in Dylan songs - Seven Curses, Percy's Song, Hattie Carroll, Jokerman, Joey, High Water, Hurricane, It’s Alright Ma - always such bad sorts?
THANKS Black Cat
STARS The audio here comes from a boot called 5th Time Around, so called because this was Bob's fifth Feb '93 night of six at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. (He'd previously played the same venue for six nights in Feb '90 then eight in Feb '91, except then it was called the Hammersmith Odeon.) I assume the boot presents the whole show and, if you want to enjoy this performance, that's probably the best way to do it. If only the cameraman had been able to control his shakes, D210.su could have been something special. As it stands, though, it's a bust. Not recommended. Two.