London, England (22-Nov-05)

Despite the valiant and patient effort of tonights video taper, circumstances seem to have conspired to deny him/her, and thus, the rest of us, much fruit.
Most songs are quite obstructed and shakey. Tape seems to be off-master, audio from the original camera recording.

The real lesson of this DVD, although not intended by its creator i'm sure, is an insight into the dicipline and dedication that goes into the work of the ELITE FEW who have provided the rest of us the vast majority of the wonderful material that is listed on this site.
First, our video taper eludes security on the way in and throughout the show, no mean feat from what i've gathered about the 2005 England run. Then, our taper patiently and stoically works throughout the entirety of the show to try to get us a decent view, for the most part to no avail. Even as it becomes clear that most of the tape will be a wash, our taper hangs in there rewarding us all with a lovely Mississippi among other less obstructed tracks later in the set.

This DVD will probably not get more than a couple viewings at my house, but I am very glad to have seen it, and grateful for the ongoing efforts of all involved. Maybe a few tracks will be harvested for a SU compilation some day if we are lucky.
Thanks to the Taper, Author, DVDylan.com, and always Mr. Bob Dylan.

DISC D646
SOUND Moderate quality camera recording.
IMAGE Tonight's taper is way up towards the back of the right balcony, tightly hemmed in with seemingly little room to manoeuvre and the film he delivers is, sadly, barely worth the trouble - though after a particularly torrid start, it does improve appreciably as the night wears on. The natural view from here is down onto Donnie, and for the first half of the gig it's him rather than D we see most of. Our first clear sight of Bob comes, from a distance, only in the last verse of LD Blues. He's on screen again for part of 4th Street, but zoom-induced focus and tremor problems blight this initial closer peek. In fact, the first decently-filmed song is (discounting the brief instrumental curtain-raiser) the eighth - I Don't Believe You - and from here on, thankfully, things look up. There are still periods of tremor, and heads, and times when the camera tracks inexorably to the right such that D slides slowly backwards (shades of Rampart Street!) off the screen. The first truly steady pics come, remarkably, only in LARS, which kicks off the encore. Overall, this valiant attempt at a film is one less to be enjoyed than endured.
RUNNING TIME 83 minutes (full show)
PERFORMANCE D sounds in remarkably good voice - otherwise difficult to tell.
HIGHLIGHT I Don't Believe You
COMMENT If you attended this gig and want some kind of souvenir, my advice would be to pass on this DVD and source a good quality audio recording instead. This video will probably provide film (requiring s/u) for a "Best of …" type 2005 compilation (both I Don't Believe You and Mississippi would be suitable for that) - otherwise its destiny is a place down among the also-rans, where it belongs. If you do watch D646, it will probably be once but not more. Not one to hustle for. Not recommended.
THANKS MM
STARS One and a half