DVDylan ID: | D043.su |
Recording type: | Audience |
City/Venue: | Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA |
Date: | Monday, 11th November 2002 |
Although it's tempting to give this a Four Star Rating because of the minor technical glitches, I put Five because of the musical content. (We're getting spoilt with the professional-looking results of some of the more recent discs, I feel...)
The setlist is surprising, with four cover versions (Don Henley, Warren Zevon, Neil Young and the Rolling Stones!) and the band seem to really enjoy acting like a bar band on "Brown Sugar". Throughout the evening, Larry's playing is exceptional, and he seems to gradually draw a great performance from an initially uninspired drummer. Always good, on this night he is beyond inspired. Bob is REALLY focused on his singing all through the set, and it's nice to see him playing so much guitar, too. (There's very little harmonica at this show...)
For those of you among us who often feel that Bob's piano isn't even plugged in, on this disc you can hear telling contributions from it on "Tombstone Blues", "High Water" and "Bye And Bye". "Yea, Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread" is aired, and "Shelter From The Storm" is given a treatment that makes it sound like it, too, came from The Basement Tapes. Even "Summer Days" isn't just the rocking out finale that it sometimes descends into, rising and falling - played with care.
The technical glitches alluded to earlier are minor and cannot distract from the musical excellence of this show. It's a two camera mix - interesting in itself. Initially, the editors get a bit carried away with the tools at their disposal. There are split screens, spinning screens and sliding screens before they settle down to using the much less distracting simple cuts and fades between cameras. Sometimes one of the shots is slightly out of synch, too.
Overall, though, these are minor quibbles with a well put together project, and I thank everyone involved for bringing us this wonderful show.
Reviewed by Freewheelin on 18th May 2005
I've just finished my second viewing of this dvd.
This is a very nice 2 camera mix. There is a very interesting camera angle which is good for many tight group shots with George and Tony behind Dylan at the piano, with Larry in and out of the picture at Dylan's left. The second camera is a longer shot from slightly left of center stage. They are well mixed and both are quite steady and have very few obstructions and a good picture. very few glitches and problems at all. congratulations and thanks to the creators of this dvd.
The sound upgrade is a good audience recording. I especially enjoy the piano heavy mix.
Over all a generally strong performance from Dylan and the band if not stellar, and a very representative example of this 'covers' leg of the tour. I attended 3 shows in this format.Certainly worth having, an easy 4 stars.
thanks to all tapers traders and dvdylan.com
Reviewed by jman on 30th January 2005
First let me say that the sound on the disc is taken from a very good source and is as good as one could expect it to be.
In terms of the picture, there are two camera positions for most of the show. This is a big benefit because if one is blocked temporarily, the other feed is cut to. There are moments when someone steps in front of the camera, and a few moments towards the end when there is no picture at all (one of the cameras seemed to have stopped around the end of the set, before the encore). The cameras are both pretty stable and despite getting knocked around a little are usually not an issue.
Overall, this is a very good DVD, not perfect, but entirly enjoyable.
Reviewed by KinoEye on 12th December 2004