Customer Reviews

David Bowie - A Reality Tour

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Some of Bowie's DVD concerts are good and some are great. This is one of the great ones. Remixed into 5.1 Surround Sound, the audio is amazingly crisp and clear. The light show is blinding in some cases (as was the actual show in person) and the director/editors use this to their advantage in splicing scenes. Some of the special effects (freeze-frame, reverse imaging, blurs, etc.) can get tedious, but it doesn't hurt the overall feel of the concert. Each band member gets plenty of close-ups and the backing vocals are near perfect. After nearly two years on the road, Bowie has connected to his audience like never before, losing any pretension. He's there to have a good time.

With nearly 60 songs used throughout the tour, it's tough to settle on which 30 Bowie decided to use, but the variety is great. "Quicksand" and "Let's Dance" were, unfortunately, not used, but some of the stand-out cuts were the incredible audience sing-along, "All The Young Dudes", the hard, fast romping of, "Hang On To Yourself" and "Under Pressure" where bassist Gail Ann Dorsey seems to channel Freddie Mercury's voice. It's eerie and wonderful! The box itself is disappointing, in that it is thin cardboard and the insert gives little information about the tour. I would have liked to know the concert song lists and the cities played. If that's all I can find wrong with this set, I'd say Bowie delivered a prized concert DVD. Did I mention its incredibly low priced?

I was one of the many who saw the "Reality" tour and was mightily impressed. I had never seen Bowie so close up, nor so spirited and "alive". So it's a pleasure to have the "magic" captured on this DVD. It serves as a nice souvenir and is more than reasonably priced.
So what's wrong with it? Well, it's unbearably "artsy". Every MTV-inspired cliché is in full swing. Jump cuts, freeze frames, fades to black, fades to white, colorizations, negative images, upside down images, crazy camera angles. You name it. And I can't believe that this is even an issue, but there is an amazing lack of sustained close ups and images of Bowie, the man himself. One almost thinks that the director or editor had some kind of beef with Bowie. When it comes time for Bowie to hit home with one of his lyrical and poignant lines, say from "Loving the Alien" or "Fantastic Voyage", the image is of a keyboardist's hand or a smiling audience member, or bass player Gail Ann Dorsey, on whom the director or editor seem to have some kind of fixation. It's all very curious.
There is more expression in Bowie's eyes, posture and hand gestures than any jump cut, freeze frame or artsy device "to keep things interesting". What a pity. This is clearly a missed opportunity.

This was a tour of surprises, and they're all captured here on this terrific DVD.

Okay, first the obligatory: Bowie looks and sounds terrific. The band is fantastic. The stage set is pretty cool.

But the real star of this show is the song list. This is Bowie celebrating and revelling in an impressive and important career.

There are equally as many surprising ommisions as their are inclusions. For instance, there's no "Let's Dance", "Jean Genie", "Suffragette City", etc. But the surprises we DO get include "Be My Wife", a haunting version of "The Motel", a gripping acoustic rendition of "Loving the Alien", and a superb version of the Bowie/Pop classic "Sister Midnight".

The show opens with the new arrangment of "Rebel Rebel", followed quickly by "New Killer Star" and the smokin' "Reality", definitely one of the highlights of the show. Other highlights include the modern Bowie masterpiece "Sunday" with Earl Slick's wonderful but far-too-short guitar solo, a rousing "Man Who Sold the World", the audience sing-along of "Life on Mars?", the very clever pairing of "Never Get Old" with "Changes", and of course Gail Ann Dorsey singing and playing the hell out of "Under Pressure." We're also treated to concert staples like "Fame", "I'm Afraid of Americans", and "Hallo Spaceboy".

The biggest and best highlight for me, though, comes at the end: the concert draws to a close with "Heroes", which starts out very quiet and minimal, and then slowly builds throughout the song, all gearing up to a powerful, inspiring, and yes, 'heroic' ending. Its an amazing arrangement of an amazing song, and could last a couple minutes longer in my opinion, but is unfortunately truncated a bit.

After a short break, the band retakes the stage for an incredible 6-song encore, divided evenly into 2 3-song sets. The first set is comprised of three of his recent moodier, more atmospheric pieces. First is the wonderful "Bring Me the Disco King", one of the true highlights of the REALITY album, and featuring the brilliant Mike Garson on piano. This is followed by "Slip Away" (I must be the only Bowie fan that doesn't like that song!) and a terrific reading of "Heathen". The band then kicks open the old-school throttle for "Five Years", "Hang on to Yourself" and the king-daddy of all Bowie tunes, "Ziggy Stardust."

As I was unable to attend Bowie's show here in Atlanta, I am grateful for this DVD, and not disappointed in it in the slightest. The songs are terrific, the performances spot-on, the energy level of the audience is extremely high, and the song-list is nigh-perfect.

If you already own the BEST OF BOWIE DVD, this makes a perfect complement to that. An incredibly enjoyable show.

Some of the best concerts ever-these Dublin shows! A band that cannot be matched-Garson, Dorsey, Cambell, Slick, Leonard, Russell! Anyone who likes music and missed this tour missed something really special. Nothing nostolgic. Sure a lot of old classic, but fresh as the day they were relased. Nice oddities like "Sister Midnight" "The Motel", a stripeed down "Loving the Alien" Plus sweet gems as "Five Years", "The Man Who Sold The World", "Life on Mars" and showcased newer songs "New Killer Star", "Heathan", "Hallo Spaceboy", "Slip Away", and of coasre radio hits "heores", "Ziggy Stardust", "Changes", "Under Pressue" (terrific duet with Gail), "Ashes to Ashes". But The real prize is the song "Bring Me the Disco King" has Davd Bowie at his Absolute Best--A must for any one mildly interested! keep up the good work David!

I have seen DB twelve times over the past twenty-eight years, two of those shows being on the Reality tour (Philadelphia and Atlantic City). The Philly show was perhaps the best Bowie concert I have ever experienced, with the possible exception of the 1976 Station to Station tour. The performance of the man himself, who was in absolutely top form, the band being tight and professional (DB settles for nothing less), the sheer energy of the show and the very cool and fun animation and graphics made this concert a memorable event. The concert was really quite moving and is still with me over six months later. It was a career spanning performance, and for such a huge and diverse body of work, the result was extraordinary. DB appeared appeared to be confident and having just plain fun.

This concert was filmed over two nights in Ireland, and from what I can see happening in the film, it looks like the audience experienced the same.

The DVD barely approximates the experience, but for me, serves as a souvenir. I disagree with reviewers that disliked the audio mix. I think the sound mix is stunning. [By the way, if you are one of the folks that are having trouble with he mix on your unit, go to DBs website and there are tips for correcting this on your system.] My primary complaint is the quick edits, intentionally blurry shots and shaky camera movement. There were far to few close ups of the band and the closeups of DB were short and overly effect laiden. But it's 2004 and this is the prevalent style of concert filmmaking. Additionally, the graphics, animation and films which were projected on a huge wide screen behind the stage are hardly noticable in this DVD, which is a pity, because they were quite unusual and very much a part of the show.

Rating this is a problem because the actual performance is off the meter, deserving a solid 5 stars - or more. The DVD video as a record of the event, deserves at best, 3 stars. The audio mix is a 4 and can be listened to in either stereo or a 5.1 mix. I listen to it frequently as an audio CD on my DVD player without the picture.

My recommendation; whether or not you are a Bowie fan, buy the DVD, in fact, don't hesitate.

I have to agree with some of the other comments here that there are moments in this video where the direction and editing are a distraction from what is a wonderful performance. It is the prodigious use of video gimmicks that prevents me from giving this five stars. There are some real chestnuts in this set, especially "Fantastic Voyage" from "Lodger" which Bowie had never done live prior to this tour. Bowie is in great voice throughout, and is backed by a band that is nothing short of amazing. I saw the show in Milwaukee May 19th, and can attest to the fact that the quality of the performances here is typical of the A Reality Tour.

I enjoy Tony Visconti's mix, though I wish it was louder and available in DTS. As far as the songs - they are great, but because Bowie performed about 60 different songs throughout the tour, there are bound to be favorites left out. Frankly, I wish this had been a two DVD set with the second DVD containing songs that were performed elsewhere in the tour; such as Station to Station, the Supermen, Bewlay Brothers and Suffragette City.

However, I am thankful for this DVD, it is long overdue, and a great keepsake from a fantastic tour.

After reading the disappointed-fan review of this DVD labeling it as unbearably artsy and MTV-cliched I was apprehensive to make the purchase. However, perhaps because the reviewer was actually fortunate enough to be
at the concert and s/he is making comparisons of which I have none (aside from my first concert ever - Bowie 1978!), I was enthralled with this DVD. Yes, it isn't straight shot concert footage, there is enhancement here and there with some 'artsy' stuff, but not much; certainly not enough to detract from the enjoyment of the performance and the music.
I didn't read the set list before I bought the disc; I wanted to be "surprised," like a concert-goer (call me a dork). It rocked. The set was long, fabulously and energetically performed, and everyone seemed to be rocking out having a great time. Bowie, older for sure, but still beautiful, flashing smile, playing and having fun with the audience, voice incredible, absolutely INCREDIBLE as always. He's amazing. When they performed "Under Pressure," Gail Ann Dorsey floored me with her range and strength of voice. I never heard her really do a lead vocal, I guess.
Additionally, the number of old favourites was staggering and really made the entire show an event. The opening with classic Bowie, interspersal of classic Bowie amongst all of the newer works, and the closing with classic culminating in a terrific performance of "Ziggy Stardust" just had me cheering on my sofa like I was there. Dork, as I said. I think "my kids" need to see this, and I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate it legitimately into middle school math curriculum!!

Certainly an adequate DVD, capturing a nearly 2 1/2 hour performance on David Bowie's latest tour. Like others who reviewed the DVD on Amazon, I caught this tour (the Philadelphia show that had been canceled due to Bowie's illness with the flu and later added to the end of the tour.) This is a different set than he played at the Philly show, in which I had hoped he'd play more of his late '70s period work. Though there isn't much of that here, he does play "Sister Midnight," "Be My Wife," and the absolute stunner "Heroes." It's a great show, and I'm happy to have it on DVD. (And have you noticed that the price is dirt cheap by DVD standards?) The extra feature of being able to program the order in which you can play up to 7 songs is pretty cool, as well. His career has produced so many great songs that some are simply bound to be missing no matter what you do, so don't sweat it that he doesn't play "China Girl" or "Golden Years." I'm a David Bowie fan and I like this DVD very much. If you like the span of his career, from "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Ziggy Stardust" to "Heathen" and "Reality," you'll like it too.

David Bowie's performance through this DVD took my breath away. You wouldn't think he was not a day over 30 watching this. The problem in the DVD is in the presentation not the performance. I don't think an angle stays still for more than three seconds through this whole DVD. We are constantly taken to a million different shots and special effects like slow motion are always ruining the show. I love the lights during a Bowie show, but do not need 7 different camera angles to see them. They only needed really 4 cameras and it would have been fine. Instead they have atleast 20 cameras.

The editing is so bad I got a bad headache after watching this for a half hour. Constant flashing lights and changing angles make this unwatchable. There is sunlight coming through the clouds in this DVD, but the clouds are still there.

I really don't know what Bowie was thinking when he let this editing kill what could have been one of the best concert DVDs in years. Bowie needs to watch The Last Waltz or Dylan's Hard Rain TV special to see how a concert should be filmed.

Even thought this is being sold very cheap I couldn't tell anyone but a real Bowie fan to buy this.

I had never really seen, or heard much music from "David Bowie", and frankly I thought he was an over-rated lightweight, who appealed to the middle-aged middle-class. But I was in the music section of my library, and wanted a concert to watch, and as I've always wondered what was so special about this `Bowie', I hired this DVD.

The concert and DVD production are lavish. Sound is crystal clear, high resolution that makes my monitors sing when turned up loud. The picture quality is beautifully vibrant.

Massive crowd goes absolute crazy when Bowie walks on stage.
I was pleasantly surprised by the hard-rock nature of the music, which had me head-banging in my bedroom. But even better, is the complexity of the music - hard rock fused with punk, pop, jazz, funk, classical, and dominated by Bowie's majestic metamorphic vocals.

Bowie himself is great to watch - and he's so at-one with his fellow band members, and the tens of thousands of screaming fans - it's just great to watch, and hear harmony like this.

I've watched this 2 ½ hour symphony twice already, in the space of 3 days. Its definitely one of the best concerts I've ever seen; and yes, I am now a converted Bowie fan.