Customer Reviews

Pat Benatar: Live in New Haven

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was going to buy the summer vacation video because it got such good reviews but unfortunately it's $45 here so i picked this one up instead.
The show,although short ,is very good with a lot of enthusiasm and energy.
Her voice was excellent and the guitar work was great.
The sound is suspect with it sounding like the mics were placed back in the corners of the auditorum or something.
After awhile i got used to it.
Camerawork was ok .Very few audience shots though.
Pat mentioned at one pt that the show was being taped for hbo so maybe they cheaped out because it was just for tv audience originally .

I'm not really a big Pat Benatar fan, but I caught this concert years ago on TV and loved it. I had a taped copy that I've watched many times, and was delighted to find it released on DVD. The first couple of songs are weak admittedly, I think they were obligatory "Push latest release" performances. But then the concert slowly starts to build, getting better and better. This is a 'real' concert, no overdubs, no retakes, no self-indulgent solos. Just drums,guitar,bass, piano and the lady herself. There are a few rough/slow spots, but I can live with that because its also balanced by those magical moments where the band really clicks and the music takes off. Thats what rock and roll is.. magic. If you're more concerned with video/sound quality than with the performance itself then you may want to pass this one by. My main concern is "Does it rock?". If it does then the rest doesn't matter. The video and sound is acceptable (ie it doesn't get in the way), the muscianship is workmanlike, and yes it does rock.

I find this video very easy to watch and listen to. It is not what I call "over-clipped", in other words the camera shots don't just constantly hop around. There is of course a reasonable amount of camera changes, but it's not extremely excessive like a couple of the concert videos I've seen. There are a decent amount of shots of "the rest of the band" which is another thing I like to see in a concert video. There are not a lot of crowd shots (are there even any?) which is fine with me, but if you like a lot of crowd shots that may disappoint you.

This is a basic concert video in that there are not streams of extra dancers flitting around the stage, no real costume changes, not a lot of "production". It's just Benatar and Band doing their thing which is also just fine with me.

I saw some of the other reviews referring to "bad sound" and that concerned me while I was shopping for this. I think it's fine. I would like to point out that there are audio settings on the DVD for Dolby 5.1 or Dolby 2.0 (stereo) and I'm wondering if some of the sound criticisms come from not making the proper sound selection from the menu. If I try to play Dolby 5.1 on my stereo-only equipment it does of course sound like garbage, kind of similar to what I think some of the other reviews are describing. Anyway if I play it as stereo it sounds fine, perhaps not excellent, but it was after all recorded in 1983.

As a casual Benatar fan I did not notice Benatar suffering any substantial vocal fatigue, but that may very well be something a more dedicated Benatar fan might hear. I can't say whether or not this is one of Benatar's better performances as I haven't seen any others, so again I'll have to leave that to the more serious fans. It did seem like they were putting their hearts into the performance, not just trying to get through it. At any rate I'd have to consider it to be better than a "good" performance.

Sidenote: I really enjoyed watching them in their classic early 80's look. It wasn't necessarily one of my favorite era's but it certainly brought back some memories.

I have no regrets whatsoever about buying this DVD. Heck, I've already watched it more than I've watched a couple of music DVD's I've had longer.

This concert was recorded in December 1982....December 1982....December 1982.....

How do I know?
I was there at the New Haven Coliseum when it was filmed.

It first aired as an HBO special in....1983. People looking at the date of this DVD might be mislead into Benatar was touring off her '83 live album. Nope. She was promoting 1982's 'Get Nervous' LP.

So, you wanna know how the show/DVD are?
Excellent. She was in her prime. "Shadows Of The Night" was a big radio hit at the time. She never had an album chart this high again.

If you're a fan of vintage Benatar, check this one out.

It's great to have this Benatar concert on DVD, but you would think this was from a budget label instead of Rhino. No extras at all and the packaging is devoid of any liner notes or info about Pat at all. At least Rhino could have restored the missing tracks from the show. The box even has the number of tracks wrong. It's a good peformance from Pat marred by a very poor job from Rhino on the DVD.

This video, shows Pat Benatar in the early stages of her career. Filmed in 1983 in New Haven, it was originally aired on HBO, then later released to video. As a fan of Pat Benatar I was happy to see it's re-release. Showcasing some of her most popular songs from the early 80's this video is a must have for all fans. The girl can rock and it's apparent that she is a role model for many female artists today. Fourteen songs in all, approximately 1 hour long, well worth the money.

This video was performed live in New Haven, Conn. in 1983. If you are a Pat Benatar fan, you have GOT TO HAVE THIS VIDEO!!! If you are not a Pat Benatar fan, you HAVE GOT TO GET THIS VIDEO to find out how GOOD she is!!! She has won four Grammy Awards, and DESERVED them! She performs some of her greatest hits, Fire And Ice, Shadows of the Night, Heartbreaker, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Anxiety, Looking For A Stranger, etc. There are 14 songs in all, and the video runs about 60 min. She looks as good as she sings, she is at her sexiest in this video. This is REAL rock'n'roll!!! BUY IT, YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!! This video was released before, but was out of print. I was trying to get a copy of it, without luck, until Rhino brought it back. Thank you, Rhino!!! The original was on H.B.O. (I think)

This concert is from the Get Nervous tour, at the height of Pat's popularity and before a series of weak albums that eventually drove her to obscurity. It contains many of her old classics, though contrary to the DVD cover, there are only 13 songs on the hour long DVD. The concert was recorded for an HBO special.

Pat was not in very good voice at New Haven that night. Sounded like she should have warmed up before hand. She was weak in the first few songs, having trouble hitting or holding the high notes. She got better as things wore on and was herself in the middle. She again seams to fade towards the end of the concert. As a professionally trained singer, she should have known beter than this. She was not as strong as she was just this past summer at the outdoor concert in Albany NY, nearly 20 years later.

An enjoyable performance, but not as good as her studio albums or her other recorded concerts.

This video is awesome. I saw Pat Benatar on this tour a few months earlier, March 19th, 1983 in San Francisco. This video was originally fimed in New Haven somewhere around Christmas of 1983. It was a great show and it was my first major rock star concert. When I found this video originally back in 1985, I watched it over and over. I found the video again just about 2 years ago. A Rhino re-release. I bought it immediately. I was taken back to that March 19th at the Cow Palace and what a great show it was. This video is pure Pat at her best and yes I am one that says Get Nervous is my favorite album. This was the tour for that album. My disappointment of the Rhino re-release is that on the original video, there was an encore performance of Pat doing "Little Paradise". Rhino didn't put the encore performance on the re-released video. That was my only disappointment. Otherwise a great video. Any rock fan and/or Pat Benatar fan should own this one.

Pat Benatar was among the best. This tape is a compilation of two nights she did in her hometown of New Haven Conneticut. You can tell in outfits that she and her drummer are/aren't wearing. I saw the original cut of this video, and it's been pared down by a couple of songs. Nevertheless, HBO wisely caught this queen of Rock at her prime and rockin best. It's an hour of rock, as done in the early 80's (don't trip over the mic cord). So pop this vid in your VCR, kick back, and get the concert experience without all the other hassles (parking, security, rude fans, etc.)