Customer Reviews

Sheryl Crow: C'mon America 2003

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm sure the show was great, but my head's still reeling from the editing that must have been done by a teenage boy who suffers from severe ADHD and lives off of sugar and playstations. Well, at least that's what it felt like.

Pros: Sheryl is gorgeous, she's in top condition, the energy was high, and she looked like she was having a ball. The concert comes packed with a great setlist with numerous favorites.

Cons: Like many people have mentioned, both the filming and editing, for lack of a better word, sucks. The cameras zoom in, zoom out, blur out of focus on purpose just to re-focus (for effect, I guess). It's weird, because instead of focusing on Sheryl, the next shot inevitably zooms in on her guitarist's hand or her drummer's head. (I'm not kidding, they zoom in on hands, a LOT.) You also don't get more than 5 seconds in any one shot. Her bandmate's must be happy, because you see a lot the camera shares tons of love with her band--too much. I'm all for giving the rest of the band credit and screentime, but I don't pay for a concert DVD to see that much of the band.

I'm watching the DVD right now, and the shot's just moved from Sheryl's head, to a close up of the lead guitarist's hand, to a wide shot of the stage, to the discoball, to Sheryl's backside--all complete with zooms, blur effects, kaleidoscope effects, and swivels and swirls of camera moment--and all this took place in less than 30 seconds.

It's almost as if they desperately wanted a to give the DVD a "high energy" feel. Either that, or everybody in the editing room were hyper sorts who forgot to take their sedatives the day they put the DVD together. It didn't quite nauseate me, but it certainly got annoying in a quite a couple of spots when you just want to watch Sheryl for more than a few seconds at a time.

Silly me, I even read the reviews here and went ahead and bought the DVD, thinking the other reviewers exaggerated a bit about the schizophrenic editing. I don't know who okayed the job, but I would have told them to redo the whole thing within two minutes of watching it. They call it editing; I call it "slice, splice, and slap together."

Please, a little compassion for those who get motion sick or dizzy easily!

Just wanted to jump into the mix and say that this show was butchered by incomprehensible editing. I put this on for the first time at a party and everybody was put-off by the ultra fast cutting and weird choices of shots and angles. They cut away from Sheryl when she's singing and playing so many times that it just makes you wonder what' up!? Maybe she's so humble she wants her band members to get equal time. I don't need to see a two second cut-away to the drummers foot while she's singing All I wanna Do. The music sounded great-but C'mon, C'mon. We want to see Sheryl Crow!

Great performance. Sheryl does look great and is a joy to watch.

Main shortcoming is the highly compressed audio. The overall mix is lacking just a bit. Sheryl's voice is somewhat buried. When I crank this baby up to the levels I'm accustomed to with other finer recordings (Clapton's - One More Car, One More Rider, DMB - Live in Central Park) it just sounds thin and distorted. Not enough resolution there to accomodate. Similar but not nearly as extreme as the reprehensible Rush - Live in Rio.

The other annoyance is the rapid fire video production. It is more than a bit overdone.

Again, not a complete throw-away. Worth a keep just for Sheryl's energy and charisma. Not as good of a A/V production as other reviewers over-zealously conclude.

This is my second Sheryl Crow DVD concert. Until now I thought her "Rockin' the Globe" was great, but "C'Mon America" beats that concert hands down. Sheryl is so "on" for this concert, the audience is pumped, and the production is flawless. There are two full hours of music here with 21 tracks featuring all of Sheryl's big hits plus a few new tunes. High definition cameras create incredible visuals. The only drawback is that there's no DTS audio, but the Dolby track still sounds awesome. If you're a Sheryl Crow fan, or if you just love a fantastic concert, you have GOT to pick up this one.

....but the editor and director dropped the ball in this DVD.

WARNING: Mindless / senseless, pans, zooms, and rapid cuts throughout this DVD can cause motion sickness!!!!

Did these guys just get out of motion picture school??? It seems that they had a list of every trick you could do with a camera and got to check off every one.....

Editor Bullen and Director Atkins: get a copy of "Concert for George" - watch the full concert (not the Theatrical version)....absolutely beautiful!

Sheryl - you deserve better.

Otherwise, the music is perfect - clear, nice punch to it - great live mix.

Firstly, I want to say that I am a huge Sheryl Crow fan. I have all her CDs.
That said, Pass on this release! Scream, yell, stomp your feet, anything to demand that the producers and editors fix it and re-release this content.
This could be a great DVD. The sound track is superb. The photography is excellent. Miss Crow and her band, outstanding. By the way, Miss Crow, you looked drop-dead gorgeous.
All in all there is only one thing about this DVD to complain about. Unfortunately, it is a fatal flaw and it is the editing.
The fact that there was never more than 3seconds of the same shot before cutting to another angle or musician on the stage. I found it to be so annoying that I could not watch it. Instead I just listened to it while I did something else.
It was like the producer felt that he or she was going to make darn sure that the viewer know, without a doubt, that there were 30 cameras filming the event. And we're going to prove it to you every 3 seconds. This release just possibly could be Sheryl's new favorite mistake. Please re-edit this great concert!

Last summer, a business associate, Dave Fitzgerald of DCF Concerts in Oklahoma City, who regionally promotes over 200 shows a year told me the Sheryl Crow concert he witnessed at the Smirnoff Theatre in Dallas ranked among the top 5 shows he ever saw. Pretty impressive coming from a promoter whose been involved with well over 1000 shows.

After seeing "C'mon America" I can see why.

From the opening "Steve McQueen" Sheryl proves why she is a big-time headliner.

The sound quality is not quite DTS, but is more than sufficient to entertain. This one is no comparison to "Rockin The Globe". Sheryl takes her already great voice and music up a notch. Watching "I Shall Believe" reminded me of why I got into her music in the first place ... watching her closing cover of Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" shows just how far she has come.

This easily ranks among the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" and U2's "Come Home" as the best rock concert DVD's available.

If you're a Sheryl fan, this one's much much better than the "Globe" DVD and is worth getting along with "Live at Budokan". I might add ... its nice they finally caught a live performance of Sheryl where the crowd is totally into it.

If you like the raw, somewhat confused atmosphere of a live concert, this DVD can provide that experience. If you like good production values...great camera work, smooth editing, and well engineered sound, you would be better off buying a studio-produced album. The band is adequate, everything is in tune, but the sound and video cutting are pretty rough. I watched/listened to this DVD twice, once on a very high-end computer with great speakers (hooked up to a Yamaha powered mixer, 220 W, full EQ) and once on my digital, stereo TV. Both times, the production problems were very distracting...sound flat, tinny, video editing very crude. Oh well, it only cost ten bucks.

Extremely gifted and talented Sheryl Crow delivers an incredible perfomance for a midwestern city. I like the setting, the video, sound, all of it is great! Her band really impressed me, espcecially; because I am a die-hard Rush fan and tend to compare other musicians with Rush. Sheryl's band can definitely hold thier own and are all incredible musicians'. I really loved the conclusion of the dvd with "Rock 'n Roll". A fitting end to one spectacular concert. Most bands who put out dvd's are junk and I usually end up getting rid of them. Not this one, Sheryl puts forth one incredible display of talent. Her vocal range is unbelievable and her musical skills are strongly displayed as she plays bass, accoustic, electric guitars, and even the keys. I would recommend this dvd to anyone who appreciates music and the diversity of music from one heck of a talented group of musicians.

I'm a huge fan of Sheryl and her band - seen over 30 shows. I'm also a collector of concert DVDs - with over 50 in my collection. IMO, while her previous Rocking the Globe DVD was good musically, it failed to capture the energy of the shows that I know and love.

Just finished watching the new C'Mon America 2003 DVD and I am THRILLED. The video direction, pacing, sound, lighting, backstage footage, perfect amount of crowd participation - EVERYTHING was done right. This DVD captures a very energized and happy Sheryl and band, who are an incredibly talented and tight group. Shawn Pelton, of Saturday Night Live fame, joined the tour this year on drums and just shines throughout. Great setlist for all - with the big hits for casual listeners and some rarities for die-hards - 21 songs in two hours.

Honestly, this has to be my favorite concert video of all time - even beating out Springsteen in Barcelona, because of the added backstage footage which gives you a more intimate look at Sheryl and her band.

If you are not a Sheryl fan already, you will be after watching this DVD. It really captures Sheryl and her band at their very best.