Live 8 DVD Review

[ghosty]

Just bought the 4 DVD set of the Live 8 concerts and MAN!...MTV screwed it's viewers out of so many great performances they ought to be strung up.

Here's a few quick impressions:

BEST BAND OF THE DAY: Kaiser Chiefs. Hands down the best band to hit the stage in Philly. These guys did "I Predict A Riot" and "Everyday I Love You Less And Less" like they were posessed. If ever there was a band that could have been dropped into 1982 and held their own with any of the NW greats, it was these guys. Too bad the morons in the crowd did'nt know who they were or cared.

SECOND BEST BAND OF THE DAY: The Proclaimers. Never would've guessed. Turned "I Would Walk 5000 Miles" into a party anthem.

BEST RETURN VISIT FROM 1985: U2. Duh! They're built for these types of events (but they were'nt even half as good as Kaiser Chiefs).

WORST RETURN VISIT FROM 1985: Duran Duran. Boring by-the-numbers version of "Wild Boys". A bloated Simon LeBon squealing like a 9 year old girl for no apparant reason. Nice to see the original guys and all but still...(they were much better on the VH1 concert last year. Maybe the thrill of the reunion has worn off)

BIGGEST SURPRISE: You guys will think I'm nuts but Bryan Adams (who I hate) did the Sting/Adams/Rod Stewart number "All For Love" (which has to be the worst song by anyone anywhere) and turned it into a nice song with a one man acoustic performance. The fans in Toronto ate it up. God help me, I enjoyed Bryan Adams.

WORST PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Def Leppard doing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and making Duran Duran look like the Kaiser Chiefs. BTW: Joe Elliot and Simon LeBon look almost identical now.

WIERDEST PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Bjork in Tokyo. Dressed in a get-up I can only describe as "Minnie Mouse giving birth to a beach umbrella" she proceeded to screetch through "All Is Full Of Love" before breaking into a dance that resembled a toddler learning to walk for the first time.

EMBARASSING PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Ex-Libertine Pete Doherty looking very much like Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious warbling through the T-Rex song "Children Of The Revolution" while fumbling with an uncooperative hat. He managed to make Elton John look dignified.

MOST BORING PERFORMNCE OF THE DAYS: Coldplay. Just a bunch of balding guys making very sad music.

ARTIST WHO RESCUED A BORING PERFORMANCE: Richard Ashcroft. Joined Coldplay for a rendition of "Bittersweet Symphony" and for a brief moment brought back all the excitement of 90's Brit-Pop.

POINTLESS PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: George Michael joining Paul McCartney for "Drive My Car". Why this song? Why is he just singing along with Paul? Does anybody give a crap?

ARTIST WHO STOLE THE SHOW: Robbie Williams. Here's a guy with no talent and no apparant ability to do anything other than leer at women and the U.K. crowd kissed his ass for 15 minutes. Robbie Williams works because Robbie Williams also realizes he has'nt any business being onstage either. He looked like some drunken frat boy crashing the high school talent show. His message was simple: "I have no idea what I'm doing here. Can you believe this shit?".

All in all, well worth the 30 bucks I paid for it. Live 8 does'nt have the nostalgia and kitsch factor 1985's Live Aid has but it's got roughly the same amount of memorable performances (Queen and U2 in 1985, etc.) and steaming piles of crap (Reo Speedwagon and George Thorogood also in '85).

[Randall Roq]

I NEVER watch MTV these days but we tuned in for this and were appalled at their "coverage". They kept announcing the Pink Floyd reunion and then half way through the second song cut away to a VJ telling us how cool it was to see the band together. Every time I wanted to see a band I was forced instead to listen to another punk VJ tell me I was witnessing history.

EMptv fool me once....

[zalasta]

i watched alot of Live 8 via AOL's streaming broadcast. My 2 favorite performances:

Annie Lennox. I was literally in tears when she performed "Why", while the screen behind her flashed pictures of kids in Africa with HIV and AIDS. It was a stupendous performance. She then did great versions of "Little Bird" and "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)". I hope her entire performance is on the DVD, because it was spectacular.

Bob Geldof. Yeah, he only did one song, but it was a very touching moment when he came out and did "I Don't Like Mondays". I loved the pictures of the crowd signing along. Fantastic moment.

[Casey]

Don't be ashamed that you enjoyed Bryan Adams, I love George Michael. It's his voice. Agree with you on the song though, "Drive My Car" is not one of my favorites.

I didn't watch it, but I heard the coverage of this concert by MTV really pissed a lot of people off.

Thanks for the review. I will probably just stick with my Live Aid DVD, I love it.

Not to mention, Coldplay makes my eye twitch the moment Chris Martin starts singing.

[Panorama]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Randall Roq[/i]
<br>I NEVER watch MTV these days but we tuned in for this and were appalled at their "coverage". They kept announcing the Pink Floyd reunion and then half way through the second song cut away to a VJ telling us how cool it was to see the band together. Every time I wanted to see a band I was forced instead to listen to another punk VJ tell me I was witnessing history.

EMptv fool me once....
[/quote]
I was screaming at the VJ on the tv, "SHUT UP, SHUT UP... I waited 18 years to see Pink Floyd on stage together again and you are talking... Who the hell are you... SHUT UP!" Luckily VH1 re-ran the entire show without commercials and annoying, inane vj banter.

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[KYYX4ever]

I never saw any of the Live8 coverage, but from what I understood, it wasn't Duran Duran's best performance. Immediately before or after their performance in Rome, they had to fly to Scandanavia to do a concert or performance. That's pretty crazy, and may explain some of the lack of "oomph" in Rome by them. But as much as I love these guys, I wonder how professional is that? To fly over many countries in order to do 2 shows in one day. You're not giving your fans much respect. Or maybe it was bad scheduling by their management, who knows? But it's too bad, b/c DD's shows are AMAZING, usually; especially when they do different songs than the usual stock radio 80s hits (which we are all sick of). (Not to mention "Wild Boys" is an overblown, bombastic, crappy song LOL).

[LovePlusOne]

As abridged as the Pink Floyd coverage was, I still got goose bumps seeing Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour up there together doing "Comfortably Numb." Really a feel good moment for me.

I agree with what some of the other people said. Coldplay was "meh" but Richard Ashcroft saved them. U2 was just ok--nowhere near their 85 performance at Wembley. Even Paul McCartney didn't make much a difference. I wish I could have seen Kaiser Chiefs. That's all I've got to say.

And the Simon LeBon/Joe Eliot comment...dear me, say it isn't so. Oh well.