The Review For A Concert DVD In Crisis
On 07.07.07, twelve concerts were staged around the globe to start a campaign to combat climate change and its effects. The concerts themselves were entertaining, if a little sterile, with a great variety of perfomers. However, afterwards, alot of people were left wondering if it had made any real difference. Television ratings were a bit so-so, particularly in the UK where it was beaten by the previous week's Concert for Diana.
Now the lovely folks at Warner Bros have put the highlights of the day on a slick double DVD and CD package, complete with carbon neutral packaging and tips on how you can reduce your carbon footprint.
The DVD part of the release is broken up into two DVDs, with the first being the global highlights of the "earlier" part of the day, and the second being highlights of the "later" part of the day.
DVD One opens with the Wembley concert's fantastic SOS All Stars drum opening with all manor of ethnic drums and drummers being joined by Chad Smith (of the Chili Peppers), Taylor Hawkins (of the Foos) and Roger Taylor (of Queen). Then we're treated to Genesis' 'Invisible Touch' which Mr Collins got into a spot of bother on the day about for swearing in the song. What follows is a a selection of songs mostly from the Wembley and New Jersey concerts (with a spattering of some others) with highlights being Black Eyed Peas' 'Where Is The Love', AFI's 'Miss Murder' and of course Metallica's 'Sad But True'
DVD Two continues on the theme but is more varied in the locations it visits. 'Woman' by a visibly delighted Wolfmother and a moving 'Black Hole Sun' by Chris Cornell are great numbers on the second DVD, with other honourable mentions going to Roger Waters' 'Another Brick In The Wall' and, guilitly, Rihanna's 'Umbrella'. But without doubt, the best performance on DVD Two is 'Times Like These' by the Foo Fighters, which manages to thoroughly rock the people gathered under Wembley's arch before the London headliner... er... Madonna.
As for the extras, well the obligatory "behind the scenes" footage makes an appearance comeplete with some short films and more handy tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint. The bits on the "purpose" of Live Earth can seem a bit repetitive but are understandable given the nature of the product.
The CD is a bit of a weak link in the package, and it leads you to wonder if the product really needed it. Apart from Madonna's 'Hey You', all of the songs on it can be found on either of the DVDs and the only real necessity for it is if you wanted to listen to concert highlights on the move, which you probably wouldn't anyway because it lacks the cohesion of a great concert album.
Little, repetitive things like the "SOS" signal being used frequently in the DVD menus and as a transition between performances only serve to annoy rather than push the message home, and, while it's necessary for to contextualize the whole thing, it's a bit infuriating to see a spattering of famous names preaching to us about what "we" can do.
Put it this way, if you take this product at face value, as highlights of a great day of varied music and people coming together under one banner, it's an enjoyable watch. But anything beyond that, well it's a bit of a hit and miss affair really.