Boston Concerts

Review by Carl Peterson for George Michael: Live in London [Blu-ray]
Rating:
As someone who saw George on his U.S. 25LIVE tour in 2008, I can say that this blu ray does a great job of reproducing the live experience. The video and audio are fantastic!

VIDEO: All the vibrant colors of the light show are brilliantly reproduced. The wide variety of camera angles have been well edited together, giving you a sense of the show from every seat in the house while keeping it visually interesting. For you videophiles out there, very occasionally, there is a little macroblocking as the camera pans across the LED wall, but this is not distracting or prevalent.

AUDIO: I was concerned by some negative comments about the sound on this recording, but I was pleasantly surprised by the audio. I had to switch from the stereo track to the DTS-HD track, but after that, the audio was great. It might be a little bass-heavy, but that is how the performance was originally engineered, and it never interferes with the vocals or the other instrumentals. I suspect other reviewers’ concerns are caused by the live performance nature of the show. At any rate, I can say that it sounds like the original show, and I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable.

SONG SELECTION: Just about every song you’d want to hear at a George Michael retrospective is here. I personally would have traded a few of the songs from his “Patience” album for older hits (I Want Your Sex), but I don’t begrudge his wanting to perform recent work in front of an audience. It is also fun to see the inflatable parody of George W. Bush that was understandably omitted from the U.S. tour. The following is the disc’s set list:

WAITING (REPRISE)

FASTLOVE

I’M YOUR MAN

FLAWLESS (GO TO THE CITY)

FATHER FIGURE

YOU HAVE BEEN LOVED

AN EASIER AFFAIR

EVERYTHING SHE WANTS

ONE MORE TRY

A DIFFERENT CORNER

TOO FUNKY

SHOOT THE DOG

JOHN AND ELVIS ARE DEAD

FAITH

SPINNING THE WHEEL

FEELING GOOD

ROXANNE

MY MOTHER HAD A BROTHER

AMAZING

FANTASY

OUTSIDE

CARELESS WHISPER

FREEDOM ’90

Bonus Tracks

PRECIOUS BOX

JESUS TO A CHILD

FIRST TIME EVER

BONUS FEATURES: The 42 minute documentary is a bit fluffy and silly, but it gives a nice taste of the European tour. It’s nice to have the crew behind his performances introduced, even if we don’t really learn more than their names. It’s especially interesting to see the little changes he made to his set list for specific locations.

In summary, if you’re a George Michael fan, you should definitely pick this up. It’s likely the only performance you’ll get on home media from George Michael, and it’s a great one. On blu ray, it looks and sounds fantastic.

Review by Marko Cruise for George Michael: Live in London [Blu-ray]
Rating:
I read all the other reviews and I’m wondering if any of the previous reviewers actually listened to this before making their comments?

If you have the means, you deserve to watch this in High Def. The depth of color and separation of detail is fantastic. All the way through I was loving the crispness, the colors and the sheer clarity. The concert backdrop is interesting to watch anyway for the artistic vision supported through giant video with appropriate video and photos. The lighting and laser show is about the best you’ll see anywhere. Thankfully George Michael is not overshadowed by supporting band and singers; you know they are there, they sound great, but you don’t get the sense that any of them is ever the main act. And nobody in the audience will feel cheated for not featuring in the credits. Visually, brilliant. You won’t regret buying Blu on that basis.

The audio is something else. There are 3 sound tracks; standard is 2 channel Linear PCM. With multiple speakers this comes across as a little better than crap so I won’t dwell on it. Flip up to DTS 5.1, even for head phones. I experimented at length with different speaker and EQ settings and couldn’t get it quite right at almost any volume. Most of the time I felt there was too much bass. Down low and at medium volumes I felt I needed to keep turning it up to appreciate the whole show. Problem was that distortion kept creeping in and becoming more obvious on any song with strong bass bits. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not speaking the mantra as some super-critical audio purist where the sound should always be perfect. I’m saying my wife and her friends noticed it as well the next day before I said anything about it. Crank it up and the dance tracks will make your ears want to bleed out. The peaks in each beat just seem to rumble and vibrate badly and you will be torn between turning it up (’cause it feels like the right thing to do) and turning it down (because it doesn’t sound as damaged). The 3rd sound option is Dolby Digital 5.1 where the volume drops and the quality seems similar to good MP3. Go back to DTS and remember! it is not the default for almost every player!

I really wanted to love this completely and give it top marks, but I have to be fair and take one star back for the quality of the audio. I’m sure the engineers could have delivered better on this if they wanted to, so why isn’t it better? After all, aren’t most people buying this because they love the sounds and the songs and they want the best audio experience possible? Surely the visual is secondary to a killer concert soundtrack?

I don’t feel ripped off, just a little disappointed.

This is the full concert. More than 2 hours and packed with decades of hits. George’s commentary along the way is entertaining and seems heart-felt, but multiple F-bombs means it won’t get the PG13 rating. Great nonetheless.

Review by O. T. M. Grooveservice for George Michael: Live in London [Blu-ray]
Rating:
You could definitely say there were some ‘exepectations’ about this first -and if we have to believe George, his only- full live show that George puts out in his career. And does he deliver? Yes he does. The songs are great, the visuals on stage are incredible and the voice is good. Just good? Well, there was a time that no one could beat Georges voice. In the early nineties it was no coincedence he had 2 worldwide no. 1 hits with live recordings (Somebody To Love with Queen and Don’t Let The Sun.. with Elton). George díd loose some of the magic in his voice in the roaring 17 years that followed. But between the always catchy and joyously performed uptempo tracks like ‘I’m Your Man’ and ‘Too Funky’ there are still flashes of the genius singer he can be, like in ‘A Different Corner’ and the more recent, very touching ‘My Mother Had A Brother’. And for those who find 23 songs without guests or solo’s by musicians a bit much of the same, there’s is a nice documentary on disc 2 that shows sides of George we don’t get to see much. A dedicated performer and perfectionist who seems to do this more for his fans than for himself, and the kind, very Britisch guy who seems to have actually almost got over 17 years of troubled life.