Peter Gabriel has been a noted world class musician for over 30 years. His avant-garde visual effects, haunting lyrics and over-the-top world music has followed him since he co-founded Genesis in the early 70's, all the way through to the successful solo career he still enjoys today.
Peter Gabriel's first DVD - "Secret World Live" - from 1994 showcases a wonderful performance with good sound reproduction. However, the picture is very grainy and is not the best concert footage I've seen.
Gabriel's 2003 DVD "Growing Up Live" was a critically acclaimed documentary of his live show filmed in Milan, Italy. While not quite the performance of his earlier DVD, the sound was even better and the picture quality was IMMENSELY better. Performing with Gabriel on this DVD are The Blind Boys of Alabama who offer some great harmonizing on one track.
Gabriel's new DVD - "Still Growing Up - Live and Unwrapped" takes us to his summer tour of 2004 when he played in the streets, town centers and amphitheaters across central Europe. Backed by his longtime band of capable and solid musicians including Tony Levin, David Rhodes, Rachel Z, and Richard Evans, Gabriel continues to prove that he's among the elite of the musical visionaries on the scene today.
The DVD was released in late November of last year and I've seen some audio/video stores using it as a demonstration for two channel, as well as multi-channel sound. The visuals are very good, the sound is impeccable, and the performance is stellar. I'm not a big Peter Gabriel fan, but his last two live DVD's - I think - are better than his studio performances.
"Still Growing Up - Live and Unwrapped" is a two disc set with the second disc basically the same as the first disc, only with some interspersed monologues from Gabriel, some funky image projections on Gabriel's head, and a disappointing lack of information or dialogue from his band.
Still, the concert DVD is solid, but the visuals are a little choppy. The shots of the band playing each song change from one venue to the next, which is rather tough to do, editing-wise (within the same song, you'll see Rachel Z's hair go from braids to a pony tail to a fall). I'm also guessing there's some audio overdubbing that went on, especially with the song "Sledgehammer."
Overall, it's fun, it sounds good, it looks good. Even if you're not a big Gabriel fan, it's a well produced DVD of a very good performance. I like it a lot. So much so that I'm using it as my live music DVD demo these days.
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