Search - David Bowie :: Reality

Concert DVD won't play on North American DVD players

Michael W. Draine | Acton, MA United States | 02/01/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion, REALITY is David Bowie's best album since 1993's OUTSIDE. The A REALITY TOUR DVD captures a great band interpreting 21st century Bowie with arrangements reflecting Brian Eno and Robert Fripp's contribution to Bowie's late '70s Berlin trilogy. But A REALITY TOUR suffered from timid mix which sucked the menace out of "Hallo Spaceboy" and "I'm Afraid of Americans" and a migraine-inducing editing. Thus reports of the small club concert DVD which accompanies this edition seemed promising. The intimate setting, camera work and lighting are more subtle and dramatic than the stadium production of A REALITY TOUR, and the inclusion of key REALITY track "Fall Dog Bombs the Moon" is a plus. The catch is that this NTSC Region 2 DVD will not play on standard North American DVD players. Sony could have just as easily encoded it as a region-free disc. I had a friend with a computer DVD burner make a copy that would play on my DVD player, but it was filled with skips.

As for the bonus track on the CD, Bowie's beautiful vocal performance on "Waterloo Sunset" is spoiled by a loud, cheesy synthesizer vamp."