No one wants to be in dire straits, but I certainly would have enjoyed being at this Dire Straits concert filmed in France in 1993.

This concert DVD is an hour and a half and features thirteen classic Dire Straits songs from two concerts the band performed in France; Calling Elvis, Walk of Life, Heavy Fuel, Romeo and Juliet, The Bug, Private Investigations, Your Latest Trick, On Every Street, You and Your Friend, Money for Nothing, Brother in Arms, Solid Rock and Local Hero - Wild Theme.

Mark Knopfler played lead guitar and vocals and was joined by an impressive group of musicians for this tour; Chris White on Saxophone, John Illsley on bass and backing vocals, Chris Whitten on drums and percussion, Paul Franklin on pedal steel guitar, Phil Palmer on guitar and vocals, Alan Clark on keyboards and Guy Fletcher on keyboards and vocals.

Performance

Knopfler is in fine form right from the opening riffs with his headband on, and his Fender Showmaster guitar coaxing those unmistakable staccato like chords from it. His voice is unique in rock, not what I'd call a great voice, but one that just works for Dire Straits, and one that the band would seem too different without. The band uses no gimmics except concert lighting on this tour, its just the band on stage peforming their hits to a sold out audience.

I liked the long saxophone solo at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet. Thousands of lighters were raised in the audience and just the sax and the piano played. Then Knopfler came out with a Resonator acoustic guitar and plucked out the opening notes. His vocal delivery of this song is almost whispered and gives it a different feel than the studio album.

Private Investigations had a great tenor sax intro setting the film noir like feel of this song. The guitar sounds muted and quite as the notes softly play. A sole spotlight shines on Knopler, now with an acoutic guitar, as he softly whispers its a mystery to me, the game commences for the usual fee plus expenses, confidential information. It is one of my favorite softer Dire Straits songs.

Your Latest Trick starts with a mournful bariton saxophone, and the audience sings along the song. The satin jazzmen have put away their horns and we're standing outside of this wonderland, Looking so bereaved and so bereft, like a Bowery bum when he finally understands the bottle's empty and there's nothing left

Of course Money for Nothing garnered a huge response from the crowd as the all too familiar chords echoed through the arena. I missed the I want my I want my intro by Sting, but the song sounded great. The cameras captured the crowd singing along to every word enthusiasticaly.

Brothers in Arms was given a haunting performance by the band, but the pace was picked back up for Solid Rock. Although I would have prefered Sultans of Swing for the final tune, they did a good performance of Local Hereo. I wish I had seen Dire Straits live, I never got the opportunity. This DVD shows they were a great touring band and able to deliver the songs from their studio albums. My only complaint is that the show is short, and I felt like I had only heard a handful of my favorite tunes instead of a full length show. (The show is about an hour and a half).

Video Quality / Cinematography

This was shot in the days of VHS, so the format is 4:3, but the quality is actually quite good. Lighting and focus is really near DVD quality. The camera operators also seem to understand the music, focusing on the various artists as they performed. I hate it when a camera focuses on a silent guitar player as the sax player performs a stunning solo. Not here, the cameras alternated between showing the huge arena and audience reaction, shots of the whole band on stage, and closeups of the individual artists as they performed.

Audio Quality This concert is in Dolby Stereo, however for a stereo only show, the quality is quite good, and all the subtle nuances of the show can be clearly heard.

Summary

I found the performance to be five stars on this show, although I was disappointed that the band only performed 13 songs. I would have loved to see the band do a longer show. Audio and video quality was good, so overal, I rated this Concert DVD as four stars for very good.



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD