Getting tickets to a concert by The Police this year was not easy - with this being their first tour in over thirty years, demand was very high for their shows. And so, seeing a show by these megastars of the early eighties remains a rare event - even if you want to see a show in the comfort of your own home.

The Police's Synchronicity Concert DVD is the only complete concert widely released on DVD (there is a South Korean DVD of a Ghost in the Machine tour show, but it's not really "official"). Despite the band's enormous popularity during the earliest days of the rise of MTV, and despite the known existence of recorded shows from various tours, this 1983 show at the Atlanta Omni remains the only filmed performance by the band to be brought up to date using today's technology.

Directed by Godley & Creme, who also directed three of the videos from the Synchronicity album, the concert video is basically seventy-five minutes of visual experimentation using some common video tricks of the era. Video and MTV were still relatively new, and at this point, there weren't any stereotypes or expectations for what live performances should look like when filmed.

Godley and Creme used several cameras and a lot of video post-production editing to attempt to create a new look for concert films. Some of it works, some of it does not. Unfortunately, there are some moments where the director's work overwhelms the music, and with the rarity of concert videos by The Police, it leaves fans of the band like myself wishing for more concert videos where the music gets the lion's share of the attention.

To the credit of the band, the musical performances at this concert are top-notch. The Police were at the peak of their fame in 1983, and their performances are nearly perfect. Those who may have been disappointed in The Police shows from the 2007-8 tour might have had this very concert tour in mind as their basis of comparison. Sting's voice is fantastic, Stewart Copeland is a world beater on drums and percussion, and the singular guitar styles of Andy Summers fuel the unique reggae/punk/pop sound of the band. No complaints from me regarding the music at all - it's the visuals (and Sting's tattered cloth rags jacket) that don't work so well.

The DVD transfer is terrific - the visuals certainly look crisp and clear, but it's the actual content of the video that sometimes disappoints. Godley and Creme decided to try to create different "atmospheres" for each song by using various video effects; for example, inserting single frames of color on the drum beat when cutting from one band member to the next, or switching to black and white and using slow fades to black during Every Breath You Take to match the style of their video for the single. The black and white section is fine, but the color cuts are repetitive and boring, and to be honest, they make my eyes hurt.

Even more annoying, and potentially dangerous to some viewers, is the persistent strobe effect that goes on for about the first two minutes of one song. There is even a warning (in very small type) included on the box for the possibility of epileptic seizure being induced by this effect. So be warned: this DVD is potentially hazardous to your health if you are prone to seizure caused by visual stimuli.

It's things like these that definitely turn me off about this DVD; I love to listen to this disc, but I can't, I can't, I can't stand looking at it half the time… It really is a shame that there aren't yet any DVDs of classic Police shows; perhaps with the current tour being such a success, the band will eventually release some concert material, and when that time comes, I hope that they let the music be the primary focus of the disc, rather than some annoying, quirky video effects.

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The Police: Synchronicity Concert - Live in Atlanta, 1983
Originally released on VHS in 1984, remastered for DVD release in 2005

Tracks
1 Intro
2 Synchronicity I
3 Walking In Your Footsteps
4 Message In A Bottle
5 Walking On The Moon
6 Wrapped Around Your Finger
7 Hole In My Life
8 King Of Pain
9 One World
10 Tea In The Sahara
11 Oh My God
12 De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
13 Every Breath You Take
14 Can't Stand Losing You
15 Spirits In The Material World
16 So Lonely
17 Closing Credits

Extras

The disc features multi-angle versions of four tracks and also includes interviews with each of the band members before they went on stage in Melbourne for the last show of the Synchronicity tour. In hindsight, it's interesting to listen to each of them talk about the future, a future that never came about. The promotional trailer for the original concert film is also included, and wow - ads for music certainly have come a long way in twenty-five years.

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day