Live In Madrid (Way Of Wizards WOW-379)
Madrid, Spain – July 5, 2008
Message In A Bottle, Walking On The Moon, Demolition Man, Voices Inside My Head [/When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around], Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Driven To Tears, Hole In My Life, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Wrapped Around Your Finger, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, Invisible Sun, Can’t Stand Losing You, Roxanne, King Of Pain, So Lonely, Every Breath You Take
Mestre, Italy – June 22, 2008
Message In A Bottle, Walking On The Moon, Demolition Man, Voices Inside My Head, When The World Is Running Down, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Driven To Tears, Hole In My Life, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Wrapped Around Your Finger, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, Invisible Sun, Can’t Stand Losing You, Roxanne, King Of Pain, So Lonely, Every Breath You Take, Next To You
This DVD brings us two concerts from the Police’s reunion tour, both from the band’s second stint in Europe during the summer of 2008. Both occurred near the end of the reunion tour, which wrapped up in August 2008. By that summer, The Police may have been getting tired as they had stripped three songs from their setlist: Synchronicity II, Truth Hits Everybody and Walking In Your Footsteps, while adding only a single song in their place: Demolition Man.
The first concert on the DVD was pro-shot by Spanish TV. It appears to include the entire concert except for the second encore: Next To You. This concert is available on a number of pro DVD-Rs, but as far as I am aware, this is the only silver DVD. I did not find this concert enjoyable to watch. First, the audio and video are not synchronized, which is incredibly distracting (when I turned on the advanced A/V synch on the DVD player, the synchronization actually got worse). I have never encountered this problem with any other Way of Wizards DVDs, but it is a big problem here. Second, the concert was poorly shot. The camera cuts and angles appear amateurish, especially when compared to the pro-shot concert in the DVD Live in Japan 2008. Other than the addition of Demolition Man, there isn’t much we haven’t seen before in a better product.
Given the problems with the first concert, I was really looking forward to seeing the second, especially since it hasn’t appeared on any other DVD or DVD-R of which I was aware. Unfortunately, the second concert is even more disappointing. It is not pro-shot. It was shot with a shaky hand-held camera from a number of rows back. There is no reason a video of this poor quality should EVER make its way onto a silver DVD. Way of Wizards knows this, so they do not disclose that the second concert was audience-shot anywhere on the DVD.
I feel taken advantage of by Way of Wizards. I have generally been pleased with their other Police DVDs, but this one is garbage. I know Live in Madrid has been out for many months. However, I find myself with even less free time for reviews after the birth of my second child. To anyone who has already bought this DVD, I want to extend my sincere apologies for not warning you first. You deserve much better for your money.
