Review of Concert For New York City: Various Artists (2 Discs)

Introduction

September 11th 2001 is a day that will live long in the memory. One month later, the stars came out in force to give their support to the city of New York, to pay tribute to those that lost their lives, and (for some of them at least) to indulge in some good old fashioned American flag-waving.

This 2 disc set captures a large part of the event, with most of the short films and speeches intact, but with some careful editing of the music set list, with 6 songs being excluded. I don`t know why they did that, it seems to be accepted practice to never present the full set list on a concert DVD. I`m not upset by the loss of a Backstreet Boys acapella performance, but we did also lose "Everything`s gonna be alright" by Eric Clapton & Buddy Guy, as well as a McCartney track, Macy Gray and two others.

And for those of you just interested in the music, the main menu lets you watch just the music performances only, or the whole thing - a nice touch.

Video

This was filmed for American TV and beamed all around the world. And it`s the usual 4:3 transfer of pretty standard concert material. If you saw it on TV then you know what to expect - there`s nothing wrong with it, it`s not very exciting, and it`s a standard TV transfer.

Audio

A choice of DD2.0 stereo or DD5.1. The stereo track is pretty good, the DD5.1 track is a little better but it`s not really reference material. It varies depending on who is on stage, some performances sound better than others. There`s nothing that should put you off buying, it`s just that other DVDs have had more time spent on their sound mix.

Features

Not a sausage.

Conclusion

A reasonable record of the night, with not too much missing, and good picture and sound. As to whether you are going to buy it - well that really depends on how many artists you like. I enjoyed Bowie`s "Heroes", Eric Clapton, Melissa Etheridge (especially the spirited acoustic version of Born to Run), and the all star finale (largely due to Eric Clapton`s solos). There`s a nice comedy moment from Adam Sandler as "Operaman" too.

You can see what`s on the disc in the details section - that`s the information you`ll need to know in order to decide if you want to buy it.