Concert Flicks

Anybody have any strong feelings about concert films? Do you relish a good concert flick or are they snoozefests in your eyes? Do any of you MoFo's get anything out of them or is it virtually the same thing as listening to an ipod? Anybody have any favorites? Least favorites? And I'm not just talking about recorded musical sets here, I think live performances by comedians and stuff like that qualifies, too.

The gold standard for these sorts of movies is, in my mind, Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense. It includes selections from three Talking Heads concerts during their 1983 tour to promote Speaking in Tongues. The movie is a masterwork. This is largely because of the high quality of the music on display and David Byrne's relentless showmanship, sure. But I also dig it for its minimalist sensibilities and the fact that it's the only concert flick I've ever seen that effectively translates the sensation of actually being there.

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I loved Stop Making Sense, one of my favourite films. I think there should be more concert films like that, because sometimes you just can't see your favourite band when they come to your town, and sometimes, filmmakers manage to capture sides of concerts you just don't see being there.

Woodstock was another good one, as was Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz.

Of course they can also be huge ego trips like U2's Rattle and Hum, where they travel the US showing us how awesome they are and searching for the roots of music that has no influence on theirs at all. I mean is there really any less bluesy a band than U2?

I'd love to see a White Stripes concert film, and one of The Dresden Dolls (possibly directed by Tim Burton?), I think their sense of theatricality would go well onscreen.

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I think you'll find a pretty well accepted consensus that Scorsese's The Last Waltz and Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense are the two best rock concert film ever made, with the twin 1970 landmarks of Woodstock and the Maysles Brothers' Gimme Shelter showing the best and worst in the zeitgeist of the era as the seminal documentaries for the subgenre.

After those people will have various favorites, but if there's an objective argument for anything that has surpassed one of those four, I've never heard it.

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Not really. I get bored and angry at concerts so -- blah crappy genre not for me, for other people who like boring dome. That said, Stop Making Sense is good, good dancing, good movie decent music (not as good as on the made-for-cds, not an album of theirs I listen to except for maybe once or twice in the past).

I thought Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs was okay, parts of it were anyway. Other parts: not so good. The concert footage itself was okay even if I thought the music itself was bad for the most part (brief bit with Michael Nyman the eccention).

That's it. I saw Woodstock a long long time ago, nope, don't recall it really.

Well, I didn't see one of the three shows depicted in the film, but I did go the the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa with my 70-year-old, Alzheimer's-suffering Mom to see the Stop Making Sense Tour. She loved it, and we both danced in the aisles all night long. So when I watch the movie, it really brings back memories. Too bad they couldn't have included our show and shot some footage of my Mom , but we were at an oudoor venue. So, yes, Stop Making Sense tops my list.

I do enjoy Concert For George tremendously though. The music is good, the comedy terrific, the sentiment honest, and the whole thing is packaged really well. The talent available is incredible: Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Albert Lee, Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka, Jools Holland, Monty Python, Tom Petty, Klaus Voorman, Jeff Lynne, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison's guitarist son Dhani. I highly recommend it for both the music and the emotion. (Sorry, lines!)



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I happen to like concert films quite a bit. Especially sense a lot of the music I like is from bands that it wouldn't have been possible for me to see in concert. Stop Making Sense is my favorite, but another really good one that hasn't been mention is Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture. I was crazy about that one for awhile. Another good one is Pixies: Club Date: Live at the Paradise in Boston.

Actually, the concert flicks that I've seen and liked are as follows:

Gimme Shelter: This was an interesting film because it clearly portrayed the decline of rock concerts, in addition to giving a far more accurate, well-rounded portrayal of what really and truly often has gone on at many rock concerts.

Monterey Pops:

Concert for Bangladesh, with the late George Harrison

Woodstock: This concert flick was OK, but it was not a well-rounded out film, as they deliberately cut out the violence, bad trips, etc., to make it seem as if a gentle atmosphere pervaded there.

Spinal Tap: That was OK too.

I'll join the Stop making sense bandwagon. I also love Sigur Ros' Heima (as previously stated) and My morning jacket's Okonokos. Nothing spectacular about the latter cinematically, but the performance is incredibly energetic (they're hailed as one of the best live bands in the world and this footage definitely speaks on that behalf).

Also, Radiohead's Meeting people is easy goes brilliantly as an accompanying piece to Ok Computer. I had some problems hearing what they were saying though...maybe that was a conscious decision?*unsure*

I'm not really a fan of the Stones so Gimme shelter didn't do much for me, apart for the climax of course...Woodstock was impressive when I saw it some 10 years ago, but I was going through a mini hippy phase at the time. I think I'd still dig the music though...

I also like to pop Muse's performance at Glastonbury from 2004 in the player every once in a while. I don't think it's ever been on sale though. Such a shame I missed seeing them when they came to Croatia...I should probably get Haarp...:\

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