The concert calendar is bare right now. But there are plenty of live CDs and DVDs out there to fill up your nights. Best of all, you don’t have to or shell out $5 a beer — or wear pants.
R.E.M.
Live at the Olympia
Rock
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
“This is not a show,” warns bassist Mike Mills at the start of this three-disc affair. Fair enough; these 2007 gigs — taped over five nights in Dublin — find the Georgia rockers eschewing hits for previously unreleased tunes, lesser-known fare and works-in-progress from Accelerate. It may not be a show, but with 39 tunes and an hour-long DVD doc, it’s as close as you need to get.
Download: Staring Down the Barrel of Middle Distance, Disguise
Beyonce
I Am...Yours: An Intimate Performance at
Wynn Las Vegas
R&B
Sun Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Only Beyonce would think an “intimate” theatre gig should include her massive all-girl band, an orchestra, lasers, dancers, costume changes and a wind machine to keep her hair blowing majestically. And only Beyonce could pull it all together as superbly as she does in this 98-minute Sin City show, chronicling her career from Destiny’s Child to Dreamgirls to Single Ladies.
Download: If I Were a Boy, Crazy in Love
Neil Young
Dreamin’ Man Live ’92
Folk
Sun Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Neil’s getting ahead of himself again. This solo acoustic compilation from his Harvest Moon tour is the fifth live disc released in his Archives Performance Series — though it’s labelled Vol. 12. While you wait (and wait) for Young to fill in the gaps, settle back and enjoy these beautiful bare-bones renditions of all 10 tunes from this mellow, endearingly folksy entry in his discography.
Download: One of These Days, Harvest Moon
Stephen Stills
Live at Shepherd’s Bush
Folk-Rock
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
Between Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, Manassas and his solo albums, singer-guitarist Stills has no shortage of material. This 14-track concert from last year in England covers the ground quite handily, with the 64-year-old seamlessly seguing from solo acoustic folk classics to full-blown rock-band workouts — while showcasing his magnificent guitar skills every step of the way.
Download: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, For What It’s Worth
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Live
Psychedelic-Rock
Sun Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Say what you will about BRMC, you can’t call them stingy. The Los Angeles garage-punk trio doesn’t hold anything back on its first live release — the three-disc set has one DVD with more than two hours of appropriately stark, murky and herky-jerky concert footage; a second DVD with extra performances, studio footage and documentaries; and a CD with 14 of the tunes. Phew.
Download: Weapon of Choice, Dirty Old Town
Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Phil Ochs
Amchitka: The Concert that Launched Greenpeace
Folk
Sun Rating: 3.5 out of 5
In 1970, folkies Mitchell, Taylor and Ochs played a benefit in Vancouver for a fledgling group called Greenpeace that planned to protest nuclear weapons testing in Alaska. Whatever your politics, there’s nothing to protest in the unplugged, easygoing performances gathered here on two CDs. It seems nobody filmed the historic event, but a 46-page booklet tells the story.
Download: Big Yellow Taxi/Boney Maroney by Joni Mitchell
Robyn Hitchcock
I Often Dream of Trains
in New York
Folk-Rock
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
Singer-songwriter Hitchcock’s 1984 acoustic album I Often Dream of Trains is regarded as a landmark in his idiosyncratic career. On its 25th anniversary, the 56-year-old British eccentric revisited, revised and recreated the eclectic disc in its entirety for a small audience in New York City. This 88-minute gig also includes plenty of his bizarrely erudite between-song banter.
Download: Uncorrected Personality Traits, Sounds Great When You’re Dead
Il Divo
An Evening With Il Divo Live in Barcelona
Popera
Sun Rating: 3 out of 5
Live DVDs aren’t just for the kids. Give Mom a holiday treat with the latest concert CD and DVD from international popera quartet Il Divo. She can swoon as suave Sebastien, boy-next-door David, stylish Urs and Latin lover Carlos croon ballads, belt out arias and imperceptibly glide around their gigantic rock-concert stage set like male models in a feature-length Armani ad.
Download: Unbreak My Heart, Nights in White Satin
Protest the Hero
Gallop Meets the Earth
Prog-Metal
Sun Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Toronto’s Protest the Hero is one of those bands that must be seen to be believed — if only to prove to yourself that the post-hardcore mathletes can really play those harmonized guitar arpeggios at warp-factor 5. Along with the 48-minute club gig included here on CD and DVD, you get a longer director’s cut, music videos, backstage shenanigans and even angry fan mail.
Download: Bloodmeat, Blindfolds Aside
