David Gilmour in Concert
Directed by David Mallet
Capitol Records DVD, 2002
Filmed at the Royal Festival Hall
London, England
June 22, 2001
January 17, 2002

Reviewed by Bleech_

You know you're in trouble when it takes 'Coming Back to Life' to ramp up the energy level.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves though. This is a moody, woderfully-shot record of Gilmour's (mostly) acoustic solo performance for Robert Wyatt's Meltdown festival in the early summer of 2001. Ironically enough this solo performance almost has more people onstage than PULSE and In the Flesh, featuring backup guitar and vocals from Neill MacColl, drums from Nick France, a spot of sax from our favorite amiable old codger Dick Parry, the omnipresent Michael Kamen (truly the Steve Allen of rock) on piano and oboe, a galaxy of woo-woo guys and dolls (including Floyd woo-woo stalwarts Sam Brown, Claudia Fontaine, and Durga McBroom), some lovely cello from Caroline Dale, and the obligatory embarassing bouncing showboat Chucho Merchan handling bass duties. Mr. Wyatt himself does a walk...er, roll-on for 'Comfortably Numb'. Added footage also features Batman's arch-nemesis Bob Geldof and a rather bookish-looking Rick Wright.

The blessing and curse of such 'unplugged'-style performances is that they tend to be, at best, moving tributes to musicianship or, at worst, a boring novelty item. Where does this performance fall ? Well, if you ask me, squarely in the middle leaning ever-so-slightly towards 'novelty'. We begin with an (almost) all-acoustic runthrough of the first half of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'...for the first couple of minutes, it sounds like a stoned guy trying desperately to tune his guitar and pluck out 'Uncle John's Band' or something, but things gradually level off leaving us with a pleasant-enough soft version of the song. But then Dick Parry unwisely strolls out for the sax solo, which ends up sounding jarringly out of place with the rest of the tune.

Dave plays Syd Barrett's 'Terrapin'. I check my watch and wonder if purchasing this wasn't a mistake as this competent but unremarkable rendition peals forth. Thankfully things perk up a little with the pastoral 'Fat Old Sun', which is always nice to hear even if it is lacking the powerful electric solo in the middle. We jump straight from that 30-years-dormant chestnut into the more recent unpleasantness of 'Coming Back to Life'. Okay, that's hardly fair as this track is immensely improved by substituting a woo-woo 'choir' for the pomp and bombast of the 1994 Floyd renditions...not to mention it's a nice little jump in what has thus far been a very lethargic watching experience. Unfortunately this is also the first time we get to see Chucho Merchan began grooving like he was in the audience at a Phish concert and doing his best imitation of the Fonz. Aaaaaaaaaaay.

From there we bounce into a subdued, slightly menacing rendition of 'High Hopes' that manages to largely retain its' emotional impact despite being stripped down (as well as having an oboe added). It also features the second electric guitar solo of the show. The hits keep on coming with 'Je Crois Entendre Encore', a quiet and pretty song (despite being in the language of the accursed French) right before we set sail for Limpwrist Island with a new song called 'Smile'. The first new material from Gilmour in what seems like a century comes across rather unremarkable and boring here. We settle down at our campsite on Limpwrist Island and build a fire, then run through 'Wish You Were Here' for the fifty millionth goddamn time. Speaking of overexposure, this is followed by the eleventh released version of 'Comfortably Numb'. Robert Wyatt's gravel-choked voice fills in for Roger Waters' old vocal parts before the shortest, most unremarkable guitar solo Gilmour has ever played on the tune. I realize I'm whacking great hunks of beef off of a sacred cow here, but this version does absolutely nothing for me. After going through a nice-enough but unmemorable cover of Richard Thompson's 'The Dimming of the Day', we hit another one of the show's peaks with the second half of 'Shine On', featuring a very nice lap steel solo from lovable ol' Dave. This second half comes off far more polished and powerful than the somewhat-lackluster first half. We once again scale Mediocrity Mountain with 'A Great Day for Freedom' before closing with 'Hushabye Mountain', which is nice enough but not, you know, boss.

Aaaah but it's not over yet...after this we have some footage from January 17's show in London, featuring an enjoyable bouncy go at Syd Barrett's 'Dominoes' and Rick Wright strolling out to sing and play 'Breakthrough' from his nearly-invisible 1996 album 'Broken China'. Rick actually looks better by far here than he did in PULSE or Behind the Wall, and with the help of Dave and Friends turns what was a forgettable song into a downbeat joy to behold. Sir Bob Geldof then strolls on for a version of 'Comfortably Numb' which manages - just barely - to surpass the earlier snoozeworthy attempt with Wyatt. This portion of the show ends as Geldof launches balloons filled with Smilex gas over the audience.

Visually, the whole affair is moody and dimly-lit...the lively colors of 'In the Flesh' are largely absent, but that's generally far more appropriate for these concerts anyway. The sound is what you would expect from a modern DVD production, although given the nature of the show you certainly shouldn't expect to have sound effects whizzing about your home theater.

Aaaaah, where would the DVD industry be without extras ? Well we have three bonafide full tracks here...the first, a 1992 attempt at 'I Put a Spell On You' with Mica Paris and jovial British TV host Jools Holland, is nothing amazing, but not a bad version of the tune at all. And Mica Paris makes better eye candy than Uncle Pete anyway. The second, a rendition of 'Don't' from a tribute concert to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller a week after the Meltdown show itself, is a pleasant listen. The third, a reading of Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 18' with Michael Kamen accompanying on piano, is very sparse and largely forgettable, despite the Yanni-esque video footage from around the Astoria. Not exactly the 'Signs of Life' film revisited.

Believe it or not, this avalanche of extras continues with 'Home Movie', footage allegedly shot on wife and sometimes-collaborator Polly Samson's digital camcorder. It's mostly just runthroughs with the "choir", with the only really memorable part being Dave's awkward attempt to explain what 'Je Crois Entendre Encore' is all about. There's also the same short choral rendition of a 'High Hopes' segment found on the 'Wright Back in London' set. Last but not least is 'Spare Digits', consisting entirely of extreme closeup shots of Gilmour's fingers as he plays guitar solos. Dave himself described this part as being "for guitar anoraks", and I'd tend to agree with that assessment.

So there you have it. Even if the performance itself is spotty at times, enough of the two performances are good and the disc itself has enough extras for any serious Floyd/Gilmour fan to consider it worth a purchase. File under "Recommended, but Not Essential".

'Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)'	'Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)'	'Breakthrough'
Santa Clau-, er, Robert Wyatt	'Breakthrough'	Holy Live Aid, Batman!!!
'Home Movie'	'I Put a Spell On You'	'Sonnet 18'