The concert itself has already been reviewed by ash` as 'Venice 1989'...while many of his criticisms still stand for this outstanding transfer by the fine folks over at Harvested, a few of them disappear. The impermeable darkness and murk that so bedevilled his copy of the show are somewhat diminished here, but problems still remain. Those problems, however, are entirely the fault of the broadcast itself and not the video transfer, which is zestfully clean. When objects or players have a bit of light on them, or lasers pop up, they are colorful and vibrant, but they really should have used some extra lighting while filming this show...as my colleague ash` has pointed out in the 'Venice 1989' review, it is almost impossible to get any sense of scale here. Overall however, I would be a bit more kind to this show than he is...while not without its' problems, it's certainly a less stale and stodgy production than 'The Delicate Sound of Thunder' turned out to be.

On to the extras...first up are a pair of clips from the always-asinine 'Entertainment Tonight', the first only a brief mention of the show itself (and the fact that it was attended by Woody Allen and Tom Cruise, whoopity-doo), and the second a brief blurb on the political hot water that the mayor and councilmen of Venice found themselves in shortly therafter.

A trio of Italian newsclips come afterwards. In the first, a woman speaks rapid Italian over video of hundreds of boats cramming into Venice's Grand Canal hours before the concert. The second is more of the same, with some stage setup shots included. The final clip is the most interesting of the three, where we get to see the horrendous mess left behind after the show, dozens of hippies sleeping on the sidewalk, gulls picking at piles of garbage in the streets, and a silly clip of Scott Page pretending to play guitar during 'Run Like Hell'. Just when you're thinking "this news clip has EVERYTHING!", they throw in some public urination footage to sweeten the pot. It's all in Italian, but you can figure out what they're talking about.

The only thing missing by the end of these news clips is Scott Page's viking funeral upon the Grand Canal, which was cut from the broadcast. Fly true to Valhalla, lil buddy.

In the end, I would second ash`s opinion that this video is better for rounding out your collection than starting it. An outstanding presentation of a middling show.

'Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part I)'	'Yet Another Movie'
'Dogs of War'	'On the Turning Away'

Screen Captures are from Harvested's 'Pink Floyd á Venezia'

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