Is this the best concert movie ever?

I'm quite a fan of Pink Floyd's "Live At Pompeii". Beardy prog-rock wizards rule! :)

The Manic Street Preachers' Live at the Millennium Stadium (the gig they held on New Year's Eve 1999 to mark the turning of the new century is pretty awesome, though they don't play nearly enough of their earlier material.

Also, although it's more of a concert compilation than a straight-up concert video, The Who's "Kids Are Alright" is pretty good, since it's got all manner of material assembled from the full breadth of the Keith Moon era (63-78).

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I would have to say that Rust Never Sleeps is my favorite concert movie. I love Heart Of Gold but I can only watch it so many times. I can watch Rust Never Sleeps anytime and that performance of Hey Hey, My My is just mesmerizing. The Last Waltz is another great film and I love Neil Young's version of Helpless on the film, but I wish there was more footage of the songs. Woodstock is a great movie, but it's more of a documentary. I think one of the best non-Neil Young concert movies is Pink Floyd's Pulse. I just got it on DVD a few weeks ago and it is simply amazing. Best light show ever filmed and Dave Gilmour's guitar playing is better than ever. Extended Comfortably Numb solo at the end. It's my 2nd favorite concert film next to Rust Never Sleeps. If you like even one Pink Floyd song, you should go out and buy Pulse. It's well worth it.

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the who's kids are alright (although it's a compilation rather than a single show) the led zeppelin dvd (not the song remains the same) and live at pompei are my other favorites.

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I agree. But I'm also biased because I'm such a fan.
I'm so glad I own this particular DVD!

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Yes it's the best. Cinnamon Girl can never be loud enough, EVER.

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Best concert movie? Stop Making Sense, hands down. It really should be called 'performance art'.

But this is close. I was thinking the other day how far ahead of it's time a lot of it is (who needs 'grunge' with this much raw power?) If I had to show someone from Mars what 'rock' was about, I'd show 'em this.

But the tech just wasn't there yet to pull off the little skits. I saw the tour and people had NO idea what was going on in the audience. If it had been made even 5 years later it would've been -much- cooler as a 'movie'.

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Is this the best concert movie ever?

I personally think it is but I'm a huge Neil Young fan so I'm a bit biased. - dwdavidson52

"Ever" is a mighty strong word. Have you seen every concert film ever made?

I haven't, so there is no way I'd say it's the best-ever. However, of the concert films I have seen, Rust Never Sleeps is not the best I've seen.

What fascinates me is the question "what exactly constitutes a concert film?" That may sound silly and obvious, but consider this: You mention The Last Waltz. Is that more of a documentary, or more of a concert film? (The same can be said for U2's Rattle and Hum, which always struck me as a post-punk Last Waltz.) And, yes, I realize that that concert can be the "documentary" as it is depicting an actual event; I'm referring to the non-concert activity such as interview segments.

One of Frank Zappa's best-known "concert" films is Baby Snakes, and the bulk of it is indeed live performance although it is prefaced by some fairly amazing clay animation and intercut with crude backstage shenanigans. The Who's The Kids Are Alright is a compendium of live appearances from throughout the band's career with a few interview segments thrown in. Then there is Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same, which is primarily concert footage from the same tour--but, man, those fantasy sequences can be pretty awful!

But even if we define what constitutes the content of a concert film, there are still a few questions about what would make it the "best," or at least "among the best." For instance, is the "best" the quality of the music itself? Or is it the quality of the film-making? Or both?

For me, I think Neil Young: Heart of Gold is a better concert film than Rust Never Sleeps even though I think the repertoire in Rust is better. The Young album Prairie Wind is fine but not at the caliber of Young's work at the height of his powers; it makes up the first half of Heart of Gold, while Young and his band cover old favorites in the second half. Yet, cinematically, Heart of Gold looks better--it's more incisive, sharply focused, and perceptive, whereas director "Bernard Shakey" (AKA Neil Young) in Rust lacks that incisiveness.

And it's no surprise, as the director of Heart of Gold is Jonathan Demme, who directed the best pure-concert film I've ever seen, Stop Making Sense featuring Talking Heads. In the same way, The Last Waltz is quite effective because the director is Martin Scorsese, who, like Demme, knows how to make films; conversely, Baby Snakes, which does have some great music, is not that great because Zappa didn't know how to make films--at least economical ones, as Snakes does chunter on.

And if we think of "best" as having some significance to what it encapsulates, then my vote for the best I've seen is Woodstock, which is uneven in terms of the music it presents (yes, Sha Na Na was not a strong inclusion) and, yes, it is long, but it captures a prime historical moment. So does Gimme Shelter for that matter, as it is the antithesis of Woodstock.

Finally, there is that question of bias you raise. If a musical performer is your favorite, or one of them, then it is harder to look more objectively. But it can be done. Zappa has been my favorite musical artist and composer for a quarter-century now, but I can't say that Baby Snakes is the best concert film I've seen because it isn't, partly for the reasons I stated above. (I can't even say that it would be the FZ concert film I'd recommend to viewers/listeners wanting to learn more about FZ; that would probably be Does Humor Belong in Music?)

With respect to Rust Never Sleeps, I first saw it right around the time it came out; as a Neil Young fan I loved it, and I went out and bought the live album Live Rust as well. (In fact, I keep wanting to call the film Live Rust because of the album.) Over the years, the lustre of the live album has faded, and within the last year or so, I did see the movie again.

It's fine, but it's not exceptional. I think the strongest segment is Young's solo acoustic performance in the beginning; it almost has a theme, or feel, of childhood and innocence that gives the songs ("Sugar Mountain," "I Am a Child," "After the Goldrush") poignancy. Then Crazy Horse comes on, and their renditions can be pretty heavy-handed. Also adding some head-scratching are the "Roadeyes" and all the between-song, Woodstock- and Star Wars-evoking distractions.

All of which doesn't really answer the question, "what do we mean by a 'concert film,' let alone what makes one of them the 'best-ever'?"

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"We hear very little, and we understand even less." - Refugee in Casablanca

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