Tango in the Night Concert DVD
 

This is the first thread I have started on this forum - I hope this kind of question is allowed.

For people who have watched the Tango in the Night Concert DVD: is the DVD a worthwhile purchase? I noticed that although they filmed an entire show (23 song set) only 13 songs are featured on the DVD. Obviously the DVD does not feature Lindsey because he was not part of Shake the Cage Tour, and that is a shame.

The DVD I'm looking to purchase costs $9.99 Australian and is brand new. So - worth the money?

I think it's worth $9.99, almost for the rousing Isn't it Midnight, alone.

Michele

I love that live version of Isn't it Midnight, too. But isn't it rather funny that the video spends more time on Stevie and her refilmed close-ups ("The face on the pretty girl" and "Well, isn't it midnight?") than Christine singing lead?

It's definitely worth $10 as long as you know what you're getting. The video & sound are HEAVILY edited & the entire thing is quintessentially 1980s cheesy. It's somewhat of a documentary/concert combo, but it doesn't really pull off either very well. I don't regret owning it, but I think I've honestly watched it one time. There's just not very much substance to it.

I can't Watch it cause of the WAY it's put together. just........vomit.

Mick

Everytime I pull it out and start watching, I put it right back in the box after about 1 song. I can't get past the production either. Having said that I'm glad I have it for some weird reason.

Well, each time you do that, make sure you watch a different song each time. Wend your way through the whole thing that way.:laugh:

Michele

"I Loved Another Woman" alone is worth the price.

I never found an original DVD of this concert (I used to have the tape, RIP.)

So not talking about the sound quality (my pirate dvd copy is not that good) but just the performances, I would say it is worth it anyway. My reviews:

The Chain. I don't like the Billy parts, but it's ok. You really miss Lindsey in this song.
Everywhere. Like it! It's even far better than The Dance version.
Dreams. hummm.... Stevie is too Klonopin
Seven Wonders. Good, I like it, even in spite of the Klonopin. Maybe it's the only Seven Wonders live performance in video (that's why you won't like Dreams, there are far better performances in other videos).
Isn't It Midnight. GREAT!!!!!!!
World Turning. Very cool. Some people hate these Mick solos but I do like it.
Little Lies. Cool.
Oh Well. Fine.
I Loved Another Woman. GREAT!!!!!!!
Stand Back. Very cool
Songbird. BEAUTIFUL! Very touchy
Don't Stop. Again, you will miss Lindsey here.

did anyone else notice that in the end credits stevie's close up's had it's own direction..lol.

Absolutely hilarious. Marty Callner, you just take yourself a bow.

Michele

The World Turning is really crazy on that one if I remember correctly... :laugh:

I distinctly remember not liking this version of Everywhere, since Stevie has what I feel is an obtrusive vocal line "I wanna be with you" in the refrain that's not in the studio or Dance versions. It just breaks the feel of the song, in my opinion. I like her additions to Isn't It Midnight much more.

The music sounds very, very flat. Stevie's voice sounds flat and fake (double-tracked or something??). The quality of the actual video is dull; it's "smokey"-looking. But back in the day, I bought it anyway!

Funny thing, I just recently unearthed this DVD and it was fun to watch, sometimes for all the wrong reasons!

The most redeeming content are all of Christine's performances. Stevie's role is a charade of sorts. Her voice is in the shrill range, and there is clearly post production in her vocal performances.

But the most annoying thing that stuck out is Stevie's post-production close-ups (like the ones on the Rock A Little DVD). They are so obvious, and so prominent throughout the DVD, the viewer is repeatedly reminded that Stevie is the star!

She's the only one in the band who gets special treatment -- screen-hogging close ups of her face, slow-motion and pause effects, etc... It's so blatant it's funny. It's amazing to see the size of ego that goes into these efforts to manage/control her image. All her close ups were filmed in a studio, after the fact, with her own hired crew. Ultimately, it comes off a bit desperate and silly.

What was featured was just a portion of the entire show. Why are they so stingy?

For only $10 how can you not? It's a nice little time capsule of the 80's. Stevie at her megalomaniac best, sticking extra lines in songs and having her own close up. I swear she needed the extra close ups just so her hair would fit into the screen. If they didn't do it they would have had to put everyone else up on boxes so they'd all fit on the screen at the same time. But her outfits are superb. And I love the arrangement of Seven Wonders. I think the ending works better live than on the album cut. And I know I'm in the minority here but I love her extra little bit in Everywhere is great. I think Christine trying to sing the little "do do do's" at the end doesn't really work. That really should have been a keyboard. And whoever did the sound mix should have brought up the background vocals for that part. I think they were trying to do something like they did with Eyes of the World during the Mirage tour doing some interesting vocal play but since you can't hear the background singers as much it makes Chris sound silly. But I love the video of the rehearsal and everyone vamping it up for the camera. That's the highlight of the whole video for me and worth the $10 alone. I'd say get it. It's fun. Not the best FM performance there is out there but still, very fun.

Doesn't the ending bit sound basically the same on The Dance?

Yes, it does. They pretty much did the exact same arrangement except without Stevie. I always had this fantasy that somewhere on the cutting room floor there's one shot of Christine launching into to the chorus giving Stevie a look of "so help me, if you even..."

Oh yes. The bold way Stevie chimed in made me think she might as well have gone up there and banged a gong on Everywhere. Michele

Hahaha!!!! That made me laugh!! :xoxo: I keep getting visuals...

That reminds me of this French & Saunders clip where Jennifer Saunders is trying anything she can to get just a little bit of attention away from Dawn French's Stevie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fQ8ATZX_8s

I love Tango DVD... I just like it... Stevie is behaving a little weird thanks to Klonopin, but I like that too... it´s just another style of performing. The Chain is great, Stand Back, Isn´t It Midnight... amazing... I´d love to see the whole concert, there is no quality video of Tango tour and here are just 13 songs... not much. They played another good stuff - Sara, Say You Love Me, Over My Head, Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You, Brown Eyes, Blue Letter, You Make Loving Fun, Don´t Let Me Down Again, Gypsy, Rhiannon... at least I have some audio recordings :) Tango was good tour, also because they played many Europe cities... :)

QUESTION ABOUT STEVIE'S POST-PRODUCTION FILMED CLOSE-UPS?

Why did Stevie choose to do this? This looks somewhat ridiculous. In subsequent filmed live concerts (THE DANCE, LIVE IN BOSTON, SOUNDSTAGE) she did not choose to go the re-filmed close up route. Did she not care for the way she looked in these filmed live shows? Thank goodness she got over this phase. She looks fantastic in THE DANCE video.

The Red Rocks video was even worse.

I watch this video at least once a month. And I always have felt a Christine vibe from Saunders!!

I have the Red Rocks video and I don't think I've ever made it through the whole thing. :(

Funny. I do like it because of Stevie addition (kind of a different touch). Well, not only that. I do like how Christine sing it. I find more feeling in her voice than in The Dance version.

Christine is definitely carrying this concert. I liked her on Everywhere, it was just Stevie I had the problem with and unfortunately that impacted my view of how the song sounded for the Tango concert. I love Isn't It Midnight and Little Lies, especially since those are the only live performances recorded of those songs (though there are a few recordings from this tour and 1990 uploaded to YouTube). In my opinion those songs sound very good! It's just funny how you're watching Isn't It Midnight and Stevie's face covers the entire screen for her one line, while it's clearly a Christine song and she has just a few shots in the entire song. Quite hilarious to see people calling these days the Stevie = megalomaniac days. I don't think she's ever burned down a whole city like Nero, but I can see how the word fits.

Two other things: Red Rocks is an awful recording. I couldn't make it past the first few songs (though it's obviously a beautiful location). Also, Michelle, your gong comparison was exactly what I had in mind.

Edit: I loved the FM spoof. Mick in the background looking crazy, John sleeping, the Dawn French version of a FM song...great parody!

I always thought the god awful use of filmed close-ups made the video appear one dimensional and constrained. It's like after the Red Rocks video they took the close up idea went way overboard. It's a horrible production. I do like Stevie's vocals on Seven Wonders though.

Funny you should mention liking Stevie's vocals. I really liked the sound of the "enhanced" vocal version of Dreams and downloaded it for my iPod, since it sounded so totally different from other versions, like the "Women they will come and they will.........................(cue close-up look) go" toward the end.

The close-ups make it seem like she's looking at the camera the entire show.

She sounds wonderful, no doubt. How different from The Dance video, where she is like feelingless (except for Songbird).

The Tango in the Night DVD is okay. I don't care for the slow motion, smokey look, and those Stevie close-ups. The performances are great with my fav's being Isn't It Midnight, Gold Dust Woman, and The Chain. :cool:

That, plus the whole Klonopin thing made me not sad to see her go and Bekka come in (although they screwed that up). Stevie became a parody of her former self, which was sad and hard to watch.

Her performance at San Francisco (the dvd show) was at the edge of a decent behavior. But other shows from that tour weren't that lucky. A very close friend of mine who lives in LA went to the Mac show in 1987. I always remember she told me that a guy at the stage walked toward Stevie to give her a bunch of flowers. She kept still, like a zombie and barely noticed the flowers were for her. Christine saved the show, my friend said.

Fortunately those days are gone. Glad to see Stevie is clean and survived.

I was at the Cow Palace in San Francisco where this video was shot. It was my first ever FM concert (1987) and I was totally blown away! Rick Vito and Billy Burnette rocked that place. Mick completely blew my mind with "World Turning", as did the percussionist (Asante?) on that tour and the "Behind The Mask" tour a few years later. It was just incredible.

I bought the VHS (pre DVD years) and practically wore it out. "Isn't It Midnight", "I Loved Another Woman", "Oh Well", "The Chain" are all favourites from that time. What I liked about "The Chain" was how nobody (Rick or Billy) jumped in over John's bass solo. I've always thought Lindsey sort of cuts John off and this version sort of lets John stand out. It is (in my opinion), one of the greatest bass solos in rock history. "I Loved Another Woman" and "Oh Well" were definite "throwback" versions, paying homage to the band's blues roots, something basically completely lost in the B/N era. "Isn't It Midnight" just rocked back then. Superior to the album version in my opinion.

I agree with the production of the video with others comments. Mainly I liked the video from the standpoint of listening to the music on the video, even though there was a lot of post production editing and so on.

I would buy it again, mainly for sentimental value having been at one of the shows where it was shot, and for the ability to listen to the music in those versions again. I'd say worth the money.

I bought the DVD and watched it this morning. It was definitely over-edited, I agree. Stevie's backing vocals in Everywhere sounded as though they were added in post production. It was too choppy - too many quick changes of where the camera was focused. Did not like the merging of back stage footage with on stage performances of the songs. I like to watch what the band are doing on stage. Disappointed that Stevie did not rock out while singing Stand Back - no twirls, no dancing.

Hightlights were Isn't it Midnight, Little Lies, Seven Wonders, Oh Well, I Loved Another Woman and Songbird. Mick's drum solo was cool though I liked the 2003 version better. Mick appeared to tell a camera-man filming backstage to "**** off" at one point which was funny. Maybe my lip reading skills are not up to scratch. I would rate the DVD maybe 6/10. The sound quality was fairly good. If you were to close your eyes, or just play the DVD with the TV screen turned off, you would probably appreciate it more. It is worth watching - just be warned the production/editing is a little disorientating.

Having watched the Tango in the Night DVD, The Dance DVD and a lot of Live in Boston 2003 videos on YouTube; The Dance is still my favourite. Love both the 1997 and 2003 versions of Silver Springs. The Dance DVD has my favourite filmed performance of Everywhere, plus the four new songs which rock, especially Temporary One and My Little Demon.

The DVD was definitely worth $11 (was charged $1 online order fee). :D

As a side note, does anyone else think that Stevie wears a lot more make-up than she did in the 80's/90's/00's? She appears overly made-up in videos from the current tour, like a gorgeous clown. Second side note, where in Australia can I buy Live in Boston 2003 (DVD)? The DVD needs to be Region 4 to work in my DVD player.

I don't agree. She did not appear feelingless to me. She appeared to have quite a few sad moments (I think my Mum noticed this too)... as though she had seriously thought about retiring already (she probably had). There were jovial, upbeat moments for her too though. Think Lindsey: We were all in the studio together and we said, Hey this feels pretty good. Isn't that weird? Christine, laughing: That is pretty weird. Later, Lindsey: I knew he'd get a drum solo in there somewhere. Christine, chuckling again: You can't stop him! And she appeared genuinely enthusiastic and excited about performing Don't Stop with a brass section for the first time. She looked a little cross (maybe terse is a better word?) while playing piano on one of Stevie's songs, I think it was Silver Springs or Rhiannon...she scowled, just for a moment. Anyway, she did seem to display a fair bit of emotion.

I agree. To me Christine looks fine on the Dance dvd. It was later on in the tour that she started to look not so happy in my perception.

Michele

Yes, maybe I exaggerated saying feelingless. Christine had her moments at The Dance (video). But anyway I think she was far more joyful at Tango video. It is when I compare both shows that I find her distant in The Dance.