R.E.M. - Perfect Square

Starring:R.E.M.
Studio: Warner Bros / Wea
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Solid concert, can be enjoyed by everyone, not just REM fans!
Incessant crowd shots and contrived performance render this nearly unwatchable
Great Concert!
Good
What? R.E.M. played my hometown and I missed it? Sigh.

R.E.M. - Perfect Square
Starring: R.E.M.
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Adult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

R.E.M. - Tourfilm [Region 2]
In View - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Snap Case)
R.E.M. - This Film Is On
Road Movie
R.E.M. - Parallel

ASIN: B0001ENXYA
Release Date: 2004-03-16

Customer Reviews:

Solid concert, can be enjoyed by everyone, not just REM fans!.......2007-02-06

* The concert is in 16x9 anamorphic picture format (ideal for people with widescreen, but plays nicely on 4:3 TVs as well either letterboxed or full-screen-but-cropped edges by adjusting your tv or dvd player), with 26 chapters, 23 of which are songs. Concert duration: 105 minutes long. The Concert has a Subtitles option in five languages but the subtitles are only when Stipe speaks to the crowd (eg introducing songs). There are no subtitles when they are singing (no lyrics as subtitles).

* REM has been around for a while, and in this concert dvd they blend hit songs along with some rare and fan favorite songs, so please don't be disappointed if some of your favorite songs are not included. They could have easily made a 4-hour concert DVD and still not included everyone's favorites. They have so many good songs!

* Bonus documentary: "A Stirling performance" , 38 minutes long, in 4x3 picture format. The documentary does not have any chapters, it's just one title/chapter. The documentary also has a Subtitles option when people are speaking, but no subtitles for lyrics/songs. It chronicles the band's 1999 concert in Scotland at the Stirling Castle. It is a blend of behind the scenes footage and concert footage, but I would classify it as a music documentary of a concert (as opposed to a concert).

Incessant crowd shots and contrived performance render this nearly unwatchable.......2006-08-23

I have to agree with a previous poster "mixed feelings" here--this DVD is just *destroyed* by continuous, neverending shots of eyes-closed fans lipsyncing! I can understand the director wanting to capture the energy in the place--but it's more than distracting. I've never seen a concert DVD that devoted so much footage to delirious fans. These incessant cuts away from the show make it impossible to forget, even for a moment, that you are watching a show on DVD rather than in person.

But even with the complaint about the crowd shots aside (already a catastrophic misstep), the performance really comes off as forced and contrived. The stage (which elicits unwanted flashbacks of PopMart-era U2) and the pastel clothing set a mood, in the context of R.E.M., which just feels disingenuous. There was a time where this band wouldn't even appear in their own videos. This isn't Prince we're watching, it's R.E.M. So in this ridiculous setting, how could a song like "maps and legends" (before the sun is even down I might add) NOT fall flat?

Even R.E.M. can't pull this one off.

On the plus side, the tracklisting is varied and interesting. But these 4-and-5 star reviews really set my expectations far too high, and I was *profoundly* disappointed in this one. Definitely a disc only worth a single watch, if that.

Great Concert!.......2006-07-20

This is one of the best concerts I've seen on DVD. Not to mention one of the best actual concerts from REM. The concert is great, including pretty much any song you would want to hear, and the extras include a documentary following the group on tour in Scotland when they played at Stirling Castle. The sound and picture are both perfect on my player and I've watched this both on a tv with a sound system and on just a regular tv setup. This is a keeper for any fan of REM.

Good.......2006-01-17

Hard to believe how much this band has grown since seeing them in a small bar in Madison 23 years ago. Michael Stipe's theatrics are the most interesting and the band blends well. There is noone like REM. They are truly one of a kind :)

What? R.E.M. played my hometown and I missed it? Sigh........2005-09-13

So, not only did R.E.M. play by hometown back in 2003, they did so a week after my birthday, and I missed it. Of course having not been back in Wiesbaden for about a half-century might have something to do with it, but this is the first time I have seen anything of the place other than hostages from Iran or soldiers from the Middle East being brought to the military hospital where I was born, so that was a nice little bonus.

R.E.M. is doing an open air concert in the town of 270,000, located on right (north) bank of the Rhine River that serves as the capital of the Bundesland of Hesse in central Germany. The thing that stands out about this DVD for me is that it sounds like an actual concert, which is not necessarily a good thing, because I often have a hard time understanding what is being sung at concerts. Maybe I should have tried out some of the other audio options, but the sound was just not as crisp as I would have liked. The cinematography is rather straightforward and sedate, especially compared to some of the other concert films I have seen recently (e.g., "U2 Go Home: Live From Slane Castle").

So the chief attraction here ends up being the music (but do not expect to turn on the closed captioning to get the lyrics so you can sing along with Michael Stipe, because all you get out subtitles for his comments between songs). The play list falls one short of two dozen songs, including what is presented as a pretty long encore, and covers the entire spectrum of R.E.M.'s catalog up to that point. So you get the expected biggies ("Losing My Religion," "Man on the Moon," and Everybody Hurts," complete with raised lighters), along with lesser known song like "So Fast So Numb," and ones that go back to before the beginning in "Permanent Vacation." Stipe keeps alluding to the group's website, which apparently was used to help put together the song selections for the concert.

Stipe is still the one to watch on stage, but then Peter Buck and Mike Mills have never provided any competition in that regard (and even though Buck's playing calls attention to itself a couple of times, even if the camera is still focused on the guy singing most of the time). There is no claim here that this is the best R.E.M. concert film, because it is not. But seeing the boys from Athens perform is never going to be a waste of time. The DVD also includes the mini-documentary "Sterling Performance," which interviews the locals and the band before and after a trio of concerts R.E.M. played at Sterling Castle in July of 1999 (there are only brief clips of the band actually playing; you will get more shots of them setting up and taking down the stage).

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