Less Talk, More Rock

First, I should be clear that I am a fan of Sting, and a fan of the Police. I have a few Sting concerts, I've seem him live once, and I was pleased to have Netflix shipping me "Bring on the Night". It was made shortly after Sting's departure from the Police, and was made about the same time as his first solo album "Dream of the Blue Turtles". I have the double CD, which I love because it contains some great Police songs, as well as most of the songs from "Dream of the Blue Turtles" an album I still enjoy.

I guess I was expecting the DVD to be the same concert as the CD. I was wrong, and I was disappointed. "Bring on the Night", the DVD, is more of a documentary with lots and lots of talk by Sting, and the musicians working with him. If you are up for that, there's plenty of it. Myself, I find it incredibly boring, I rent concert DVDs to see my favorite musicians PLAY music, not talk about it. I also agree with the other reviewers that the worst interviews were those with Sting's manager, Miles Copeland, who comes off as a real obnoxious jerk! In the first hour of the show, only snippets of many of Stings "Dream of the Blue Turtles" album are played in the recording studio, each interrupted by talk. Well you know what I didn't like, let me tell you what I did like.

The one highlight for me in the first half was a spontaneous performance of "The Flintstones" by Sting and his very talented friends (including jazz great Winston Marsalis). If you are a big Sting fan, it may be worth picking this up just to hear him sing that!

Sting has one hell of a line up on this DVD and when they actually play its a wonderful blend of jazz and rock that really sounded great. In the later half of the documentary many songs are played the whole way through in concert, including "Shadows in the Rain", Fortress Around Your Heart", "We Work the Black Seam", "I Burn for You", "Roxanne", "Been Down so Long", "If you Love Someone, Set them Free", "Demolition Man" and "Message in a Bottle". I especially enjoyed Sting singing "Message in a Bottle" because he sang by himself as the credits rolled.

A full version of "Children's Crusade" was performed in the studio, and the full "Russians" was heard, while video of Sting's wife Trudy giving birth to their son was shown. I, as one of the other reviews here, feel these things are private family matters,and didn't really think it was appropriate in a concert video. When you are allowed to hear Sting in the studio or in concert, him and his fantastic jazz band sounded great, I have no complaints whatsoever about the music. I just wish I had known this was more of a documentary than a concert. If you like documentary's, the banter is somewhat interesting, I personally didn't find much of it very insightful, but you may. If you are looking for a great Sting concert, you may be better off with one of his other many fine releases that focus more on the whole concert experience, like "The Brand New Day Tour" or (only on VHS as of this writing) "The Soul Cages Concert". However, if you are a huge Sting fan, its a worthy addition to your collection, and there is a good 50 minutes of music, including the theme from "The Flintstones" plus a few videos.

VIDEOS:
Yes as a bonus, this DVD includes 3 videos "Bring on the Night", "If you love someone, Set them Free" and "Russians". They are the same ones shown on MTV and VH1.

Sound Quality:
I tend to think Sting is a perfectionist, because the three soundtracks (Dolby Digital Surround, DTS 5.1, and stereo) all sound great. My personal favorite was the DTS, I usually find that DTS is deeper and richer than Dolby Digital and this concert was no exception. The sound, whether in the studio or in concert, was clear as a bell, and every talented musician in Sting's ensemble could be clearly heard. The soundstage was well presented, so the ambient effect of the studio and the concert hall is recreated.

Video Quality:
Again, no faults here, the DVD is shot in 16:9 format in a good DVD quality video, and everyone looked great. I enjoyed the shots of the recording studio, because they recorded in what appeared to be a huge villa or castle, and it was very beautiful.

Experiment:

You won't find naked pictures of Britney Spears in this movie or hot photos of Jessica Simpson. No nude photos of Lucy Lui or nude, naked celebrites or naked actresses are anywhere in the movie. Nor is there information on Atkins Diet, or any other hot internet topics.

Final Grades:
The quality of this video gets an A in both sound and video. The music, when played in full, gets A's.
I give the overall presentation a C, but you know why I didn't like it, too much talk, not enough rock (or as the case may be a rock/jazz fusion), so you may say I am not being fair, but I hope I've given you enough information for you to determine whether YOU will enjoy this, which I think overall is the point of epinions.

Review Equipment: DVD was played on a Pioneer Elite 47A with component outs for the video, and optical out for the audio. Amplification and processing was from a Yamaha AV 5280 100 w/ch surround sound receiver, except the front channels, which were amplified by a dedicated Rotel RB 991 200 w/ch stereo amplifier. Speakers were Polk Audio Monitor 70s Front Left and Right, and Polk Audio Csi40 Center, and R20s for surrounds. Subwoofer was a Velodyne SPL 1000 series II (1000 watts/2000 watt peak) with the crossover set at 80 Hz. Projection was from an Optoma H30 DLP projector onto a 105" Dalite Cinemavision movie screen.