Tour Of The Universe : Barcelona 20/21.11.09 [2DVD+2CD] [NTSC]

A hardcore fan's impression of the 2xDVD, first the positives:

+ Audio is fantastic, probably best live audio ever. This based on the PCM stereo track.
+ Martin Gore's voice - I'd say this is also probably better than ever, so rich and warm. All of his songs are highlights to me (we get no less than 7 including the Little soul rehearsal!), both because of his voice, his stage presence (just look at his moves during Jezebel) and the choice of songs, of course. What about another Martin solo tour?
+ Loads of great extras:
> The documentary by Roland Brown is a gem as always.
> Insight is probably my very highlight of the set, so wish I'd got to experience that live.
> The rehearsals - Wrong sounds absolutely amazing, to hear it in such a crisp version without the audience, with Dave Gahan's voice almost as good as on the studio version, wow!
> Sister of night - never thought I'd get to hear this live in a full band version, again so wish I'd been there myself.
> Screens and Sounds of the universe videos - good to have them there, although they're not very exciting (also, there should have been the option to "play all")
+ We've been spoiled with digipaks for the DMDVDs and this is no exception, the slipcase is even embossed this time (the Blu-ray case sure looks dull in comparison).
+ Although they may feel a bit redundant with the PCM stereo track also on the DVD, the CDs are a nice bonus as the audio is what's really good about the main feature - actually, many songs seem to get better if you just listen to them without getting distracted by the video, see below.

Then to the negatives:

- The filming/direction of the concert - to me, there's no doubt this is their visually worst live DVD yet. My main memories is out of focus shots, long distance shots, arms in the way of the camera and close ups of Dave's tattoos, Martin's guitar etc, while we almost NEVER get any facial close-ups of neither Dave nor Martin when they sing! Also, the video screen creates some very disturbing effects from certain angles, guess it's something to do with the frequency of that compared to the cameras, it's like a circular "ghost" pattern moving on the screen which makes the video quality feel very low. (Or may this be an DVD issue only, not present on the Blu-ray?)
- The setlist/versions - no matter how great the audio is nothing can change the fact that this was their most uninspired tour ever, relying almost solely on played to death 86>93 material. On top of that the DVD was shot when 3 of the few highlights (Peace, Master and servant, Strangelove) had been dropped - the fact that the only songs from the main set not to have featured on any of the previous 3 live DVDs are the 5 from Sound of the universe + Dressed in black (acoustic, of course) really tells it all. May be good if you've never experienced a DM live DVD before and prefer the old material, but for the rest of us, it's just a repetition of past merits.
- Dave's voice is a disappointment, being very flat, just listen to Fly on the windscreen or Wrong. As I remember from the shows I was at, he sounded much better, maybe he had some problems with his throat when this was recorded?
- DVD is NTSC only, meaning 18% of the vertical resolution is lost, add to that the 2.25:1 format and the image gets even smaller.
- Hole to feed and 2 of the montages are presented in letter-boxed 4:3.
- The booklet consists of low quality screenshots only - if Anton Corbijn wasn't available then why not get another proper photographer?

Overall - visually a big let down, but thanks to Martin Gore and the extras worth getting.

Bought as a gift for a big Depeche Mode fan so no worries there potentially great, loads of songs,loads of extras but missing a few old favorites. I don't think this was a big critical hit as DM tours go, this doesn't matter to a true fan.
Audio is good the band look a bit tired but put alot into the performance and lots of emotion. Nice packaging.

Why one star ?? Well this is a concert film and this is where it fails, the photography and direction are bad. We want to see the band and the stage, we see mainly the audience and various random close ups of band members. Most of the camera work comes from the cameras in the audience. We see many out of focus shots of the band from the perspective of the standing crowd so most shots are framed by the arms of the crowd. There are a few 'arty shots' from the lighting rig!!
The band put on a visual show with images on a screen behind them , this was not shown.
I am suprised that for such an iconic band they didn't take this oppurtunity to showcase their show properly, I wonder if they actually saw this film before it was released, I somehow doubt it!!

This is a missed oppurtunity, you can see the crowd loved the show, it would have bee great to get a good view of what they saw!!! Instead we get an annoying view of the crowd and loads of arms and blurred shots possibly filmed by someone trying to be 'arty' my advise is to avoid this even for true fans, the video of this is unlikely to be played again ever by us!!!!

Please please DM get a proper film maker for your next concert film.

As i stood in the shop, i used quite a while to decide whether i should buy The Dvd, Cd+Dvd or the Blu Ray Version. I ended up buying the Blu Ray because it's the first one released by DM.

First of all. I like the way that the concert is filmed. They have placed cameras different places of the stage. So you get some interesting angles. For instance sometimes you see the band from behind the big screen, which i think gives a good visual effect. Compared to the previous tour dvd, this dvd is filmed more easy on the eye. (No fast clips.)

The setlist is almost identic to the previous tours. Interesting songs are Dressed In Black which is a classic from Black Celebration. Also Insight from Ultra, which is a bonus track on disc 2. One of the great things is that although you have heard these songs live many times before, is that the versions are different. One of my favourites are Home, sung beautifully by Martin Gore in an acoustic piano version, performed by Peter Gordeno. Another highlight is I Feel You. I Especially like Dave and Martin doing some headbanging in front of the drums.

Apart from the concert. On disc 2 there are some documentary. Ca 35 minutes. The band are talking about the problems at the start of the tour. I was quite impressed to learn that the stage took 4-5 hours to set up, and 3 hours to pull down again. You get a good picture of the life on the road. And it's always great to see documentaries of your heroes:-)
As usual there are screens from some of the songs performed... It does nothing for me. Some promo videos. I like the video Fragile tension. Otherwise i thing that their videos have become very boring and unpersonal because the don't perform in them.

This blu-ray is a great souvenir for those who went to see DM on this tour. It gives a good picture of the atmosphere of it. I think that the 2 shows i saw in Horsens, Denmark was the best i ever went 2. And i have seen Depeche 9 times. The first in 1988.
I can warmly recommend this release for everyone that likes Depeche Modes music.