Three years ago I bought a DVD player to watch movies in the gym while burning calories on a Stairmaster. This gave me the chance to watch some music DVDs.  I started off with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, then watched U2, the Rollingstones’s Slick Tour, Evanescence, and finally Dave Matthews Band Live in Central Park.  The first minute of Springsteen Live in Barcelona was amazing because the sound on the DVD was far better than any sound of a live concert I had heard before. You felt as if you were right there on the concert floor with thousands of other people. Before long, however, I got t tired seeing the band go through the same motions. Watching U2’s Go Home - Live From Slane Castle was also underwhelming. You learn that The Edge and not Bono is the musical force behind the band. I am a big fan of few Rolling Stones tunes like “Ruby Tuesday.” But watching 60-year-old men behave as if they are teenagers is painful to watch. The most interesting part of the Four Licks DVD set is the part that takes you behind the scenes of preparing the concert tour. You come to appreciate the marketing and management genius of Mick Jagger. Evanescence in Anywhere But Home proves that stage presence is not easy to accomplish. It is better to simply listen to Evanescence’s one hit My Immortal. The band has no stage presence to speak of.  The big surprise in my music DVD discovery tour was Dave Matthews Band’s Live in Central Park. The band members were by a long shot better musicians than the other groups I had watched on my hourly stairmaster sweat sessions. Click on “More”  to see song from this free Concert in New York City.

And here is a better quality video from a show in 2007.