The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Concerts 3 DVD (2010) 16:9 DTS 5.1 51 Legendary Performances

On October 29th and 30th, 2009, rock 'n' roll royalty held court at Madison Square Garden for what have been called 'the best concerts ever,' where 'rock 'n' roll history was made.' Recorded live with 30 camera angles plus state-of-the-art recording, we captured the sights and sounds from these electrifying and historic concerts in New York City.    

Now, this critically-acclaimed and highly-rated HBO special is available DVD for the very first time! 'THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERTS' features all 51 performances from the acclaimed HBO special, plus 16 performances not seen on HBO, all in a 3-disc DVD set.  

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the concerts featured a who's who of rock from the '50s to the '90s and included artists performing together in unique combinations that will most likely never be witnessed again. 

Highlights include:

-Mick Jagger and Fergie in a blistering version of the Stones' classic 'Gimme Shelter,' with U2 as the backing band.

-Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel on-stage for a rollicking rendition of 'Born to Run.'

-Sting joins Jeff Beck for the Curtis Mayfeld classic 'People Get Ready.'

-Paul Simon, David Crosby and Graham Nash join together for a spine-tingling 'Here Comes the Sun.'

-Ozzy Osbourne sings with Metallica on the Black Sabbath classics 'Iron Man' and 'Paranoid.'

-John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen share vocals on Roy Orbison's 'Oh, Pretty Woman.'

-Plus Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Simon & Garfunkel, U2, Dion, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Jackson Brown

The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts is presented on Blu-ray by Time-Life with an appealing VC-1 encoded image in 1.78:1. There aren't a whole lot of bells and whistles in the stage presentation, other than some pretty multi-colored lights, but sharpness and saturation here are top notch. Detail, especially in close-ups, is often exceptional, and in fact a little distressing when one gets an up close and personal look at an aging demigod one remembers in all their youthful glory, or when one if forced to wonder what in heck Paul Simon's bright blue jacket is made out of, sharkskin or velour. The hard working artists can clearly be seen working up a sweat more than a few times. Black levels and contrast are also spot on, with even the darkened stage never obscuring the artists and back up musicians. This is a top flight video presentation not to be missed.

Two thumpingly good lossless tracks are offered on this DVD, a DTS- 5.1 mix and a  Stereo fold down. Both of these tracks set the bar wonderfully high for rock  with brilliantly clear fidelity, robust lows, full and ample middles, and crystalline, though never brittle, highs. The humongous auditorium which is Madison Square Garden has some pretty overwhelming built in reverb, but while the 5.1 track certainly is spacious sounding, there's never any echo or in fact over the top audience noise to drown out the magnificent music. The great thing about this mix is how it is so faithful to quieter, almost quasi-acoustic sets, like the Simon & Garfunkel outing, to the amped up head banging excesses of Metallica. Through it all, surround immersion is virtually nonstop, instruments are discretely presented in individual channels, and vocals are always mixed perfectly into the overall soundfield. For a music release, this is most definitely a reference quality disc.