Three Sides Live[Blu-ray]

This is definitely Genesis at their peak post-progressive. I have been a Genesis fan since 1968 and I personally prefer the Gabriel/Hackett era stuff (progressive rock) overall, but the early post-progressive Genesis is good up to Abacab. Most of their stuff after Abacab is Top 40 radio sell-out. Duke is one of my all-time favorite albums cover-to-cover. The Three Sides Live sets focused primarily on music from Duke and Abacab (the concert/movie has some of the early prog stuff thrown in, but not much) and was a great live album when it came out in 1982. I also had this on cassette tape in the '80s (self-recorded from an LP of course) and wore it out! The video quality of the Blu-ray DVD is pretty good, considering the original master is 16mm. And I had this concert/movie on LaserDisc, so the Blu-ray is a joy to watch (although LD audio quality was very good back in the day; video not so much). The DVD audio is clean and clear--play it LOUD!!While Three Sides Live is early 1980's (the early 1980's was still giving us "just get on the stage and play" music; unfortunately, that would change later in the decade thanks to music videos), it is straight-at-you Genesis with no corny choreography and antics. Who Dunnit? might be the exception. Just five dudes jamming (Phil/Mike/Tony add Daryl Stuermer on guitar/bass and Chester Thompson on drums--Phil plays drums on a couple of tracks only). However, Phil dons an almost-full head of hair, 1980's wrist sweatbands and removes his shirt halfway through the show--you have been warned!!!The behind-the-scenes footage is enjoyable to watch as well. It is dispersed in with the songs so you are more or less forced to watch it. Not for everyone, but I don't mind it. Being a huge fan of the group and not just the music, I find it interesting. Not all of the filmed footage over the concert period is presented as live concert footage on the DVD--some songs are audio only (presented as Bonus Tracks on the Blu-ray). I guess you could say this is more of a tour movie than a concert.In contrast, I own Peter Gabriel's Live in Athens concert Blu-ray DVD and it's almost unwatchable as a concert; it's so "1980's" and dated that it's hard on the eyes (Live in Athens is later 1980's)--corny dancing, clothing, staging, choreography (the music is good though)--I usually turn the video off and just listen to it. Three Sides Live is the opposite--even though it's 1980's, watch it, enjoy it and turn it up!!! My only "complaint", if I were to have one (my mom always said nothing is perfect), is that I wish Phil played the drums during the entire movie instead of just being the front man. He is (was?) one hell of a drummer and it would be nice to have that immortalized in an early post-progressive Genesis concert.

Reading some of these reviews would lead one to believe that the BluRay isn’t worth buying because it’s not much of an upgrade from the VHS version. Nonsense. The picture quality is light years ahead. Three Sides Live was filmed on 16mm and the BluRay is a faithful presentation. The grain is retained instead of having been scrubbed away, which would have made it look like videotape. If you want smooth video, pasty faces and smudgy details, stick to DVD and VHS but don’t complain about a medium that can better replicate the look of film. It’s gorgeous. The blacks are pretty deep which makes the light show that much more intense during In the Cage and Afterglow. As for the sound, I’m not sure if other reviewers complaining that the sound isn’t an upgrade are just listening through TV speakers but the DTS mix is outstanding. Phil’s voice is crystal clear, warts and all. Bass and keyboards sound perfect. The guitars are mixed low but certainly discernible throughout and on top of the mix during leads. The drums are powerful and the bass pedals even more so. I promise you, you would NEVER have noticed the sound of the bass pedals on VHS.Like most, I too would have liked to have had the whole concert presented because the setlist was pretty epic, being mostly from Abacab, Duke and The Lamb. Unlike most, I know that it just doesn’t exist. When this was made, it was edited down to 83 minutes with all of the concert footage intercut with interview footage and transferred to video. Everything edited out is assumed to have been discarded because 36 years ago they didn’t think they would have further use of it. They just didn’t make 3 hour concerts for home video in 1982. We are lucky they found the remaining 16mm footage at all and giving a low rating because of not including the option of watching it without the interviews isn’t fair. I’d rather have it looking and sounding this spectacular in its original truncated form than to not have it at all.If you are a fan of this era of Genesis and do not own this yet, buy this on BluRay. Watch it with the lights low and the volume high. It’s a fantastic time capsule

I certainly would have preferred an uninterrupted concert, but the price was right. The interviews were interesting THE FIRST TIME!, but there is always the NEXT button on the remote to skip and the inclusion of the Audio Only plays into my preference of turning off the video and just listening which also explains why I don't complain about any less than stellar video quality which is likely not fixable anyway.

Looks good considering and sounds better than I expected.

This was a much better concert video than I remember. The performances are spectacular -- what great musicianship by everyone ... all about music and not image. Does this kind of band even exist today?The camera editing is great. It always seems the camera is on the right musician at the right time. Further, the edits are not five per second like so many of today's music video editors. If you want to see Phil Collins as the monster musician that he is (or was) - this is your video. This is not to take away from the great performances by the Tony and Mike (or Chester). My only criticism is that I would like the concert to be run straight through without interruption of interviews - they should be separated out. But easy fix - click the skip button. Many of the Genesis purists feel that Genesis was over when Peter Gabriel left, but in my humble opinion, they were at their peak with Abacab, and this concert shows it.