"Alive in Berlin - 1st impressions:
well, let's start with the worst so we can move on:
As for the interviews, and considering Disc 2 is just disc 1 with interviews, YOU ARE NEVER GONNA PLAY IT MORE THAN ONCE. Not really a surprise. How many of us did watch the bonus interviews on ONIP, TTA and TOTU? I'm still surprised why they made it a 2-disc set. New Order did the same thing with their 2006 Glasgow dvd and it's one disc authored so you can either watch just the concert or the concert with the interviews.
Now the good parts:
interviews - 50/50 There are some nice moments, like Martin telling of when he was blocked from entering East Berlin through Friedrichstraße station. Dave saying he expects Anton's film to focus on the projections, not on the band, Kessler trying to be diplomatic about the load of money/lot of money issue regarding touring, Martin saying "if we were sober then, we would have never ok'ed your stage for Devotional". Peter repeating himself about the spontaneity of playing the acoustic versions (he/Martin said the same on TOTU interviews, IIRC)... A boring moment asking fans what they think of DM and one guy says in German "Sorry, I don't understand English".
Show: AMAZING. yes, the stage looks like the smallest ever. Focus is on Dave/Martin. Some but not many shots of the audience. ABSOLUTELY NO EMPTY SEATS. I didn't find myself, but I'll do that later on the DVD hitting play/pause. Nice thing about having the girl from "Halo" in the middle of the crowd of the show (Christiane F-esque), but it doesn't go anywhere. It would have been nice to see her go on stage and dance (but then I would have remembered it from the concert itself).
Audio: the highlight. It has the best mixing EVER. I could hear sounds I didn't pick up in all of the 8 concerts I've been to this tour. And I'm very picky with this.
Dave catched a pair of panties thown at him. HAHAHA. I didn't remember that."
"My impressions...
I enjoyed the film very much. For the night at the cinema it was alright to watch the interviews between the songs, but I´m pretty sure I will never watch that again at home.
The sound was very good and I heard quite a few sounds I haven´t heard at the concert. Most notably in "Welcome to my World".
I liked the way it was cut. Not too fast, but not too boring either.
The shots from the spidercam could have been amazing, if only they weren´t out of focus. That really annoyed me. You see crystal-clear shots from the band and every now and then a shot that looks like it was taken with a cellphone.
The idea with the actress appearing in the audience wasn´t that bad, but they showed her about 5 times - once or twice would have been enough. That was a bit distracting.
If anyone cares - during "Halo" and "Just can´t get enough" you can clearly make out from what night the pictures are. On the 25th two buttons of Dave´s vest were open, on the 27th it was only one.
There was a lot of dancing going on in the cinema - not to mention the cheering and waving...
I think it´s the best live-video out of the last 4."
"Live in Berlin : ONIP 2014 version with much better audio and slightly worse set-list.
It is clearly visible that there was a problem between Dave and Fletch.
Best part of the show: Goodbye. Fantastic performance by Dave.
Worst: Setlist. Especially second half. Having acoustic Shake the disease was like a joke after Milan.
Overall... Better than last 3 DVDs. But as said, keep your expecations low."
"There was a little sound-glitch during "Shake the disease". Did anyone else notice it? I hope it´s not on the disc."
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"Dave wishing luck in the backstage to everyone before the show apart from Fletch.. Same happens by the end of the show on stage.. There is no JCGE solo.. Fletch just hits some notes by the end himself.. Someone watching the film with no idea anout DM would think Fletch is just an additional musician there on stage and not part of the band.. Which is normal indeed as he is just standing there by the side and pretending playing something by himself all through out the show.. Not a part of the band or the show..
Not that it is important for me but it was quite visible in the film."
"Also, the comment which was discussed before here (Dave saying "people must duck and dive"); he is referring to Fletch. I think complete sentense is something like "2-3 years ago it became clear that it doesn't work anymore but people must duck and dive"."
"I disagree. That comment didn't refer to Fletch. Afair, he talked about the brilliant chemistry between him and Martin. Dave says it had been good before but on this tour it was something else altogether, better than ever before. Now everything goes so well between them on stage that they know when to duck and dive.
It definitely wasn't a slight against Fletch."
