The field of live entertainment is experiencing the most difficult time ever in its star-studded history. Live shows have derived their energy and livelihood from the presence of a live, breathing, applauding, screaming and more, audience.
This has been so from the time when the Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Lizst was the acclaimed concert king of Europe down to the recent packed performances by Elton John and Billie Eilish.
It is not a pleasant thought but it looks like the arrival of the dreadful coronavirus has now changed that. I am sure that, despite its dire circumstances, live music will survive. Maybe in bars before 10 people perched in socially distanced seats. Maybe online in virtual concerts. Perhaps in those proposed drive-in theaters where performers sing to the headlights of parked cars in the dark.
Someday in some nearby future, I hope we will be able to look back to this pandemic as just a brief, bothersome interlude in our lives. Hey, maybe we can again watch concerts shoulder to shoulder with other people.
But if not, if the virus remains alive, if it had by then indeed changed the way we live in ways we never imagined, if our existence had become a tight race of survival of the fittest, then here are the filmed memories by which we can recall a bygone time.
Michael Jackson: The Dangerous Tour Live in Bucharest at the National Stadium in 1992. A truly mind-blowing experience. This is over two hours of Jackson singing and dancing at the peak of his powers before ninety-thousand people. Dangerous, Beat It, Human Nature, Smooth Criminal, Jam, I’ll Be There, She’s Out of My Life, Billie Jean, Thriller and others.
Queen Live in Budapest: The Hungarian Rhapsody. A historic first rock concert behind the Iron Curtain. Eighty-thousand people came. Queen performed the hits We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, Who Wants to Live Forever and more. If you admired Rami Malek as Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, then this is your chance to see the real thing in concert in what turned out to be his last with Queen. He was fantastic.
Three Tenors in Concert in a magical evening at the Caracalla Baths in Rome on the eve of the FIBA World Cup Final in 1990. It was the first time when Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, the era’s greatest tenors sang together for the very first time. The result was a goosebump-inducing truly historic concert watched by 800,000 people. Includes Nessun Dorma, Torna a Surriento, Granada, O Sole Mio, plus other classics.
Gimme Shelter is a documentary about the Rolling Stones, which must be the greatest rock film of all time. In 1969, to celebrate its conquest of America, the British band decided to do a free concert at the Altamont Speedway in San Francisco. The result was the loudest, baddest rock sounds by the Stones and scary live footage of the rioting crowd. Fascinating but not for the faint of heart. But as we all know, the Rolling Stones survived the notoriety and went on to more hits and sold-out concerts.
Madonna: Truth or Dare. It is not really a concert video. It is a documentary of what went on onstage and off during Madonna’s controversial Blonde Ambition Tour in 1990. The tour that was watched by 800,000 people around the world generated protests because of the sexually suggestive numbers and use of religious symbols. This is Madonna at her most daring and at her peak as a hitmaker. Like a Prayer, Like a Virgin, Vogue, Papa Don’t Preach, Express Yourself and many more.
Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden. This is the critically acclaimed and multi-Emmy nominated documentary about Lady Gaga’s first performance at the MSG in 2011. The TV special combines concert footage with pre-concert and backstage goings-on providing insight into the extraordinary artist that Lady Gaga was going to later turn into. The resulting TV special was watched by 1.2 million viewers.
Add these titles to your quarantined viewing list. They are all worth the watch. Then I hope that concert flicks of Filipino artists will also soon be available for streaming or downloading. Sarah Geronimo’s This is Me is at Netflix but wouldn’t it be nice if concerts by Sharon Cuneta, Martin Nievera, Regine Velasquez and Gary Valenciano were available for future generations to enjoy.