What's the Best Concert Film?
Friday, October 13, 2023 at 7:00AM 
With Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour coming to theaters today and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé set to arrive in December, 2023 could signal the return of the concert film in full force. At the very least, both projects are bound to break records. Swift's movie is already on the way to becoming the most profitable concert film in history, close to surpassing Michael Jackson's This Is It just with advance ticket sales. Hopefully, this triumph will be reflected in the picture's quality, though, with such titles, success is measured more in terms of the artists' popularity than the piece's cinematic verve. Still, it'd be erroneous to dismiss concert films for this reason – there are many masterpieces to be found in the non-fiction subgenre.
So, dear reader, what's your favorite concert film? My pick is after the jump…
Yes, it's a tremendous cliché, but clichés are often born from truth. My favorite concert film is none other than the late Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, recently restored and re-released in IMAX theaters by A24 after a much-talked-about TIFF screening that did double duty as a Talking Heads reunion. From its "Psycho Killer" opening to the last echoes of "Crosseyed and Painless," the picture's sheer perfection, finding endless ways to shoot the same, shockingly simple, performance space. Its plasticity is staggering while keeping faithful to a quasi-minimalist rule. Props are unexpectedly rare and far between, with the famed dancing lamp taking the place of honor. As far as costuming goes, it's similarly streamlined, only ever reaching for spectacle with Byrne's "Girlfriend Is Better" big suit.
Despite all this, to peer into Stop Making Sense is to dive headfirst into a vortex of creativity set loose on the screen, spiraling with visual ideas that defy its overall simplicity and beckon amazement. Demme shot it across three consecutive nights, relying on DP Jordan Cronenweth to capture the band's performance with an eye toward avant-garde lighting taken from Byrne's design. With around 20 angles, the filmmakers get all the material needed, later assembled by editor Lisa Day in a game of cyclical variation that's as prone to breaking a song in iconographic shots as to allowing a whole section of the concert to unfold without a single cut. In a way, Demme and his team are dancing with the on-stage artists, creating an experience that vibrates with a sense of radical immediacy and performance art freedom.
Engulfed by it all, the spectator can do nothing else but surrender to its wonder – a perfect concert film if there ever was one.
Reader Comments (13)
This concert film documents Queen's iconic performance at Wembley Stadium in 1986 and is often considered one of the greatest live rock performances ever.
Truck suspension
Tori Amos - welcome to Sunny Florida
"Stop making noise" is fantastic, "This is it" is just ok." Duran Duran unstaged" is interesting and "The beat of the live drum" is just bereable.
The Rolling Stones docs are always good, and of course "The last waltz" is a masterpiece of the genre.
Definitely The Last Waltz! So many iconic moments that absolutely define rock and roll for me: Joni Mitchell in silhouette singing background backstage to Neil Young's "Helpless," Goddess Mavis Staples and her rhythmic hand clap at the end of "The Weight," Robbie Robertson's seductive eyes when he smiles, the close-up of Neil Diamond's lips practically kissing the microphone in the climax of "Dry Your Eyes." There is literal steam heat coming off the screen throughout that film.
I had a blast at the Eras Tour in Seattle and can't wait to see the filmed version this weekend!
The TAMI Show (1964) is required viewing, covering all genres of rock 'n' roll before the audience started splitting off. It's most famous for James Brown and the Rolling Stones at their peak. Not only that, there's Chuck Berry, Lesley Gore, the Supremes, the Beach Boys, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, and more, who all deliver the goods. It's tied with Stop Making Sense as my favorite concert film
The Last Waltz
Sign ☮️ The Times
The TAMI Show
Summer of Soul
Wattstax
Monterey Pop
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
The Last Waltz..... OVERRATED!!!! It's nothing more than a film in which Martin Scorsese kisses Robbie Robertson's ass for much of the film at the expense of the rest of the members of the Band.
Stop Making Sense is the greatest concert film ever made. There's been nothing like it before or anything else since.
I would add Sign O' the Times, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Monterey Pop, and Woodstock to that list. I wish I could include Depeche Mode 101 but the only problem is that I had never seen the film in its entirety but you can't ignore the fact that a band like them back in the 1980s selling out the Rose Bowl of all places was a monumental feat in the history of pop music. An electronic band playing to 60,000 people in that stadium was unheard of then.
Nowadays, filling out stadiums doesn't seem like a big accomplishment as I'm baffled that people like Ed Sheerhan and the Jonas Brothers could play stadiums despite the fact that their music is fucking shit.
How could I omit A Black and White Night? Roy Orbison with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, JD Souther, Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes et al.
Amazing Grace. Filmed over two nights in 1972 in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, California, Aretha Franklin exhilarates the audience with the greatest voice of the 20th century.
Many could not agree with me but I consider ANY show of Les Luthiers as a concert.
Probably 'Mastropiero Que Nunca' and 'Hacen Muchas Gracias de Nada' was some of my top favorites.
@Frank Zappa-Oh, that's a good one. I loved that solo that James Burton brought to "Pretty Woman".
Woodstock & Gimme Shelter.
Eras is not "the most profitable concert film in history". WOODSTOCK made over $300M in inflation adjusted dollars (I've seen estimates of some $400M). And, that's without premium upcharges.
Eras has a long way to go to match that (and never will in pure ticket sales)