Most music DVD reviewers, if pushed for time, may often find a Doritos-crumbed finger straying towards the fast-forward button. In this instance, however, that compulsion never comes. What you get are two complete concerts by ex-Velvet Underground wild card John Cale for the German Rockpalast series: one from ’84 with band in tow at the Grugahalle in Essen, and a 1983 solo outing at the Zeche in Bochum.
The band performance in particular is rivetingly offbeat and disquieting, starting with an excruciating interview in which presenter Ken Lanz persistently mistakes drummer David Lichtenstein for Cale himself, despite Lichtenstein – who is holding a pair of drumsticks – answering every question with a wry, “Well, I’d need to ask John about that.” The concert itself is a terse and confrontational series of left turns, kicking off with Cale shouting out the chord changes of an impromptu Autobiography (“never wrote a song called After Midnight”). A spectral, broken Heartbreak Hotel finds Cale underneath his piano, dislodging a carpet tile which he then wears on his head. Primal screamers Leaving It Up To You and Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend are visceral highlights of both concerts, while audience shots reveal an astounding range of soup-strainer moustaches.
