Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing Live in Germany (2CD/Blu-ray Concert Set) - Perfect for Music Lovers & Collectors - Great for Home Entertainment & Gifting

This was one of the few Dire Straits albums I hadn't got in my collection and I bought it on a whim. I'm glad I did for while the polish of the studio albums is very nice, the live performance of the original Dire Straits line up is simply superb. The CD immediately took me back to the first DS concert I attended, I came away mesmerised by the music and so it is with this album. The concert set is based on the first two albums (Dire Straits and Communique) with some extra tracks ("What's the Matter Baby" and "Eastbound Train") and pretty much follows that first concert I attended. The quality is as good as you'd expect from a live recording and MK's banter between tracks is interesting to hear. MK's concert riffs add a different dimension to the songs, they add to the songs and the variation from the studio versions (and without the polishing that some of the songs were to get before their final release) is brilliant. That is not to say the concert is lacking polish, just that the polish is in different areas. Incredibly funny that they do 2 versions of "sultans of swing", apparently because they stuffed it up the first time and redid it as an encore. The sleeve notes sum up what this album represents in the context of its time, the emergence of music from the fatuous pop offerings and angry backdrop of punk. This is a moment in time, Dire straits captured before their meteoric rise to stardom shortly afterwards, it is "Alchemie" but raw. I should have bought it years ago.