Artists Missing In Action

Here are a few of the artists, that I enjoy, that have yet to release a good concert DVD:

• King's X - The best band that nobody has ever heard of. They did, however, get some deserved recognition a few years ago when their fellow musicians voted them into VH1's "100 Greatest Bands of All Time" list. Although their last few albums have not been nearly as good as their earlier work, their live performances are still mesmerizing. Unfortunately, the only video they ever released is a 1988 VHS collection of all of their MTV-style videos, featuring songs from their first three albums. Although this is a great video, a live concert DVD recording is long overdue from this awesome band.
• Jeff Beck - Guitar legend Jeff Beck's live playing is truly an awesome spectacle to behold, especially if you are a guitar player, or fan. He has toured fairly consistently during the past decade, so why have none of these great performances been recorded for DVD?
• Van Halen - Yeah, there are a couple of, not so good, videos out there from the Sammy Hagar era, but how about digging up a little concert footage from the good ol' Diamond Dave days. Now we're talking.
• Boston - These guys surprised the shit out of me at how good they were in concert. How did they reproduce that fabulous four-layered, harmonized guitar sound they get on the studio albums? Easy, bring four guitarists on the road with you. That's right, they had about a ten piece band of top-notch musicians, the original AND new vocalists, and simply nailed the Boston studio sound. It also doesn't hurt that they always play almost the entire great debut album, and have a phenomenal stage show, including a spaceship that nearly lands on the stage. OK, thirty years is long enough.
• Tool - It's bad enough that these guys only average about two new albums and tours per decade, but it's regoddamndiculous that we don't even have one live concert DVD from them yet. Maybe next decade if we're lucky.
• Soundgarden - A decade long career that spawned five excellent albums and several killer tours, but all we have to show for it is a couple of old VHS videos? Can somebody check the vaults for some quality Superunknown tour footage to put out on DVD please.
• Phil Keaggy - The Christian guitar magician. Keaggy has the chops of Steve Howe and Joe Satriani combined, but is criminally unknown by the masses. In 2005, he finally released a DVD that captured one of his solo acoustic shows, but I want a real concert, with a full band playing both his acoustic and electric stuff. Call me selfish.
• Stevie Wonder - One of the greatest American singer/songwriter/ musicians in history, with a 40-plus year musical legacy, and we still do not have a single good live concert video from this genius? That's damn near criminal.
• Gino Vannelli - That's right, Gino Vannelli. For those of you who only know him by his two hit 1970's ballads, you are missing out. During the 70's and 80's, Gino put out some outstanding pop/jazz/rock fusion music, and his band always included top notch musicians such as Mike Keneally on guitar. There are a couple of excellent VHS concert recordings out there, from Gino's heyday, that would make excellent transfers to DVD.
• Bob Seger - Bob Seger was already the king of the Detroit rock scene when Kid Rock was in diapers and still known as little Robby Richie. Anybody who has partied to Live Bullet knows that this guy is one hell of a smoldering live performer. So surely some of these shows were recorded. Hell, record one now Bob.

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