DVD Review: US Festival 1983: Days 1-3

STUDIO: MVD | DIRECTOR: Glenn Aveni | PERFORMERS: U2, The Clash, Men at Work, Stray Cats, INXS, Judas Priest, Stevie Nicks, Missing Persons, more
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 12/3/2013 | PRICE: DVD $19.95
BONUSES: none
SPECS: NR | 135 min. | Live concert | 1.33:1 fullscreen | stereo

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

 

Looking back on them after 30 years, the US Festivals of the early 1980s can be seen as a bridge between the tribal music fests of the Woodstock and Monterey Pop era and the technologically savvy music-and-culture gatherings that emerged following 1985’s Live Aid. (Lollapalooza, anyone?).

Organized by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak and mounted on an enormous state-of-the-art temporary stage in dusty San Bernardino, California, the 1983 US Festival from that year’s Memorial Day weekend (the second of two, following the first in September 1982) ran for four days, the first three of which are collected in MVD’s new release.

US Festival Clash

The Clash perform at the 1983 US Festival

Some two-dozen-plus acts performed at the fest, and though only 14 of them are included here, they represent a solid cross-section of the day’s most popular music, much of which grew in popularity via videos that rotated on the then-burgeoning MTV.

That said, you’ve got your New Wavers (Missing Persons, The English Beat, Divinyls), your metal acts (Judas Priest, Scorpions, Triumph), your hardworking, respectable rock acts (Stray Cats, INXS, Men at Work) and your occasional flash in the pan (Quarterflash, no pun intended). On top of that, there’s The Clash serving up “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in what was to be the last gig with frontman Mick Jones, and U2 featuring The Edge with hair and Bono sporting a bleached mullet, singing “Sunday Blood Sunday” and “The Electric Co.” on the brink of superstardom. Oh yeah, and Stevie Nicks is also there. All the performances are generally solid, with the emphasis placed on the music and not the overall production. (No lasers here!)

The contents on this first officially sanctioned release of the US Festival on disc has been previously seen on classic music TV channels and the like, though it receives a fresh makeover here with recently-recorded talking head commentary from Wozniak and former MTV vee-jay Mark Goodman, who attended the event and introduced an act or two.

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.