Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 16, 2021

Do artists get royalties from viral Tik Tok videos? I'm only asking because I'm wondering if Stevie Nicks, who wrote "Dreams", is rolling in piles of cash (as if she weren't anyway) delivered to her from all the plays of that crazy video of the guy lip synching to that particular Fleetwood Mac classic while slurping down some cranberry juice and cruising on his skateboard to work. If her presumed sudden (new) wealth made her feel like "Dreams" was (were?) passé, that may also explain why the song isn't included on this enjoyable concert video, even though a couple of other notable (no pun intended) Fleetwood Mac tunes make the setlist.

In one of her first sets of interstitial comments, Stevie talks about how this particular concert might be a bit different than others because, unlike in previous tours where she just did the songs that somebody told her to (something I find a little hard to believe, sorry, considering some well worn stories of "artistic temperament"), this concert is the result of Stevie's newfound confidence courtesy of her attitude that she's too old to be bossed around anymore. The result is sometimes a slightly unexpected aggregation of tunes, but what might be refreshing for some arena concert attenders is the relative lack of stagecraft. Yes, there's the expected huge pixellated screen upstage from the band that features a number of projections, but there really aren't a huge number of bells and whistles here, just a fantastic band (including Waddy Wachtel) supporting Nicks, whose traditionally raspy voice delivers the material with authenticity. The show departs from typical arena rock grandiosity in its finale as well, with Stevie and Waddy offering a nice unplugged version of "Landslide".

Stevie's setlist includes:

1. Gold and Braid


2. If Anyone Falls


3. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around


4. Belle Fleur


5. Gypsy


6. Wild Heart / Bella Donna


7. Enchanted


8. New Orleans


9. Starshine


10. Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)


11. Stand Back


12. Crying in the Night


13. If You Were My Love


14. Gold Dust Woman


15. Edge of Seventeen


16. Rhiannon


17. Landslide

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BMG with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The closing credits list "4K equipment" and some online comments I've seen about the filming of this state that it was captured at 4K, though I don't have any absolutely authoritative data to share in this regard. One way or the other, this is a very nicely detailed looking presentation, and it's further bolstered by the fact that whoever lit this concert did both the in person and home viewing audiences a big favor by providing bright, relatively natural, looking lighting a lot of the time. The result is you can actually see the band most of the time (occasional moments are bathed in various hues, notably some blues and reds). Fine detail is often very impressive, even in "little" things like the kind of lacy cuffs on the sleeves of Stevie's jet black dress. The pixellated screen behind the band also never offers even a hint of moiré and the projections themselves look relatively sharp and well detailed (they're often seen from the audience's point of view from quite a distance, and so fine detail levels can understandably ebb and flow).

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks, though like a lot of concert Blu-rays, the disc has been authored to default to the stereo track, so have your remote handy if you want to listen to the surround track. This is a generally great sounding set of tracks, with excellent fidelity and often superb clarity. I'm once again going to be slightly curmudgeonly in terms of the mix differences between the two tracks. The stereo track features Stevie's voice mixed much more prominently forward, and so some fans may actually prefer it to the surround mix, where Stevie, while still the focal aural presence, can be a bit more buried in the mix. The surround track does considerably open things up and certainly provides a more energetic accounting of the low end. There are occasional slight anomalies in both tracks, notably a bit of a "boxy", almost phased, sound when the backup singers chime in. There are no subtitles offered on the Blu-ray disc.

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included on the disc. The CD case has an insert booklet with stills, band information and thanks from Stevie.

Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In our relatively recent Buzzard Blu-ray review, I disclosed how in a former life I once managed a so-called temporary service, and kind of amazingly one of the people who came to register with me one day had been Stevie's former personal assistant, now applying in Portland for secretarial work, which struck me as absolutely hilarious. This woman shared a few of those "artistic temperament" stories, but also told me how "magical" it was to work for Stevie, despite any bumps in the road. That magic hasn't really dimmed over the years, as this winning concert ably proves. Technical merits are solid, and Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert - The 24 Karat Gold Tour comes Recommended.