Just watched this after saving it for the right moment. I guess it's been a couple of months now since I bought it. Full disclosure is in order here. I have been a fan of Willie Nile since I picked up his first albums on vinyl back in the mid to late 80s. I had lived in Madrid for four years and pretty much felt disillusioned about the 80s as a decade for pop and rock in general. I used to joke that I missed the at least the last half of the decade by immersing myself in Spanish rock and flamenco (they're not mutually exclusive!) before returning stateside in 89/90. When I heard Willie's stuff from that decade and his early 90s release, 'Places I Have Never Been', something resonated. His music was simple and deep at the same time and mostly free of the ridiculous excesses of many of that era's artists I couldn't connect with. As one writer put it around the time of his fourth studio album in 94, "`One can hear Nile's frustration of the 80s at trying to make it as a serious singer/songwriter in a business environment that rewarded hair metal bands and professional sluts." Even my favorite artist, Neil Young, just seemed lost throughout most of that 10-year span. I remember hearing his perhaps all-time worst release, "Landing on Water" and his FU to Geffen by way of his ultra-countrified 'Old Ways' and thinking the 90s couldn't come soon enough. Well, Old Neil got back on track with 'Freedom' and then with Crazy Horse and 'Ragged Glory' but Willie disappeared from my radar. I had pretty much lost track of him and his music until recently when I caught wind of 'Streets of New York" Unfortunately, I didn't discover it until well after its release in 2006. In fact, I just got hold it about 2 years ago and fell in love with it. I bought copies of the CD and sent them to friends here and abroad.Now here we have the DVD. Well, this man and his bandmates have been around the proverbial block more than a handful of times and the empathy in the ensemble just resonates in this disc. And having NYC inspire, directly or not, most of the songs really made for a powerful work of art. Doesn't hurt that they record here in an intimate setting at a small club (The Mercury?) in the city still healing from 9/11. One song in particular, 'Cell Phones Ringing in the Pockets of the Dead', just blew me away. It brought me powerfully, wrenchingly back to the horrible events of 11 March 2004 and the Madrid train bombings. I wasn't there, but have many friends I care about who were and were deeply wounded by this unspeakable act. When Mr. Nile works and his band through his powerful set of songs and finally gets to this one, it's one of those rare moments when art, music, performance channel blood, sweat, and tears. The entire set builds to this song and then 4 more that serve as the perfect, as they call it in Spanish, 'desenlace'. What was bound up, is unwound and set free. Cathartic and healing.Thank you, Willie Nile, for being the consumate artist and sharing this one majestic hour from 'Welcome to My Head' to the 'Streets of New York' For those interested in purchasing the DVD, don't hesitate. One of the best features of the disc is the song featurettes where Wilie and his bandmates take time to explore the songs and how they came alive on stage that night. I suggest just watching it straight through, though, as if you were in the audience there. Then the featurettes do what they're intended to do laying down the background of each song. The filmmakers do a great job, too, of making you feel as if you were really there. Moreover, the sound is solid on my home audio system where it is intended to be heard. Don't watch it on a laptop unless you've got a good set of headphones. This band deserves to be played LOUD! By the way, the eighth anniversary of 3/11/2004 is nearing. This DVD might be one small way to help make some sense of such senseless acts. By and large, though, this work is not intended to be a political statement at all. It's just one artist's masterpiece, an ode to NYC, and it spans his career. One for the ages and those without a prayer. Get it.