5/5 BEST Live ZZ Top Filming, EVER!
  by A. Harrison (PHX, Az)
I have seen ZZ Top in concert almost 50 times(most shows from the first 4 rows!). I also own, or have seen all the ZZ Top concert footage(including 'bootlegs'!) out there! I attended 4 ZZ Top shows#all from front row vantage point!# from the 2008 tour. I can honestly say, the Double Down Live video footage from 2008 is THE best out there! Never has the viewer been given such an up close, and personal perspective of ZZ Top! The band's stage performance was better, tighter, and higher energy, than ANY video footage, in the last 18+ years, has captured! The artistic use of the grainy black and white snippets are perfect, and a great representation of ZZ Top. I personally know, Billy F. Gibbons absolutely loves this sort of artistic demonstration! I also know,he gave every part of the 2008 video the 'thumbs up'!
I also enjoyed the Double Down Live, Disc#1 from the 1980 Rockpalast show. It is easy to flash back to to one of the first live ZZ Top shows I ever saw. The frenzied energy of the '70s and '80s shows really launched ZZ Top#MTV didn't hurt, either!#. It is nice to compare ZZ Top past and present. But much like going to a current Robert Plant/Jimmie Page show, and expecting a thundering Led Zeppelin show...It would simply be disrespectful to the performers, to expect otherwise!
Purchase this double DVD set, and you will be glad you did!

5/5 Deguello Tour Live!!!
  by Mark C. Lamb
The first DVD in this set is the legendary 1980 German TV Rockpalast performance the band performed on their red hot Deguello Tour. I was fortunate enough to see the band on this tour and have been hooked ever since. If you have never experienced the band live from this period you are in for a totally jaw dropping experience. Chances are pretty good you will find yourself cracking a beer before the first few songs are through so it may be wise to have the refrigerator stocked up. This stunning show has been circulating in bootleg form among collectors for many years (for good reason) but to finally have it with cleaner sound and a clearer picture is a dream come true. This is ZZ TOP in their prime! Disc 2 is a bit of a departure as it is more or less a "rockumentary" of the band on tour, intersperced with some hot live concert footage from their 2008 tour....somewhat of a video diary of the bands life on the road. It would have been nice to have this concert available in it's full uncut form as it smokes yet I found much of the footage of the band off stage to be strangely intriging to say the least. There's more going on under those beards than meets the eye. Make no mistake though the real gem of this collection is the 1980 show which is totally priceless and completely worth the price of admission.....essential to any fan of great Tex-Mex Boogie & Blues..

4/5 A Disc and a Half...
  by D. Parsley (Portsmouth, OH United States)
Disc 1 of this set is a real jewel. An ample concert from 1980, plenty of classic pre-synthesizer ZZ Top. This disc is worth the price of admission and it's a good thing, since Disc 2 is such a waste.
If the 2008 concert footage was presented without all the "fancy" edits (road clips, etc.) it would be great. As is, though, it's an exercise in frustration just to try watching it.
I suppose we should just be glad they didn't butcher Disc One. That would've been a tragedy.
If you're a Top fan, get it for the 1980 disc. It's a real treat.

3/5 An Ace and A Joker
  by Malcolm Hughes (Detroit)
The jewel here is definitely the 1980 show: great songs, sound and the camera shoots it like a concert. Everything's played tight and loud and with great energy. You also get great breadth of songs from their catalog, as the set list hits every album.

The 2nd disc should be sent back to the band and they should be forced to watch every single minute. There's no way they could have sat thru more than 1 complete song of this ridculous sort of film lab test. You get the start of a song, then it cuts to grainy 2009 black/white footage of them standing around at a photo shoot, back to a song, back to a b/w picture of a building, back to song, b/w picture of a dog, start of guitar solo in song, b/w photo of old guys, then song, film of clouds, back/forth, etc. The shame is that the 2009 footage looks well shot ... maybe because of being spliced with such awful b/w footage?

Why ruin a good concert with this mess? The extra b/w stuff could have been included as extra "bonus ?" material. Or, there should have been a "watch concert only" option, like some DVD's include. Hopefully, the band gets their heads back on straight a shoot a good concert film -- with good songs, without 15 camera cuts every 30 seconds, and only show the crowd in-between songs. Kind of like what was done 29 years ago, but with HD and 5.1.

2/5 SUCKING THE MONEY OUT OF YOUR WALLET...
  by K. knight (OCEANSIDE, CA)
THE ONLY REASON TO BUY THIS DOUBLE DVD IS FOR THE REMASTERED 1980 SHOW. I'VE OWNED THE BOOT OF THE 1980 SHOW FOR A LONG TIME AND AM GLAD THAT THE 1980 ROCKPALAST SHOW IS FINALLY OUT AND SOMEWHAT BETTER. THE SECOND DISC IS A TOTAL WASTE. IT'S LIKE WATCHING A AUDIENCE SHOT PILE OF CLIPS FROM DIFFERENT CONCERTS MIXED TOGETHER WITH A TRAVEL LOG OF WASTED CLIPS OF THE TOUR BUS AND WEARHOUSE SHOTS OF THE EQUIPMENT AND ANYTHING ELSE TO FILL UP THE DVD SO THEY CAN SELL IT AS A DOUBLE DVD SET. THE CONCERT RELEASED OF THE 2008 TEXAS CONCERT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO BUY.