On the Night [Video]

On the Night [Video] Review by Ben Davies

This accompanying video to Dire Straits' live CD album (also named On the Night) has few interesting moments. The painfully dull rock sound that Dire Straits adopted for this tour even goes so far as to ruin some of the band's genuinely good songs ("Private Investigations," "Romeo and Juliet"). The track list features mainly the most popular songs from the band's final studio albums, Brothers in Arms and On Every Street. Once again, Mark Knopfler and company stretch out most of these songs by adding overly lengthy guitar solos. While this may have been welcomed on Dire Straits' early live recordings due to Knopfler's individual guitar sound, here it is rather drab. Despite the surprisingly good sound and picture quality of this release, it is almost embarrassing to watch On the Night. The dreadfully cheesy band members and their sickeningly early-'90s clothing alone are enough to deter anyone from purchasing this monstrosity, never mind the music. On the Night is one of the poorest music videos ever to be released.