Albums That Should Exist: Dire Straits - Sydney Entertainment Center, Sydney, Australia, 4-26-1986

Friday, April 21, 2023

Dire Straits - Sydney Entertainment Center, Sydney, Australia, 4-26-1986

In my opinion, this is the best live Dire Straits recording available, even though it's a bootleg. I hadn't posted it prior to now because I thought the lead vocals were rather low in the mix. But I've fixed that, so I believe this new version sounds better than any other.

There are two things that make this concert exceptional, in my opinion. The first is timing. In 1984, the band released the official live album "Alchemy," based on 1983 concerts. And in 1993, another live album was released, "On the Night," based on 1992 concerts. But between the two was the release of the "Brothers in Arms" studio album in 1985. That album was a massive hit, selling over 30 million albums worldwide, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. Whereas the band's 1991 album that the resulted in the tour for the "On the Night" was considered a commercial and critical disappointment. So it makes great sense to have a concert from the "Brothers in Arms" tour that heavily features songs from that album.

But also, this was the very last concert of that tour. As such, the band put in extra effort to have the tour end on a high note. One result was an extra long show, with over two hours of music. There's also the special treat of having the audience sing the famous Australian song "Waltzing Matilda," and lead singer and songwriter Mark Knopfler giving a special thank you speech summing up the tour.

So one factor is the timing. The other big factor is the sound quality. This was professionally recorded and later shown on TV. (You can find the video of the entire concert on YouTube.) So it's an excellent soundboard recording, maybe the best of the tour. The only snag was the lead vocals being low in the mix, as I mentioned above. But I fixed that with the audio editing program UVR5.

This album is two hours and 11 minutes long.

01 Ride Across the River (Dire Straits)
02 Expresso Love (Dire Straits)
03 Industrial Disease (Dire Straits)
04 So Far Away (Dire Straits)
05 Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits)
06 Private Investigations (Dire Straits)
07 Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits)
08 Why Worry (Dire Straits)
09 Your Latest Trick (Dire Straits)
10 Walk of Life (Dire Straits)
11 talk (Dire Straits)
12 Two Young Lovers (Dire Straits)
13 Money for Nothing (Dire Straits)
14 Tunnel of Love (Dire Straits)
15 Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits)
16 Solid Rock (Dire Straits)
17 talk (Dire Straits)
18 Waltzing Matilda (Dire Straits)
19 talk (Dire Straits)
20 Going Home [Theme from Local Hero] [Instrumental] (Dire Straits)