Interesting, it took so long that they aren't even marketing it as "40th Anniversary" anymore, but you can tell the t-shirts were designed 2-3 years ago with the anniversary in mind.
I always assumed a full Toronto audio from one of the two nights was going to be what they'd put out for this, so this is no surprise. Obvious and easiest thing to do. The full video surprises me though. Quite excited to finally see that, I only hope they didn't destroy it with AI. There's been a rumor for about 20 years now that they found the full GUP raw videos, but since nothing ever came of it over the years, I think most of us eventually assumed it wasn't true.
They're advertising this new release as the September 21st show only, and from my recollection several people have previously noticed that the songs in the video don't always match the Sept 21st audience tape, indicating they mixed the "best of" the two nights. Though I know the 2000s DVD also uses altered audio compared to the 80s home video releases, which could also be the cause of some confusion. So I'm wondering if this will truly be the compete 1st night show, or Anthem continuing their track record of mislabeling things. We shall see, it will be a good time to reanalyze and compare the releases with the audience tape.
But sorry, I’m not buying at those prices. $300 for a CD set and $375 for an LP set? Nah. I'll have to wait for this stuff to turn up online somewhere. With 2112, AFTK, Hemispheres, PeW, MP, the disc-only sets used to be less than $100 so you can get the musical content without the extra novelty fluff (ticket repros, etc), but now the CD-only version is ludicrously priced because they're forcing all the trivial extras. Not everyone wants all that stuff. I'd buy this if they'd kept the budget version as an option, but this seems like more sad marketing behavior. It's not that I can't afford it, it's that it's a ripoff. I want to be fully excited about this stuff but it's hard for me. I full divorced from official releases after the Signals and R50 were over-glorified cash grab boxsets of available content. At least they're releasing full shows this time, and that's the important thing here, new content.
Props for releasing the full Toronto video, and a full audio show, but there’s still a bad taste there about modern releases. Not trying to be pessimistic, but that's just how I feel.
Don't get me wrong though, I am happy that we'll see the full concert on video! Very curious to see if every song will be a new mix of the multicam raws.
