Dido has become one of my favorite singers on the strength of her two albums, No Angel and Life for Rent, which showcase her beautiful, distinctive voice along with her talent for writing interesting and compelling songs. Dido's live performance at the Brixton Academy gives us a generous sampling of songs from both albums.

Dido Live has a very distinctive sound: these are not just the same songs as you've heard on the CD. It seems to me that Dido takes the opportunity to revisit the songs and take them in a new direction, sometimes one that gives a quite different feel to the song overall. She's assertive with the vocals, often giving more emphasis to the vocals or playing with the intonation in songs that, in the studio version, had a fairly smooth and even feel. I found these live versions to be in many cases more lively and vibrant; that's not to say that I don't like the more mellow version on the CD, but certainly the live versions offer a new and engaging interpretation of the music.

As a show, Dido Live is nicely done. The focus remains on Dido singing, not on elaborate special effects. There's ample use of colored lighting, with spotlights sweeping over the stage at times, and with different colors drenching the stage for different songs, so the concert is visually dramatic. The cinematography of the DVD footage is nicely done; it sticks mainly with showing Dido singing from various close-up or middle-distance points, with intercuts of the rest of the band. It's a good balance: the editing often gives us playful shots (Dido's shoulder, the view looking up from inside a drum) but these aren't overdone, so the overall flow of the concert is lively but not frenetic.

The concert runs an hour and a half, and is mostly one song after another; Dido offers an occasional comment between songs with some insight into the writing of that piece, but she doesn't go into great detail. Since I'm more interested in the performance anyway, this made the concert flow quite nicely for me.

Seventeen songs are included in the performance:

Stoned
Here with Me
See You When You're 40
Life for Rent
Hunter
Isobel
My Life
Honestly OK
Don't Leave Home
Mary's in India
Take My Hand
Thankyou
Sand in My Shoes
White Flag
Do You Have a Little Time
All You Want
See the Sun

The DVD

Dido Live is a two-disc set; the first is a DVD with the concert performance, and the second is an audio CD with a selection of songs from the concert.

Video

The concert is presented in an attractive anamorphic widescreen transfer, 1.85:1. The image is fairly soft, but it doesn't look grainy or noisy. Colors look excellent; it's hard to tell how "natural" the image looks since most of the time the stage is drenched in colored light, but the visual appearance is certainly attractive.

Audio

The DTS option here is by far the best of the three tracks offered, providing a rich and nicely balanced audio experience. Dido's voice is rich and clear in the front/center channels, and the side and rear channels are used very well for the surround elements. It definitely feels as if you're at the concert. The overall sound of the DTS track is warm and rich, very well suited to Dido's music. The Dolby 5.1 track is satisfactory, but after listening to the DTS in comparison, it does sound flatter. There's also a Dolby 2.0 track included.

Extras

The bonus feature here is that the set includes an audio CD with a selection of songs from the concert: "Stoned," "Here with Me," See You When You're 40," "Life for Rent," "Isobel," "Honestly OK," "Take My Hand," "Thankyou," "Mary's in India," "Sand in My Shoes," "White Flag," and "See the Sun."

An insert booklet is included, but it's rather disappointing: it just has some photographs of Dido from the concert and a list of songs with credits.

Final thoughts

If you're a fan of Dido's music, you'll certainly enjoy this live performance; Dido sounds great and she gives a vibrant and distinctive rendition of songs from her two albums. The DVD does a nice job in presenting the concert, with an excellent DTS soundtrack and a nice widescreen anamorphic transfer. Highly recommended.