Moby’s ‘Play’Is a Ball for Devotees

Bob Dylan once said that he was so inspired creatively by things going on around him in the ‘60s that he didn’t want to go to sleep at night because he might miss something. You get the suspicion that Moby feels a little bit like that now--and his freewheeling imagination is on full display in a dazzling new DVD.

* * * 1/2 Moby’s “Play--The DVD,” V2/BMG Video. Ever since releasing “Play” in 1999, Moby has been on an endless tour, injecting personality and soulfulness into the frequently anonymous world of electronic dance music.

The dance-world marvel brings energy and ambition to this DVD. Things start off with 10 videos of songs from “Play,” five of which have never been released in the U.S., including animated treatments of “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” and “Natural Blues.”

Then Moby serves up more than an hour of remixes of the key songs from “Play” and 20 minutes of home movie-style tour sidelights. He tops it all off with a live TV show performance of six songs, including the early dance-music hit “Go.” It’s not all essential, but it’s a fan’s delight.

* * * Pearl Jam’s “Touring Band 2000,” Epic Music Video. In the liner notes to this concert DVD, singer Eddie Vedder describes the package as the visual equivalent of the scores of live “bootlegs” that the rock quintet issued last year.

You don’t get your choice of every show on the tour, the way you do with that CD series, but the DVD concert is pieced together from various North American tour stops (including segments from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino) rather than concentrating on a single night’s performance. This enables the band to create a set list that represents the overall spirit of the tour.

The generous, 28-song set touches on the tender (“Long Road”), idealistic (“Wishlist”), confrontational (“This Is Not for You”), anguished (“Jeremy”) and goofy (“Evolution”) sides of one of the great bands of modern rock. True to its grass-roots tradition, the band simply asked three members of the touring crew to film the shows once their regular duties were done. The result is a raw, intimate glimpse of the group. On a more conventional level is some mandatory backstage footage.

* * Paul McCartney’s “Live at the Cavern Club,” Image Entertainment. Too bad the Liverpool concert wasn’t in 1963 rather than 1999. It’s disarming to see the ex-Beatle return home to perform songs associated with his teen heroes, including Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry. It’s also good to see him revisit his Beatles days with a rendition of “I Saw Her Standing There.” Yet the music itself is of only passing interest.

* 1/2 The Bee Gees’ “This Is Where I Came In,” Eagle Vision. The DVD package boasts that this is the “definitive video biography of the legendary group,” which should be warning enough that it’s a safe, authorized biography. The trio retraces its history in dry, exhausting fashion, supplemented by video clips of the many hits. For loyalists only.

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