'Alchemy'-><- or 'On The Night'.?

[Jon]

Hmmm, good question.

Overall, I think Alchemy has a much better selection of songs than OTN.  The sense of atmosphere is far more apparent on Alchemy too.  However, I find the playing on Alchemy to be just a little too loose at times.  I like things a little less cluttered.  OTN has some fantastic playing, especially - as already noted - the pedal steel.  I think it has slightly better sound too, although some of the life seems to have been sucked out of it in the process.  Neither album has great sound to be honest.

That all sounds very negative, when really I enjoy both albums a lot.  I think Alchemy wins though.     

[sweetsurrender]

Alchemy !!!!  It was my veotry very first possession of DS I ever owned. Believe it or not, I got it in Cassette tape back when I was living in Bangkok, Thailand.  And that was also when I first  heard and instantly fell in love with DS.  It was Sultans of Swing.  Still had the cassette tape which had travelled with me from Thailand , to Japan , and now to the US.  25 some years.  It's now become my treasure.  Love Alchemy to death.  Got the VHS version and converted it to DVD.  Now I am trying to work on collecting all the MK's soundtracks. 

[qjamesfloyd]

They are both good concerts, but show a very different DS in my view, Alchemy  was DS at the height of their powers, and because it was pre Brothers In Arms, it shows them before they went huge, and Mark is on fire for the whole show, it shows the enery he used to have as a performer, shows why people were so impressed when they first saw him back in the early days.
On The Night shows the band at what turned out to be the end of there career, and it shows how big they got, and what Mark was not liking anymore, it still has some great performances though, Private Investigations is great, so is Calling Elvis, and Local Hero, and i love the performance of Solid Rock too, but for me the standout song is You and Your Friend, the control and emotion in his playing is astounding, watching him play that song is a real lesson in blues guitar playing

[Ian Lewis]

I think that's a great point qjamesfloyd, MK didn't seem as happy towards the end of DS.  I think going solo was a great decision for him personally.

[qjamesfloyd]

Thanks.
Yes, it was a great decision to go solo, and that is why I think we will never see Dire Straits again as they were, Mark has just moved on, and I can't blame him really, I get fed up of seeing the likes of The Rolling Stones trapsing out for yet another "World Tour" Mark is better of being solo, and keeping it more low key.