"On August 19th, 2005, on what would have been the eve of his 56th birthday, a statue of Phil Lynott was unveiled in Dublin's Grafton Street by his mother. There to witness the event were members of Thin Lizzy from throughout the band's career. The following evening, they joined forces under the leadership of Gary Moore for a concert that paid tribute to Lynott's memory".

The above quote is from the back of the DVD case, and could not have summed up this amazing event any better. I was a bit suspect when I first heard about this DVD. Although Gary Moore is one of my favorite guitarists on the planet, due in part to his incredible blues renaissance over the last 15 years, he did, after all, only appear on a couple of Thin Lizzy albums and tours.

Brian Downey and, especially, Scott Gorham were the undisputed guitar stars of this band, but they were only touted as "special guests" on a few songs each. Besides, who was going sing Lynott's songs and do them any justice? Moore? Singing has never exactly been his strong suit.

However, Gary Moore certainly has the most star power going these days, especially in his hometown of Belfast, and he was the obvious choice to lead this tribute. He stepped up to the plate this night and hit a home run as both master of ceremonies, and master of guitar. Moore and his friends breathe new life into these old Lizzy classics, introducing them to a new generation, and reminding longtime fans, like myself, just how great some of these songs really are. Don't expect to hear a bunch of Live and Dangerous retreads coming out of your speakers, because Moore convincingly updates these classics for the 21st century with his ringing, crunchy guitar tone, and lightning fast leads.

The concert begins with Moore taking the stage first, and firing off a few warm up licks from his Les Paul as he walks out. He is immediately joined by current Jethro Tull bassist Jonathan Noyce, as well as Brian Downey on the drums, who is the only other member of Thin Lizzy, other than Lynott, to hang with the band from beginning to end. The three of them kick things off with the old blues standard "Walking By Myself", which Moore covered on his 1990 album Still Got The Blues. For the rest of the night, it would be all Lizzy stuff, up until the thrilling encore of "Parisienne Walkways", a song from Moore's 1979 Back On The Streets album, which was co-written with Lynott.

They remain in power trio mode for two more songs, beginning with the fan favorite "Jailbreak", which was somewhat lacking without Lynott's gritty vocals, and a second guitarist, but, hell, Moore sounds like he is playing two guitars most of the time anyways. This was followed by one of Lynott's very best songs, "Don't Believe A Word", which Moore introduced with a casual "there are two versions of this song — the slow version and the fast version", before leading off with the ballad version he did for his Back On The Streets album. After a few minutes in ballad mode, Moore stomps on his distortion pedal, and after a slight pause, for effect, cranks it into overdrive, launching the famous Johnny The Fox version, and sending the crowd into a frenzy. Moore's vocals were more suited for this song and his killer performance made this one an early highlight.