“I wanna let you know that I’m more than just a man that sing and dance onstage,” James Brown announced at New York’s Apollo Theater in March 1968. In April, the Godfather of Soul would get a chance to prove it while playing to a volatile Boston Garden crowd less than 24 hours after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which ignited riots in many of America’s biggest cities. “If the concert had not occurred, we would’ve had the biggest problem in Boston since the Tea Party,” R&B DJ James Byrd claims in The Night James Brown Saved Boston, a gripping behind-the-scenes account of the gig featured on this expansive three-DVD set, which also includes the Apollo performance and the whole of the Boston show. In the latter, the tragic context turns Brown’s every shake, squeal and spin into an act of defiance and loving tribute.

 
THE BEST OF THE REST

Rolling Stones Shine A Light (2.5 stars)
Paramount Home Ent.
This Martin Scorsese–helmed concert movie makes one point, over and over: The Stones are wrinkly relics, but, boy, do they still wail! The offstage footage is unrevealing and, as deftly as the performance is shot, the 21st century is not the best time to watch Mick Jagger undulate in size-28 hip-huggers. Jonah Weiner

New Order Live In Glasgow (2.5 stars)
Warner Bros./Rhino
A nostalgic 2006 Scottish set gives this two-live-DVD package its name, but the real draw is a second disc packed with performances from the synth-poppers' '80s prime.  Highlighted by an incredible take on "Ceremony" from 1981, the archival footage reveals why New Order are such an influence on modern electro stars like LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip. RD

Daft Punk Electroma (1.5 stars)
Vice

If Daft Punk’s recent glowing-pyramid tour showed off the duo’s crazed Dionysian side, this art-house atrocity (directed by the French dance gods themselves) veers in the opposite direction—it’s a plotless bore that follows two robots (not played by Daft Punk) as they attempt to become real men. This study of the man-machine dichotomy could hardly be more tedious. RD