Live 8: A feast for couch potatoes

Remember 20 years ago at Live Aid, when Madonna was a brunette, Paul McCartney was the Cute Ex-Beatle, and U2 proved itself the best live rock act on the planet? Now, Madonna’s blonder, McCartney still looks eerily the same, and U2 is the world’s top-selling concert draw. You can compare and contrast on July 2 when these acts and others perform at Live 8, whose TV rights have now been picked up by MTV and VH1. The networks will spend eight hours going back and forth among the concerts in London, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, as well as between 2005 and 1985 (when Mick Jagger and Tina Turner, left, raised the roof with "It’s Only Rock and Roll"). Of course, the shows are also airing on AOL Music, as well as on Premiere Radio Networks and XM Satellite Radio. So you should be able to catch all the highlights from the simultaneous shows — if your home theater system is wired like the Architect’s room from The Matrix Reloaded.