Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band – Live At The
Greek Theater 2008 (2010/Universal
Music/Hip-O Records DVD + CD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B-/B Extras: D Concert: B
Like all The
Beatles after their breakup, Ringo Starr has had his share of hits, success and
criticism, the latter often really being about not bringing the original band
back no matter how it was disguised. That
he had the most early commercial success of the four Beatles is rarely
discussed and that he has made many smart decisions in his life (Caveman was a dud, but he did marry
Barbara Bach, so there!) and loves music to this day. But the founding of Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band has turned out to be an
undeniable coup and shows his continued good taste in music.
The idea
is to assemble fine name singers and musicians and go on tour. The latest incarnation formed recently for Live At The Greek Theater 2008 and the
tour that coincided with it is one of the best yet and is now on DVD and CD
from Hip-O Records. The latest line-up includes
successful solo Rockers Billy Squire and Gary Wright, the legendary Edgar
Winter, Hamish Stuart from the underrated Average White Band, the still very
viable and ready-for-anything Colin Hay from Men At Work and long time drummer
extraordinaire Gregg Bissonette.
The songs
from the DVD are as follows, with the tracks that made the CD marked #:
1)
With A Little Help From My
Friends #
2)
It Don’t Come Easy
3)
What Goes On #
4)
Memphis In Your Mind
5)
Lonely Is The Night
6)
Free Ride #
7)
Down Under
8)
Dream Weaver #
9)
Boys #
10) Pick Up The Pieces #
11) Liverpool
8
12) Act Naturally #
13) Yellow Submarine #
14) Frankenstein
15) Never Without You #
16) Choose Love
17) The Stroke #
18) Work To Do
19) I Wanna Be Your Man #
20) Love Is Alive
21) Who Can It Be Now? #
22) Photograph #
23) Oh My My #
24) With A Little Help From My
Friends #
25) Give Peace A Chance #
I have
seen the earlier versions of the band before and they are always fun, but even
when some of the covers do not work out as well as others, this is one of the
best line-ups ever. They can all still
play, sing (Wright’s voice in particular has held up shockingly well) and they
are truly having a good time generating more energy and with more talent than
just about any ‘new Rock band’ since the late 1980s and yes, that is fair since
the genre has been in decline due to a lack of talent, energy, effort,
sincerity or even caring about anything.
These guys do all that and are still the real thing today.
It is
also a chance for unlikely pairing and in al the cases here, they not only
work, but work very well. Live At The Greek Theater 2008 is
another one of the year’s pleasant concert surprises in the Rock genre (along
with Blu-rays of Chickenfoot and Jane’s Addiction we have covered this year)
and is very much recommended.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the DVD may have its softness and
some motion blur, but color is exceptionally good for the format and that leads
one to believe that a Blu-ray would be particularly impressive. I also liked the way this was shot and
edited. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the
DVD is better than the Dolby 2.0 Stereo version also offered and has some good
moments with a fairly good soundfield, but it sounds slightly compressed for
some reason, which is more of a mystery when you hear the PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo
on the CD sounding so good. Why the
difference? Who knows, though maybe if
the DVD had DTS it would not be a problem.
A lossless track on a Blu-ray would likely correct this. There are no extras.
For more
on Ringo and The Beatles, start with this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8663/The+Beatles+%E2%80%93+Magical
- Nicholas Sheffo
