Cream – Royal Albert Hall: London May 2-3-5-6 2005/Dream
Theater: Live At Budokan (2004/Eagle Blu-rays)/Emerson, Lake & Palmer 40th Anniversary Reunion Concert
(2011/MVD Blu-ray + DVD)/The Hollies:
Look Through Any Window 1963 – 1975 (Eagle DVD)/Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power Live – In The Hands Of The Fans (2011/MVD
Blu-ray + DVD)/Bette Midler: The
Showgirl Must Go On (2010/Image Blu-ray)/Queensryche: Mindcrime At The Moor (2007/Eagle Blu-ray)/Taylor Swift: Journey To Fearless (2011/Shout!
Factory Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture: B-/B-/B-
& C+/C+/C+ & C/B-/B-/B- & C
Sound: B/B/C+/C+/C+/B/B/B & B-
Extras: C/B-/C+/B/C/D/C+/D Music
Programs: B-/B-/C+/B/C+/B-/C+/C+
Here’s a
big batch of new music releases you might be interested in.
Cream – Royal Albert Hall: London May 2-3-5-6 2005 is on Blu-ray and actually our
first concert by the band, though we did cover the Classic Albums – Cream: Disraeli Gears DVD a while ago at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4137/Classic+Albums:+Cream+%E2%80%9
This is a
solid reunion concert, but performances of the classics are mixed at times and
this is for fans as much as anyone, though it is a consistent concert as Eric
Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce perform classics like I’m So Glad, Stormy Monday,
Crossroads, White Room and Sunshine Of
Your Love, but they still sound like the band they used to be and that is a
good thing. Interviews with the trio
separately, three bonus songs and an illustrated booklet with tech information
are the only extras.
Dream Theater: Live At Budokan (2004) is our first-ever
encounter with the progressive metal band that has a serious following and is
not bad, as this is a popular concert release that is as good as any a place to
start if you want to be introduced to the band, especially on Blu-ray. This is a good bit of material and you will
know whether you like them or not early on, but there is no doubt of their
talent and that they are effectively different.
Extras are listed as both Bonus Materials (5 sections including a tour
documentary and more music playing) and Special Features, but are the same.
The great
Progressive Rock Band Emerson, Lake
& Palmer 40th Anniversary Reunion Concert brings the band
back together again for a good concert that resulted in the same feelings I had
about the Cream show above, but I like ELP even more as these links (with other
links) will show:
Emerson, Lake & Palmer:
Pictures At An Exhibition Special Edition (1972)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10262/Emerson,+Lake+&+Palmer+%E2%80
+
Live At Montreux Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10001/Emerson,+Lake+&+Palmer+%E2%80
They had
not played since 1998 (!) but classics like Karn
Evil 9, Lucky Man and their
classic extrapolations of classical masterworks still work and drive purists
nuts. A 28+ minutes documentary and an
illustrated booklet with tech information are the only extras in both the
Blu-ray and DVD editions.
The best
release here continues the British Invasion series we began covering in a box
set that included Small Faces, Dusty Springfield, Herman’s Hermits and Gerry
& The Pacemakers elsewhere on this site.
The Hollies: Look Through Any
Window 1963 – 1975 is a terrific documentary about the rise of the band as
one of the earliest successes of that British Invasion with a song that is the
subtitle of this disc, as well as Bus
Stop and Carrie-Anne. After trying something different with King
Midas In Reverse (one of their best ever songs), they landed more hits with He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother and Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress before
Graham Nash left for his own success.
Nash eventually returned for an ill-fated 1983 reunion luckily skipped
here, but also missed cutting their best-selling record and possibly their
masterpiece, The Air That I Breathe. This is as strong as the entries in the
Chrome Dreams In Review DVD music
series and a must-see for all serious music fans. Extras include 22 performances available
outside of the documentary, 10 minutes of rare 1967 Abbey Road Studio footage and full
color backstage tour footage from the 1960s.
Iggy Pop
is also inarguable and Iggy & The
Stooges: Raw Power Live – In The Hands Of The Fans is out latest entry in
home video release featuring the Punk pioneer, more of which you can read about
starting with this great Chrome Dreams DVD release, The Sacred Triangle:
Bowie, Iggy & Lou: 1971 – 1973:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10911/Brian+Eno+%E2%80%93+The+Man
This is
one of those occasional concerts where fans are allowed to shoot the footage,
which is later edited into the final product.
Like The Beastie Boys’ Awesome,
I… Shot That concert, this has its fun, but tends to be more limited than
exciting and the result here was uneven.
Fans will enjoy it as classic tracks from that classic album are
performed, but Iggy and the band still got it.
An illustrated booklet with tech information is the only extra.
Offering
more showtunes and pop records is Bette
Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On (2010) in which the legendary actress and
performer sings her various hits like the overplayed Wind Beneath My Wings, and even more overplayed From A Distance (to paraphrase Miss
Midler form an older awards show, I try to get as distant form it as possible
every time it plays somewhere), decent title song from The Rose, underrated Friends from the great mystery film The Last Of Sheila, her fun cover of The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and a nice
cover of the old tune The Glory Of Love
(not the Peter Cetera
catastrophe). The great Toni Basil (Mickey) choreographed the show and it is
stronger than you might think.
Like
Dream Theater, this is also our first official look at the much-loved band Queensryche and this live version of their
Mindcrime At The Moor (2007) Rock
Opera is not bad, though I never loved this band, I at least get they are
saying things their fans love and that is why they continue to have a very
loyal fan base. They are one of the
smarter bands who occupy their genre of Rock music and take what they do
seriously, like their fans. I could only
take so much of it, but there is no denying their talent. Extras include an illustrated booklet with
tech information, while the Blu-ray adds the late Ronnie James Dio dueting on The Chase, a Tour Documentary and Queensryche: Rock & Ride.
Finally
we have the new documentary Taylor
Swift: Journey To Fearless (2011) which shows how the young Country Pop
star rose from shunned child performer to a contract with RCA that she walked
away form thinking it would go nowhere to being part of the start of a new
company that put her on the map to big commercial and surprising critical
success. I may not be a fan of her music
either, but she is a natural and it is a success story worth celebrating for a
change versus the many overpushed phonies that churn out some of the worst
music we have ever heard. Running over
two hours, this is all you’ll need to know about her, but it is well done. There are no extras in either format edition.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image in all the Blu-rays look good for the
limits of 1080i shooting with some softness, motion blur and small aliasing
errors, though Iggy and Swift (there’s a combination you’d
never expect to see) suffer from more softness than expected especially more so
in the anamorphically enhanced DVD versions sold separately, specifically in
the case of Iggy from the amateur handling of the shoot and some less than HD
cameras. The ELP Blu-ray is solid enough, with its anamorphically enhanced DVD
version not as weak by comparison. The Hollies DVD is therefore not the
weakest presentation here, especially as some of the footage looks good and is
in fine condition all in a 1.33 X 1 presentation.
All the
Blu-rays have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes save Iggy and ELP from MVD, which have the same Dolby Digital 5.1 as their DVD
counterparts. This can be disappointing,
though in the case of Iggy makes
less of a difference as that audio is varied by the nature of the way that
concert was shot. The ELP discs could have sounded a bit
better, especially for such sonically savvy musicians as they are, but all the
MVD discs have slightly harsh highs. The Hollies DVD has Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo that is more consistent than you might expect.
- Nicholas Sheffo
