Heart – Alive In Seattle (HD-DVD/2002)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B     Extras: C     Concert: B-

 

 

In 1976, in a male-dominated Rock genre, Ann and Nancy Wilson finally broke through as the band Heart.  Along with the ladies of Fleetwood Mac, their brand of West Coast Rock was a huge hit spawning several hit albums and hit singles like Heartless.  Like Fleetwood Mac, 1980 was the last year of the cycle that took them to the top, but they too made a comeback.  In 1985, they found even more commercial success, though the music was more Pop and MOR than Rock.  While Mac U.S. members came from California, Heart was up the coast and for this 2002 concert, they return to their hometown in Alive In Seattle.

 

Now, the hit DVD-Video is back as one of the first HD-DVD concerts from Image Entertainment, which fans can now see and hear with a clarity even cable/satellite cannot deliver.  The songs performed encompass most of their classics, especially the early hits and include:

 

Crazy On You

Sister Wild Rose

The Witch

Straight On

These Dreams

Mistral Wind

Alone

Dog & Butterfly

Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters

Battle Of Evermore

Heaven

Magic Man

Two Faces Of Eve

Love Alive

Break The Rock

Barracuda

Wild Child

Black Dog

Dreamboat Annie

 

 

Well, it is some of their best work since the early 1980s as a result and we have never covered the band on this site yet, so that is a plus.  Unfortunately, they are not always able to get back into that element and in some ways, it is just too hard to go back to that home.  However, it is a smart choice for an early HD release concert, but with some limits.

 

The 1080i 1.78 x 1 digital High Definition transfer can be somewhat glitchy like The Black Crowes - Freak ‘N’ Roll … Into The Fog taped three years later in 2005, but is still better than Image’s HD-DVD release of Barry Manilow – Manilow Live!  That had been taped two years before this.  It also looks better than most of their Music Videos, some of which seemed to be filmed, but they never did do clips of their better songs save older concert footage.  Maybe Sony will issue a Blu-ray compilation of those with DSD-derived remasters.

 

The standard DVD had standard Dolby Digital and DTS 5.0 mixes, but the sound here has been upgraded to Dolby Digital and Dolby TrueHD 5.0, which makes it sound clearer.  Unfortunately, the lack of bass is noticeable, even though the Dolby TrueHD is at 192kHz/24-bits.  The regular DTS (20 – 24-bits/48kHz at best) was dropped, but in this case, it might have been nice if we had it here for comparison or even upgraded to DTS HD Master Audio at the same 192kHz/24-bits as the Dolby TrueHD.  At 103 minutes, this disc might have had the room for that and the concert and three soundtracks.  The only extra is an Easter Egg in the heart inside the logo on the menu page featuring interviews with The Wilsons.

 

It should be noted that Sony did issue this concert as a 5.1 Super Audio CD in what was their first ever multi-channel hybrid SACD including regular PCM 2.0 and DSD 2.0 tracks.  Since it is one giant megabit of DSD sound versus Dolby TrueHD’s 192kHz/24-bit mix, a comparison would yield interesting results.  There have been claims True HD or similar lossless DTS HD could outdo SACD.  We look forward to finding out sometime soon.  Until then, Alive In Seattle is one of the better concerts in either HD format.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo