Daryl Hall & John Oates – Live At The Troubadour (2008/Shout! Factory DVD)

 

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

 

 

After so many acts have come and gone, especially duos, Daryl Hall & John Oates continue to be the biggest selling and most successful duo in music history, even over The Everly Brothers, Eurythmics and The Carpenters.  Since the H20 album, I felt that the duo had started to loose their way and too much of their output afterwards was too laid back for my tastes.  I know they could not do the New Wave harmony thing forever, but if they were going to go back to their roots, I would have liked something akin to their early Atlantic Records work.  When Daryl Hall & John Oates – Live At The Troubadour (2008) was announced, I was curious, but never expected the fine concert that they would deliver in this two-hour surprise.

 

The songs include:

 

1)     Everything Your Heart Desires

2)     When the Morning Comes

3)     Family Man

4)     Say It Isn’t So

5)     It’s Uncanny

6)     Had I Known You Better Then

7)     She’s Gone

8)     Getaway Car

9)     Cab Driver

10)  One On One

11)  Sara Smile

12)  Maneater

13)  Out Of Touch

14)  I Can’t Go For That (No Can Go)

15)  Rich Girl

16)  Kiss On My List

17)  You Make My Dreams

18)  Abandoned Luncheonette

19)  Private Eyes

 

 

Except for a few older hits (Do What You Want, Be What You Are, which they do a great job of on Eagle’s live DVD of their mid-1970s German TV appearances) and underrated album cuts (Crime Pays), this is a formidable show, but the surprise is how they play.  Not only is the band in top form, but don’t expect to easily sing along as the duo has come up with terrific new twists to the familiar vocal arrangements and some of it is improv of the highest order.  Hall can still sing and in some ways, his voice has improved over the years demonstrating advanced phrasing that keeps this loaded with energy.

 

Oates can still play, has shaves his mustache and they still have the same great chemistry that put them on the map back in the 1970s.  Whether this means they will make a comeback album or not is hard to tell, but Live At The Troubadour is one of the best concert discs of the year (also issued on Blu-ray) in a year where we saw an increase of such product.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is very good for DVD with some good color, some detail and some depth, though we wondered how much better this would look on Blu-ray.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has a good soundfield, has some good detail of the playing, vocals are recorded well and we wished for DTS.  The Blu-ray likely would sound better, but we could not secure one before this was due to post.  The only extras are separate interviews with Oates and Hall.

 

Just though John would like seeing his name first for a change.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo