Earth, Wind & Fire – Live At
Montreux 1997 (Eagle Vision
Blu-ray)
Picture: B
Sound: B+ Extras: C+ Concert: B-
In yet another release from the enduring career of Earth,
Wind & Fire, Live At Montreux 1997
arrives on Blu-ray and turns out to be one of their better shows on any format
to date. I have not been happy with the
way they have rushed-through shows, but they do better than that here. The songs include:
1) Rock That
2) Jupiter
3) Saturday Nite
4) Revolution
5) Gratitude
6) September
7) Let’s Groove
8) Rock It
9) Sun Goddess
10) Can’t Hide Love
11) That’s The Way Of The World
12) Drum solo
13) Reasons
14) Fantasy
15) Mo’s Solo
16) Boogie Wonderland
17) After The Love Has Gone
18) Sing A Song
19) Shining Song
20) Devotion
As a show, it is as good as any on disc as of this posting
and rivals their show with Chicago
that is also on Blu-ray, reviewed elsewhere on this site. However, this sounds even better than that
2004 concert despite this being seven years older for whatever reason.
The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image does show
its age as an early HD taping, but color is good, Video Black is limited, we
get motion blur and a few other detail issues, but I like how it was shot and
edited. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
lossless 5.1 mix is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo on
this Blu-ray, with the PCM the least of them all. Extras include an essay inside a paper
pullout inside the case and very good bonus concert featuring 7 songs from a
1998 Montreux appearance including:
1) Kalimba Funk Intro
2) Medley: Pride/Mighty Mighty
3) In The Stone
4) Solo Percussion (Daahoud)
5) I’ll Write A Song
6) Love’s Holiday
7) Getaway
For more
of the band, you might want to start with this link for the DVD/CD set of Live In Japan, which offers more links
to other EWF releases:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7565/Earth,+Wind+&+Fire+%E2%80%93+Li
- Nicholas Sheffo
