First, the good news: Bob Dylan Revealed features an abundance of anecdotes certain to satisfy some of the most hard-core Dylan fans.
It probably would have been enough to let the cameras roll, do some tight close-ups of Alan Evans, Neal Evans and Eric Krasno getting all funky and dirty as only they know how; pan the sweaty Brooklyn Bowl crowd a few times and let the intensity of the music just carry the thing. But the Bowlive DVD is only partly about Soulive in concert; what you’re really getting with this abundantly pleasant release is two stories in one.
Leftover Salmon's Twice in a Blue Moon DVD isn't a full-fledged documentary like the band’s brilliant Years in Your Ears, but there's still an inherent anthropology to Twice in a Blue Moon despite its focus on concert footage. There's nothing epic about the camerawork or audio quality of the music presentation, and the performance itself is merely above average. More memorably, the release's 13 songs and ample bonus content reveal more about the sometimes hazy legacy of the nation's first and only "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass" artist.
Considering the fact that this supergroup hasn't really existed for three years, this DVD release of a 2005 Velvet Revolver performance shows that for a short period, these guys were a real force to be reckoned with. The set captures the band at that brief moment in time when they were on the top of their game and on top of the world: their debut album Contraband had just hit #1, and all band members were sober (something which was soon to change as their tour continued).
If Live at Roseland proves to be Phil Collins' swan song (as the bonus feature interview seems to suggest), then it's a fitting, heartfelt close to a misunderstood, undervalued career.
Ladies & Gentlemen … The Rolling Stones is a document of the Mick Taylor-era Stones at their gritty and sweat-soaked finest. If you needed a time capsule item to best explain to future civilizations what rock ‘n’ roll was all about, this movie is it.
Thirty years from the release of their 1979 self-titled debut, the Specials are still excited to play and exciting to watch. They’re all in their 50s (some of them in their late 50s) and yet nothing about them (or their three decade old songs) seems old. They’re so tight that it’s hard to imagine that this unit was apart nearly ten times as long as they were together. The crowd, young and old alike, responds appropriately with sing-alongs and non-stop dancing, just as it likely was back in 1979. The sound and video quality is flawless and far exceeds the expectations set by most live films. The highly professional production does all that can possibly be done to capture the essence of this live performance.
The announcement of Phish 3D was somewhat surprising to me, but somewhere in the middle of the April 20th preview screening, it dawned on me that I should have expected nothing less. After all, the band has been doing nothing but taking advantage of technology and innovation for over two decades of productivity. Why WOULDN'T Phish do a 3D movie, I eventually thought.
Directed and written by Oklahoma native Bryan Beasley, and narrated by Val Kilmer, the viewer is immediately immersed from the outset in a rich cultural tapestry that describes Allan Houser’s rise to fame and the subsequent success of his two sons as they continue their father’s work to this day. Allan Houser has some very famous pieces to his name but perhaps the most significant part of his life were the dramatic changes he brought to the concept of Native American art during his tenure at the Santa Fe based Institute of Native American Arts from 1962-1975.
Two additional performances are the extent of the bonus material on Cabin Fever, but then, like the music itself, this item is executed perfectly succinctly right down to the stylized cover art and DVD package design. The Black Crowes have set the stage to celebrate their twentieth anniversary in 2010 at the absolute apex of their career.
