Entries Tagged 'DVD' ↓

I had originally planned on reviewing the actual Can’t Slow Down studio album but that CD is AWOL in a pile somewhere and instead I watched the live DVD that came with it.

First thing’s first:  I’m not a big Foreigner fan.  It’s not that I dislike them - there’s a handful of their songs that I really enjoy - it’s more that I don’t care about them.  Their songs have been overplayed so much on classic rock radio that it’s mostly become background noise to me.

So why sit through a DVD of live performances?  Mostly it’s that I’m intrigued by bands that replace key members.  In this case Kelly Hansen of Hurricane replaced previous singer Lou Gramm, although their Wikipedia entry reports that Mick Jones is the only original member remaining.  I’m always curious what route the band takes when replacing someone like a singer.  Will they be replaced with a clone (like Journey) or will they attempt to change the band’s sound (oh let’s just pull out Motley Crue for this)?

In this case it’s somewhere in the middle.  Hansen doesn’t sound exactly like Lou Gramm but close enough to see why he was picked for the Foreigner gig.  However he brings enough of his own vocal style to give the current version of Foreigner some kind of identity.

As for the performance, with the exception of a terrible acoustic version of “Say You Will”, the songs sound pretty good.  The energy level of the band is decent, not phoning it in but not putting on an amazing performance either.  I suspect that if I were more of a Foreigner fan this is exactly the show I would want - they do a good job playing their hits without forcing too much new or unknown material on the crowd.  As far as my personal feelings, it didn’t make me any more or any less of a Foreigner fan.  It was interesting to watch once and that’s plenty for me.

I’ve never been a huge Neil Young fan.  He’s one of those artists whose greatest hits get played so much on classic rock radio that you’re completely sick of them and I’ve also heard a lot of his stuff that I just don’t care for.  I do, however, love Harvest Moon and Arc-Weld for reasons that escape me since they’re not really that much of a departure from his other stuff.

The concert movie Rust Never Sleeps has always piqued my curiosity though.  The tour that this performance is from was once named one of the top concert performances by Rolling Stone.  If you’re unfamiliar with it, on this tour the roadies were dressed like Jawas from Star Wars and the stage had props like amplifiers whose size was exaggerated so that the people on stage were dwarfed.

The other aspect of this film that had me interested was that it was one of those movies that always was playing at the midnight movies when I was growing up.  By time I was old enough to go to them, the theatre started showing more modern movies so the movies I missed always had a bit of mystery to me.  When I saw the Rust Never Sleeps DVD used  for five dollars I bought it without hesitation.

From a concert perspective the performance is amazing.  A good chunk of the set is solo acoustic which I’m usually not crazy about, but Neil plays songs like “Sugar Mountain” and “After the Goldrush” with a great energy.  The solo songs are so good they almost overshadow his performance with Crazy Horse.  The electric songs are great as well, but based on what I’ve heard before that’s less of a suprise.

From a movie standpoint though it falls flat.  The opening sequence of the roadies shuffling around before the show gets boring after the first 30 seconds.   Same goes for the other interruptions throughout the show - they may have worked for the people in the crowd at the time but sitting through it in the movie becomes aggravating.  The sequence with the Woodstock announcements is beyond boring.

The sound and picture quality aren’t wonderful but for me that’s not an issue considering when it was made.  There is a weird thing about the sound though.  Between songs you can clearly hear Neil’s footsteps on the stage, him dragging the piano bench across the floor, even when he picks up a harmonica out of the glass they’re held in.  I don’t know if that was in the original film or if it’s part of the DVD mixing, or if it was even done on purpose.  It’s just odd.

The bottom line is that Rust Never Sleeps is one of the best concert films I’ve ever seen and I’m not even a big Neil Young fan, although it definitely has made me one now.