The Who : Live at the Royal Albert Hall
09-25-01, 09:06 PM
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The Who : Live at the Royal Albert Hall
I just got my copy of The Who : Live at the Royal Albert Hall today and just watched it. I know the review sites often neglect the music titles for a long time, and thought someone might be interested in my impressions:
First of all, I'm not a big Who fan. I like their hits, but I'm not too knowledgeable about their work or their live persormances. I thought the show was very good. Boy, these guys are OLD. Roger seems to have had the greatest toll taken. By the end of the show, his voice is pretty thin. I imagine it must be hard to hit those high notes like you did 30 years ago, but I think he did an OK job. Pete still just rocks. I was amazed by his guitar work. His acustic stuff is very impressive. The band is joined by other artists (Eddie Vedder, Bryan Adams, Noel Galagher) and that provides somem memorable moments. The show consists of 23 songs and clocks in at a meaty 144 minutes. If you can acctept that, like The Stones, these guys aren't the spring chickens they once were, I think you will enjoy the show in its own right.
The video is pretty good. It's filmed in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image is colorful and bright. There is some softness of the image, that likely comes from filming the the Albert Hall, which looks like a very dark venue. Still, it's one of the better concert images I've seen, but not up to Image's highest standards (Peter Frampton, Steely Dan and Santana's DVDs were much sharper).
The Audio rocks. Actually, to be more acurate, the DTS audio rocks. It's full, rich and deep. There are nice surrounds which largely produce sounds from the audience (rather than bringing the music from the rear speakers). At one point during My Generation, you can hear some of the audience members behind you sing the lyrics you always thought would come after "Why don't you all f-f-f-f". Very engrossing and impressive. It's a little hard to compare DD to DTS back and forth because the DTS is recorded at a MUCH higher level, the highest I have ever come across (I ususally listen to my concert DVDs at -10 to -12, this one I was at -30!). Even correcting volume, though, the DD track sounded much flatter and harsher; there was no comparing the two tracks. The bit rate was 754 for DTS and 448 for DD; perhaps that might explain the startling differeces between the two tracks?
As far as extras, they advertise a documentary. Prepre to be very disappointed. After a minute of Roger explaining the very worthwhile trust that the show benifited, there is five to six minutes of video from the show of the orginization getting a check. Not what I had in mind for a bonus documentary, sorry. There is two minutes of time lapse footage of the roadies setting up to the music of "Let's See Action" (big deal). Now we move to the good stuff. There is a total of 10-15 minutes of rehersal footage of theband meeting and practicing with their guest stars that is fascinating ("so what do you want to play, Eddie?"). It's too brief, but well worth watching. There is also a muti-angle version of Pinball Wizard that might be the coolest multi-angle ever. The reason is that you can realy play TV director here. For the first time that I have seen, they give you all seven angles in small boxes running simultaniously and you can pick the angle to put into the main screen in the center. It's a gimmick, of course, but a cool one. I should note that this is a two disc set, with all the concert on disc one and all the extras on disc two.
I'm glad I made the purchase. I hope this review helps someone else make up their mind about this very nice concert disc.
First of all, I'm not a big Who fan. I like their hits, but I'm not too knowledgeable about their work or their live persormances. I thought the show was very good. Boy, these guys are OLD. Roger seems to have had the greatest toll taken. By the end of the show, his voice is pretty thin. I imagine it must be hard to hit those high notes like you did 30 years ago, but I think he did an OK job. Pete still just rocks. I was amazed by his guitar work. His acustic stuff is very impressive. The band is joined by other artists (Eddie Vedder, Bryan Adams, Noel Galagher) and that provides somem memorable moments. The show consists of 23 songs and clocks in at a meaty 144 minutes. If you can acctept that, like The Stones, these guys aren't the spring chickens they once were, I think you will enjoy the show in its own right.
The video is pretty good. It's filmed in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image is colorful and bright. There is some softness of the image, that likely comes from filming the the Albert Hall, which looks like a very dark venue. Still, it's one of the better concert images I've seen, but not up to Image's highest standards (Peter Frampton, Steely Dan and Santana's DVDs were much sharper).
The Audio rocks. Actually, to be more acurate, the DTS audio rocks. It's full, rich and deep. There are nice surrounds which largely produce sounds from the audience (rather than bringing the music from the rear speakers). At one point during My Generation, you can hear some of the audience members behind you sing the lyrics you always thought would come after "Why don't you all f-f-f-f". Very engrossing and impressive. It's a little hard to compare DD to DTS back and forth because the DTS is recorded at a MUCH higher level, the highest I have ever come across (I ususally listen to my concert DVDs at -10 to -12, this one I was at -30!). Even correcting volume, though, the DD track sounded much flatter and harsher; there was no comparing the two tracks. The bit rate was 754 for DTS and 448 for DD; perhaps that might explain the startling differeces between the two tracks?
As far as extras, they advertise a documentary. Prepre to be very disappointed. After a minute of Roger explaining the very worthwhile trust that the show benifited, there is five to six minutes of video from the show of the orginization getting a check. Not what I had in mind for a bonus documentary, sorry. There is two minutes of time lapse footage of the roadies setting up to the music of "Let's See Action" (big deal). Now we move to the good stuff. There is a total of 10-15 minutes of rehersal footage of theband meeting and practicing with their guest stars that is fascinating ("so what do you want to play, Eddie?"). It's too brief, but well worth watching. There is also a muti-angle version of Pinball Wizard that might be the coolest multi-angle ever. The reason is that you can realy play TV director here. For the first time that I have seen, they give you all seven angles in small boxes running simultaniously and you can pick the angle to put into the main screen in the center. It's a gimmick, of course, but a cool one. I should note that this is a two disc set, with all the concert on disc one and all the extras on disc two.
I'm glad I made the purchase. I hope this review helps someone else make up their mind about this very nice concert disc.
10-02-01, 07:13 PM
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I recently got this disc and have been through it a few times and generally agree with that review. Unlike the previous reviewer though, I am a Who fanatic who remembers every night at Madison Square Garden in 79 and have seen them and followed them through the years. Roger does look like he's been through the ringer but hell, compared to Keith Richards, he's a 15 year old wayward Mod. As for the music on the disc, it makes people appreciate what set that music apart, what talented musicians these guys are/were and what a great songwriter Townshend was (How's that for unbiased). John Entwistle as always stays out of the limelight and lets his bass playing speak for itself and they would have probably more openly recognized how well Mr. Starkey fit in but out of respect for Keith probably keep that low key. As a major Weller/Jam fan, I thought the inclusion of the godfather and the modfather side by side on the english stage doing "So sad about us" in itself justifies the disc. Eddie Vedder did a nice job and Kelly Jones of Stereophonics actually elevated Substitute to new heights. Unfortunately, Brian Adams showed up but well, its so easy to skip tracks (Woulda been nice for him to pretend to have read the lyrics once or twice beforehand). The backstage stuff was fun and interesting. All in all, a technically very good disc, and if you're a Who fan, its the best thing out there in terms of audio quality. I'll leave Quadrophenia for another time and look forward to a quality release of The Kids are Alright.
10-04-01, 01:37 PM
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Another 
for this disc. Agree with the previous comments here, any Who fan should pick this up. It's worth getting just for John Entwistle's performance - the man puts on a rock bass clinic here, particularly his solo in 5:15 (nicely augmented with a "basscam" mounted to the head of his axe). Magic Bus has an interesting re-arrangement. The guest musicians all did a fine job, with the exception of Bryan Adams, who added absolutely nothing to Behind Blue Eyes
for this disc. Agree with the previous comments here, any Who fan should pick this up. It's worth getting just for John Entwistle's performance - the man puts on a rock bass clinic here, particularly his solo in 5:15 (nicely augmented with a "basscam" mounted to the head of his axe). Magic Bus has an interesting re-arrangement. The guest musicians all did a fine job, with the exception of Bryan Adams, who added absolutely nothing to Behind Blue Eyes
