Television & Film

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.

It Might Get Loud is as revealing as a guitar documentary gets, even with the warts and all finale of the three playing a rough version of The Band’s “The Weight.”  But that’s what makes the film worthy, it shows three rock stars at their most vulnerable and human – proving once again, the guitar rules over everything else.

There's a handful of bands out there whose influence has been felt far and wide decades after they made their mark, yet they never enjoyed significant commercial success. The Velvet Underground comes to mind. So does Nick Drake. There are others, but in heavy rock circles, one of these bands rises above all others – Blue Cheer.

Though it is totally without frills or DVD bonuses, Warpaint Live represents a fine document of the Black Crowes’ progression since their reformation in 2005. Like its double CD counterpart, the DVD version includes all the material on Warpaint, their first studio effort in seven years as well as cover material that accurately reflect their roots.

This DVD features a great band making a great documentary about a great tour. Of course, it documents many of the amazing feats of the Somewhere Back in Time tour which found Maiden playing 23 shows in 45 days on five continents (sadly, they didn't get to Antarctica).

While Spinal Tap is a great rock n roll movie that manages to expose some truth about rock n roll and tops all for pure entertainment value, Anvil the Movie is an even better film. The latter might not have nearly the comedic value as the former, but it illustrates perhaps rock n roll's greatest truth: There's more to it than just songwriting and technical proficiency.

There’s a moment in the song “Ashes of American Flags” where Jeff Tweedy sings, “All my lies are always wishes/ I know I would die if I could come back new.” And “come back new” is exactly what Wilco has done the last few years. After many line-up changes, there is finally a sense of comfortable continuity within the band, and on their new concert DVD, which is also titled Ashes of American Flags, they’ve never sounded better as a unit. 

The Clifford Ball is as good a summation as anything else officially available of the instrumental and vocal prowess at the heart of the Phish persona. The seven-DVD set of catches the band on the outer fringes of its innocence, consorting on stage with Ben and Jerry as headlines of ‘The Burlington Free Press’ emblazon the story of the August weekend in a tongue and cheek style that mirrors the quartet’s own sense of humor.

This is a no-frills DVD from the no-frills Akron, Ohio duo. We catch them in their live element and thus fans will rejoice and haters will not be swayed.  The Black Keys play a compact set that – encore included – just breaks the hour mark, no guests, and no major surprises, just straight ahead white boy blues/hard rock.  Dan Auerbach shaggily fires off riffs and vocal grunts on fan favorites “Stack Shot Billy” and “10 am Automatic” and drummer Patrick Carney crushes his foot pedal into dust on the thunderously jammed out “Busted”.    The sound is excellent here with Carney’s floor tom vibrating through the screen while the fluid segue between “Set You Free” and “ThickFreakness” screeches.  In the end, no doubt there is fiery playing however, there just doesn’t seem to be much variety and the set ends up feeling like one long song.    Visually the direction and the lights are major players, Lance Bangs who uses more tight shots and close-ups to accentuate Auerbach and Carney than wide stage shots, a few crowd pans are tossed in, as well, to break it up.  The editing was heavy, but not hyper-spastic – a mixed bag overall.  The lighting, on the other hand, is flawless and inventive, cascading over the sold-out house, playing havoc with lenses and creating fantastic visuals, Mike Grant should be commended for his work here.    There are only a few extras, three “official” music videos, some behind-the-scenes-footage, as well, but the live set is why fans are buying it, especially if they caught the Keys on this tour.  It will definitely stay in the collection but this effort would seem to play better as a background disk at a party than a sit-down-to-be-studied concert film.   

The two shows on this DVD are a lot like hearing that stutter in "My Generation" or the huge guitar of "Baba O'Reilly" for the first time. It's just great rock n roll in its purest, most deliberate form.

Does anyone question that James Brown was the most intense performer of all-time? If so, they haven't seen these shows. Call him what you want, Mr. Please Please Please, Soul Brother No. 1, Godfather of Soul, but the bottom line is the man performed with an energy, urgency and intensity that puts everyone else to shame.