Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar Live! [Blu-ray]
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Movie Reviews of Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar Live! [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Enjoyable Expansion of "The Complex"
Summary: 4 Stars
The Blue Man Group return to their rock concert experience in their latest DVD, captured during their "How to Be a Megastar 2.0" tour. If you already own "The Complex" much of this material will be familiar as it nearly the same format as the group's previous rock concert tour. That's not necessarily a bad thing. As in "The Complex," "How to Be a Megastar" opens with "Above," which if you've seen/heard from "The Complex" you know is simply an amazing song. The concert presentation is exciting, with a screen obscuring the stage and only shadows of the Blue Men projected on the screen as, one by one, each takes to their PVC instruments to begin the melody, with a swirling of images of the band and the Blue Men as the song launches into guitar, drums, keyboards, bass, and percussion in an explosive cresendo. Awesome. The remainder of "How to Be a Megastar" essentially follows the same progression as "The Complex" with some new material and new rock conert movements. The premise of the tour is the Blue Men have purchased an "updated" rock concert experience manual from an infomercial and are incoporating the new material into the show. The band is amazing, as it was before in "The Complex." I miss the guest vocals of Tracy Bonham and Annette Strean of Venus Hum. Annette was gorgeous and belted out an exciting cover of "I Feel Love" in her unique style in "The Complex" and is replaced on the current tour with a new vocalist. She's fine, but it's hard to follow in the footsteps of Annette and Tracy.
Bonus material includes a music video for "I Feel Love"; a piece of comedy called "Mono Makes a Plea -- Save the TVs" campaign (bemoaning the switch to digital signals which will effect us all...) and finally, and perhaps most importantly, a documentary called "Inside the Tube." It features the founders of Blue Man (Phil Stanton, Chris Wink and Matt Goldman) as they discuss the group, the philosophy of the Blue Man and the evolution of Blue Man from a theatrical presentation to the rock concert experience of "The Complex." It's a fascinating insight; Stanton, Wink and Goldman are extremely intelligent and creative individuals with a lot of passion for what they do. As far as I know the documentary aired only on PBS during a fund raising drive, with the documentary being sold as an incentive gift for new PBS members. If my memory is correct the documentary was being sold for a $75 contribution; now you can watch it for free!
If you already own "The Complex" and are on the fence about purchasing "How to Be a Megastar," I would suggest it primarily for the documentary included in the DVD extras. The DVD also includes a CD version of the concert, so for less than $20 you're getting a DVD and audio CD; a great deal. If you are new to Blue Man I would recommend starting with "Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour Live" to see what you think. I think you will enjoy it.
Movie Review: BLUE MAN GROUP IS AMAZING AND HAS AMAZING VOCALISTS
Summary: 5 Stars
THE BLUE MAN GROUP HOW TO BE A MEGASTAR TOUR 2.1 IS AN AMAZING PERFORMANCE. I GOT THE CHANCE TO SEE THEM LIVE IN MARCH WHEN THEY CAME TO MY HOMETOWN. ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW. GREAT ENTERTAINMENT. AND I BOUGHT THIS DVD WITH CD THE DAY IT CAME OUT. I CANT STOP LISTENING TO THE CD ON MY IPOD AND WATCHING THE DVD. MY FAVORITE SONG IS PERSONA. THEY USE AN INSTRUMENT CALLED AIRPOLES WHICH ARE HOLLOW BOAT ANTENNAE MADE FROM FIBERGLASS AND ALSO A FAVORITE OF MINE IS CALLED ABOVE WHICH IS AN AMAZING OPENING SONG. Movie Review: Still not the family-friendly DVD I was hoping for
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, I love the Blue Man Group. The creativity, the maddening rhythms, the crushing guitars, all add up to one infectious musical marshmallow. However, I was hoping that after "The Complex" Tour DVD, which I own, that Blue Man Group would step up and deliver the knockout punch to the senses that I could show proudly to my kids, or to a whole classroom of kids, and blow their collective minds. Unfortunately, after the 5 years that has passed since the last DVD, not a lot has changed in their show (although it is updated in some of the dialogue and humor bits) and it is pretty much the same thing we saw on "The Complex" Tour DVD. Right down to some of the gross-out gags, like the down-the-throat thing. So, if you have the last live DVD, you might want to reconsider buying this one, especially if like me, you were hoping for a more "G-Rated" version.Movie Review: What The Complex couldn't be
Summary: 5 Stars
When Blue Man Group created a touring rock concert with The Complex, they recorded and released a DVD. It was, at best, a tease to get you to see the stage shows, since the tour ended about the same time. The DVD was horribly flawed. It wasn't mastered correctly as anamorphic widescreen, but rather it was letterboxed. The audio mix was questionable. There were visible compression artifacts. The exposure during dark parts of the show was poor, and they tried to compensate with bad video effects. The editing was terrible too, with visuals not matching audio, and countless shots of a lame crowd. This new DVD corrects all of that.
When the How To Be A Megastar tour launched three years later, the show had been heavily tweaked. Through five legs of the tour, changes were made at least three times, and various performers came and went. The last iteration of the tour is what's represented on this DVD (and CD), and it's easily the tightest version of it.
Almost the entire show is represented, with a lively crowd and a great performance by the excellent band. The arena experience is captured with a lot of great wide shots, including a camera in the "crappy seats," to give you an idea of how "big" the show feels. The scope is much bigger than the fixed theatrical shows, though many of the same comedic bits are shared.
The video clips for the "Megastar" manual are included here, played by Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live fame, as well as the Floppie the Banjo Clown clips.
Peter Moore is the male vocalist for the show. He sang on several of the recorded tracks for The Complex, and on the original tour. The guy is all-pro and has a bit of a rockstar quality. He left the tour shortly after this show to pursue a solo record. Adrian Hartley is the female vocalist, who replaced Tracy Bonham during one of the interim tour legs. She gets a lot of crap for little reason other than not being Bonham, but she's capable on most of the songs. "I Feel Love" was delivered on The Complex tour (and recording) with Annette Strean from Venus Hum (who also opened on that tour), and admittedly it's hard to stack up against her pipes. The absence of Bonham also means that they have no violinist for "Baba O'Riley," but I maintain that it's just different, not better or worse.
As I said, the music is a lot tighter throughout the show. Where we were once left with just the Blue Man Voiceover guy, the band plays. Several pieces from the theatrical show are therefore worked in to the show, and it flows more like a Top 40 radio station than an orchestra concert with an intermission. It keeps the energy level up. We get some fresh arrangements on a number of songs as well, and Moore and Hartley complement each other well. "Sing Along" in particular is given a Mexican feel (if Mexican music used air poles), complete with the horn section from a Mariachi band. Newer pieces like the adaptation of the wire man routine from the stage shows, in this case "Light Suits," drive toward the fake ending, and the newer song "Rock and Go" really capture the old fashioned rock concert finale the way few "real" rock concerts do.
The special features include the original "I Fell Love" (with Strean from Venus Hum) and a video piece that was dropped mid-tour, with Armisen assuming the role of "Mono" with a guitarist called "The Side" (like U2, get it?). He makes his plea for saving old CRT TV's. It's followed by the TV routine made famous in the stage shows.
They've also included the documentary "Inside The Tube" from PBS. It has been edited slightly for the DVD. For example, the original program had a bit where they showed video for the light suits, something they were "working on," but has since been worked into this tour and also some of the stage shows. The biggest benefit here is that you don't have to sit through half-hour intermissions of PBS asking for money.
The CD is really the icing on the cake. Just as the iTunes-only release of the stage show from The Venetian, you get an appreciation for how good the band is live. My only complaint is that seem to mix the giant bass drum too low, which is odd because the show is so much about percussion.
Overall, this is the video that I think Blue Man Group fans have been waiting for, for a long time. My hope is that it's also a turning point, because much of this material has been around now for a lot of years, and I think fans are dying for something new. What we've seen to this point has been more of an evolution than anything else. At this point, they need something new.
Movie Review: Old Show, New Name.
Summary: 2 Stars
Caught this on HDNET today. Watching it in HD was great, but its 99% the same as Complex Rock Tour. Venus Hum was replaced with some other lady. Song Arrangement was almost the same as well. The guy who sings Will You Sing Along and a few of the others is the same as last time. I won't waste my money on this, But I will tell me DVR to keep it around. I was hoping for a new show.. no luck. Although i will admit, the DVD concerts are NOTHING compared to seeing them at the permanent locations! Do it if you get the change, Their Permanent Emplacement shows are INCREDIBLE. Instead of being relegated to a ground floor stage, they build a entire complex of stages. ones very high up from the ground, etc to use some very large PVC instruments. I'd guess up to 30-50ft long. Resulting in very deep tones.