Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers: Three Nights on the Town
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Movie Reviews of Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers: Three Nights on the Town
Movie Review: Astounding Music with Other-Worldly Virtuosity and Musicianship. Merely Average Video Quality.
Summary: 4 Stars
First, in my 51 years on this planet, I've never heard anyone who encapsulates, integrates and unifies so many musical influences, with jaw-dropping virtuosity, improvisation and musicianship like Bruce Hornsby. If you listen 'inside' Bruce's music you can hear elements of Bluegrass, Folk, Country, Blues, Jazz, Rock, Cajun, Soul, Gospel, and probably a few other genres I can't think of right now.
In my humble opinion, Bruce Hornsby is the finest musician in America, and arguably on this planet, today.
This DVD captures performances that are timeless, memorable and mesmerizing. The documentary is fascinating and informative. I'll leave it to the other reviews to go into specifics songs critiques.
However, I'm disappointed by the video quality on this DVD. I was disappointed to find that the DVD is not anamorphic, only letterboxed, limiting the image potential.
On my HD home theater setup (720p Epson 550 projector / 106" Optoma screen / Oppo 720p HDMI DVD player), the image is slightly 'foggy'. The image lacks the clarity, impact, and 'punch' of most well-recorded concerts. The focus is soft as well. The color balance is towards the yellowish cast you get when you use outdoor film indoors with incandescent lighting. This may have been the directors attempt to give the image some 'warmth', but it looks unnatural. You never see color like this in person, at a real concert. Had this been shot many years ago, I could forgive the mediocre image. Sadly, I imagine the cameras used to record the concert are the culprit, and not the DVD mastering, so a future HD DVD is likely to be of little improvement.
Man, I HATE giving this only four stars!!!
I have to, though, to be objective and informative to those who consider all aspects of a DVD release.
Sound quality is five stars, music and performances are worth ten stars, but had the video clarity been that of an average modern concert DVD, I could give it the five stars the music deserves.
Movie Review: Great concert, great sound, bad DVD copy protection
Summary: 4 Stars
While I agree with some of the other reviewers that the video quality could've been higher, it's certainly adequate, especially on the main concert video. But of course the sound is the most important, and it's great to hear Bruce in 5.1 surround. It really feels like you're there. It's pretty clear the DVD sound was mastered from recordings right from the soundboard. It basically sounds like a surround sound mix of one of the songs off "Here Come the Noisemakers." Fantastic, just for that alone.
I rented this from an online movie rental service (which we're all familiar with), and was thinking of buying it if I liked it. I would have, but for the only reason I can't give this five stars: Columbia decided to go out of their way put disabling copying protection on this (beyond the usual CSS protection of a standard DVD) so that you can rip this to your hard drive. While this is certainly their legal right, it would be really nice if legal owners could copy this to their hard drives to listen to whenever they wanted. It's a pain to have to keep the physical DVD around. So, while I can recommend renting the DVD without reservation, be aware if you buy this that you won't be able to exercise your legal right (under Fair Use) to make a copy for your own personal use.
Movie Review: if you like improvisation, you'll like this
Summary: 4 Stars
Hornsby's musical talent is phenomenal. Sound quality on this DVD is fine although some of Sonny Emery's fine cymbal work is lost in the mix. I agree with others that the video quality is shy. Look at Boz Scagg's Greatest Hits Live for an example of superior sound & picture reproduction. Bruce's voice still commands attention after all the years performing. Outstanding tracks I think are "The Way It Is" and "Fortunate Son" which is mixed with Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". Wonderful.Movie Review: Great sound, great performances, shame about the video
Summary: 4 Stars
What a band and what stellar performances! My only complaint is that the video isn't anamorphic. On a wide screen set, you get black bars on all FOUR sides, and the image floats in the middle of the screen. What's really odd is that the documentary making-of IS anamorphic! Makes me wonder if someone at Sony didn't screw up.Movie Review: Enjoyable
Summary: 4 Stars
IMO if you like Bruce you will like this. Nothing exceptional, no chances taken, just a couple of hours with Bruce. The band meshed nicely, the only stand out being the drummer, other than Bruce. The sound mix was average, the video good. It's enjoyable.