Chicago - Live by Request
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Movie Reviews of Chicago - Live by Request
Movie Review: Great band. OK DVD.
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a shame that a band as great as Chicago has had limited exposure on retail video and this "professional" production of a recent performance falls short due to no fault of the musicians. This is Chicago's first live concert DVD release, following VHS and laserdisc releases of in-concert performances in the early 90's. Those videos ("And the Band Played On" and "Live From the Greek") were worthy documents of this true American supergroup, both from a performance, as well as, a technical production perspective. After waiting eagerly for a cutting-edge live performance on DVD, this "Live by Request" video is good, but could certainly have been better. As a musician and having seen Chicago live in concert dozens of times, and, as recently as last month, I have to say this is not their best-executed performance, although it is good one. The real problem, however, lies with the mixing and mastering of the sound.
Whoever mixed this recording (there's no credits on the packaging) failed Midrange 101 in Recording School. There seems to be an abundance of high end and low end sound in the mix leaving the high hat cymbal the loudest instrument in the band, often drowning out the horns. Hello! This is "Chicago". Horns. Remember these, Mr. sound engineer and Mr. video producer?
The list of technical faults goes on and on.
Overall, this is still a good DVD, worthy of purchase as Chicago is one of the great musical acts of the 20th (and now 21st) century, with timeless music and top-notch musicianship.
A much better DVD of Chicago in concert has also just become available based on their recently-aired "Soundstage" concert on PBS. Production and performance on this is is several notches above this "Live By Request" release and should be procured by all Chicago fans via the PBS website. The aforementioned concert videos should also be sought out, especially "Live from the Greek" which is an amazing live document of this legendary band, also recorded for PBS television in 1993. The people involved in the production of that video actually knew what they they doing and took the time and care into creating a video worthy of one of the greatest bands of our time.
Movie Review: Why Can't You Give "A Happy Man" His Due Credit?
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been listening to Chicago since their inception in 1967. Let me say, first and foremost, that I am a HUGE fan of Peter Cetera's. Not only did they NEGLECT to even mention his name, but they let that "idiot" who thinks he is P.C. ,Jason----(WHATEVER HIS NAME IS),ATTEMPT, and I do mean ATTEMPT, to sing the songs that Peter's ANGELIC vocals were a majority of their enormous popularity, in the first place. Now, don't get me wrong, P.C. did leave the group, so, what were they to do? How about letting the electric guitarist sing ALL of the songs in which P.C. would have been the lead vocalist HAD THEY BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH IF HE HAD REMAINED with them? He's a fabulous, very unassuming musician, who, by the way, did an excellent job singing, what would have been , P.C.'s vocals in one of the first songs that was requested, I believe it was "YOU'RE THE INSPIRATION", ONE OF MANY THAT THEY PERFORMED THAT HE PENNED. Ithink what DEEPLY HURT, SHOCKED, AND DISAPPOINTED me was that no member of the group bothered to breathe the first consonant of PETER CETERA'S name! They gave the late Terry Kath his due. DO THEY HAVE TO WAIT TO GIVE PETER HIS DUE POSTHUMOUSLY? IN THIS REVIEWER'S OPINION, HOWEVER, BIASED, TO NOT MENTION THIS"HAPPY MAN", IS TO MENTION THE DOOBIE BROS. WITHOUT MENTIONING MICHAEL MCDONALD. In addition, Bill Champlin's performance, not only sounded strained, but he appeared extremely drugged and in pain. The rest of the band is AMAZING,AND, SHOULD, DEFINITELY, BE GIVEN CREDIT, AND,I, MIGHT ADD, THE VERY SAME CREDIT THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE GIVEN PETER, AT THEIR AGE,FOR HAVING THE STAMINA AND LONGEVITY FOR STILL PERFORMING WITH THE SAME VIGOR AND TENACITY THAT THEY EXHIBITED WHEN I SAW THEM IN CONCERT IN 1967!PETER, I ADORE AND LOVE YOU! YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT EVER SEE THIS REVIEW, BUT, IF BY SOME STROKE OF LUCK ON MY PART THAT YOU DO, PLEASE KNOW THAT "WHAT GOES AROUND TRULY DOES COME AROUND", and I do BELIEVE that there will be a STRANGE TWIST OF FATE, and "YOU'RE MY NO1 HAPPY MAN" FOR MAKING THIS REVIEWER SO HAPPY ALL THESE YEARS VIA YOUR PURELY ANGELIC VOICE, A QUALITY TO YOUR VOCALS THAT MANY HOPE TO ATTAIN ,BUT ONLY YOU CAN DO!
Movie Review: Not bad, but not their best.
Summary: 3 Stars
Since all the reviews for this DVD are from 2003, I thought I'd add a fresh perspective. I've owned it for several years, and was in the mood for some Chicago last night, so I popped it in again. First of several others who have commented here, I'm a musician. I've played drums for 44 years and have been in a number of bands, including professional gigs. I've played some of Chicago's songs in local bands. I also have a pretty good ear.
The comments about the sound quality of this disc are correct. The 5.1 mix is muddled, and the vocals are buried. I have other concerts that are mixed in 5.1(including Chicago's Live at the Greek, with EWF....The Eagles Farewell One Concert from Melbourne, and others)that jump out of the speakers at you. So....the mix on this DVD is sub-standard.
For those of you who like Bill Champlin...to each his or her own, but I think his vocals suck. He can't -- and shouldn't -- try to sing Terry Kath's songs. My favorite of Chicago's many great tunes is 'Make Me Smile'; and Champlin absolutely butchers the song.
As far as Jason Scheff's take on the Peter Cetera vocals....there's only one Cetera; Scheff does an admirable job of very tough parts.
And guitarist Keith Howland does a fine job on 'If You Leave Me Now.' The interviews with the band members between songs are insightful, although I agree with those who said that host Mark McKuen gets annoying. He may be a longtime D.J, but he's NOT cool....and shouldn't try to be.
So....my take on the performance is: Decent song selection, picked from those who called in, sub-par sound mix...bad vocals from Champlin...but lively performance from the band, who I started listening to when they began in 1967.
One added note to Chicago fans: I saw them live at Riverend in Cincinnati two summers in a row -- 2008 and '09; Champlin is gone, and his replacement on the keys can sing Kath's parts! Also.....an added thrill...my wife and I had front-row seats and got to shake hands with Jimmy Pankow and Walter Parazaider. They're really regular guys.
Movie Review: Good but could be better
Summary: 3 Stars
As someone who was born about four months after Terry Kath died, I didn't get into Chicago until I found the Australian-only compilation "25 Years Of Gold" in a second-hand shop in Perth and it quickly became one of my all time favourite CDs. I now own seven Chicago albums, but none from after 1985 - just couldn't get into the later stuff at all.
So I was excited to see this DVD spanning some of their classics. I must admit that for me the band isn't complete without some of the people that made that experience complete for me when I discovered the band. However, the band is what the band is - Jason and Keith manage very well in my opinion in this performance - I think if you're reading the reviews here, there is far too much criticism of them. Jason is never going to be Peter, but he does a good performance in his own right, especially on Questions.
On looking on here I can see the three reasons I wasn't entirely happy with it are generally shared - the sound quality isn't great and the mix understates the horns, Bill Champlin's vocals on a few songs sound forced and the commentary that forms part of A&E gets annoying and it would be nice to be able to skip it.
For those complaining about the request issues - as a musician I know that recalling lyrics of tunes and exact sequences I wrote 3 or 4 years ago and haven't played in intervening years can be difficult, I couldn't even imagine 30, or coordinating that with an entire band with the same issues. In addition, there may have been emotional factors as well with it being a Kath song. I think trying to keep the fan happy by playing at least the alternative was a great way to handle the situation and is probably what I would have done as well.
Movie Review: Good video quality, great songs, HORRIBLE SOUND
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this DVD at a Best Buy's and then read the reviews on this site. At first I thought that it was nit-picking by sound fanatics or engineers, but when I put this on the DVD player, I was astounded at the horrible mixing of sound that was in the DVD. The bass was pumped up heavily (I had to bring down overall bass in my receiver), the drums were nice and present, the piano was barely there, the brass would be "in and out" (which is what I love about Chicago! I couldn't hear the brass clearly) and the voices couldn't be heard (can you believe that? THE VOICES!). I took the DVD to a recording engineer friend's house who has a more modern sound system with digital DTS and 7 recording studio quality speakers to listen to the DVD there. Same problems. The problem wasn't my system, it was the DVD's sound mix. I'm very disappointed with Chicago. This is the only DVD that I can find of them and its sound is horrible. I can't believe none of the members listened to this DVD and told the engineer to go back into the studio and re-mix. If you want to see the band, the DVD is great, but if you want to HEAR the band, skip it. The bad sound will overshadow all the other good things of the DVD.