The Who - Live in Boston
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Movie Reviews of The Who - Live in Boston
Movie Review: Could have been really good.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Who's 2002 tour got rave reviews, and their September 28th show in Boston was cited by Matt Kent as one of the highlights.Sadly, you would never know that by looking at this DVD. The blame must fall with the editors. It seems that they were simply not close enough to the material.
For instance, most concert DVDs naturally focus more on the singer than the players. This works for most bands, but not the Who. The excitement of a Who show has always stemmed mainly from Pete Townshend's kinetic performances. Unfortunately, the editors here spend more time on Daltrey.
Indeed, the viewer misses Townshend's grand entrance on "Baba O'Riley," because the camera is busy following Daltrey. Absent as well are Townshend's ferocious windmills at the end of "Who Are You", and his prodigious playing during most of "Relay".
When the editors are finally forced to focus on Townshend - during songs like "Eminence Front", in which he sings the lead lines, and "Sparks", a mostly instrumental number - some incredibly energetic music is captured. The latter includes some very cool ad-lib lyrics, by the guitarist.
In regards to John Entwistle, he is missed greatly, of course, but Pino Palladino is a perfectly competent and even exciting bassist in his own right.
I think the bootleg DVDs of the tour - particularly Candem and the Greek Theatre ultimately hold up better.
It's too bad. This could have been really good.
Movie Review: Two's Missing
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the first DVD Who release without John Entwistle, and though I had heard the two new songs on the "Then & Now" CD and wasn't impressed by them, I was interested to hear how the band sounded like without John. I have to say that the sound of the DVD is pretty good, the stereo mix just right, but the performance is just a little subdued (given the circumstances, that's understandable). Roger and Pete give it everything they've got, but I wish Rabbit would just play tambourine during some of the early numbers instead of keyboards, Zak is good but not as dynamic as on the "Concert For New York (2001)" DVD, and Simon Townshend is kind of a fifth wheel you don't notice much ("Along for the ride", as Pete puts it in his interview). Not bad, but stick with the Royal Albert Hall DVD if you want live later-day Who. The best thing about this DVD is the John Entwistle art-gallery with great drawings of the band, plus his buddies such as Ron Wood, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman. Get a good bottle of red wine to enjoy this with, and Happy Birthday to John as he would have turned 60 today!Movie Review: Buy only as a post-Ox curiosity.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Who is my favorite band of all time. The Royal Albert Hall concert, with Entwistle, is far superior to this retread performance. That DVD was better filmed and edited, and had the added excitement of some special guests.
This one trots out the same warhorse songs they've played over the last six tours, with some sorry sounding songs from the anti-Who albums "It's Hard" and "Face Dances".
The boys would do better to mine "Who By Numbers" for some songs to play live.
Roger's voice is a bit gravelly. Pete is okay. Get "Royal Albert Hall" to see the original punks in much better form. Get Live at the Isle of Wight or The Kids Are Alright to see the best rock and roll bad ever.
Movie Review: DISSAPOINTING
Summary: 3 Stars
A GREAT BAND THAT SOUNDS TIRED. UNDERSTANDABLE, WITH THE PASSING OF JOHN. THIS CONCERT WAS HARD TO LISTEN TO. PETE SEEMED PISSED THE WHOLE NIGHT AND THE GUITAR PLAYING SOUNDED RUSTY, LIKE HE DIDN'T CARE. RODGER SEEMED TO STRUGGLE WITH THE HIGH NOTES(MAYBE DUE TO AGE). THEY DID HIRE TOP NOTCH MUSICIANS, PINO PALLIDINO(BASS), A GREAT FRETLESS PLAYER(PAUL YOUNG, DON HENLEY), AND ZAK STARKEY(DRUMS). THE KEYBOARDIST AND SECOND GUITARIST ALSO SOUNDED FINE. I THINK THE WHO WROTE SOME OF THE GREATIST ROCK CLASSICS EVER. MAYBE THIS WAS JUST A BAD NIGHT TO RECORD OR TOO SOON AFTER JOHN'S DEATH, BUT THIS DVD IS A DISSAPOINTMENT.Movie Review: 16x9 or 4x3? WHO knows?
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this DVD thinking that it was a widescreen 16x9 format, like the packaging said. It was a poorly cropped PAN & SCAN. I'm leary about buying another copy and getting another chopped up version. The audio is outstanding, the performance quite good. Sort of a novelty without John. But all in all it was pretty good.
Dr. Jimmy