Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux, 2005 [Blu-ray]

In some of my other music DVD reviews, I take the tact of applying a set of standards to a release and establishing how the DVD in question measures up. Let me say in advance that when I take this tact, it usually means that I was disappointed in the release. Such is the case with Alice Cooper Live at Montreux 2005.A memo should go out to all bands and music DVD producers that says at minimum: "1) Music DVD's should be produced to the highest standards. 2) The musical performances within should represent the talent that made the studio recorded CDs sell. 3) Theatrics are very cool too, as long as you can pull them off without deterioration in the quality of the music."Let's break it down then for Live at Montreux:1 - "Music DVD's should be produced to the highest standards." - The picture quality in Live at Montreux is outstanding. It's a high-def recording that is stunning in its clarity. Unfortunately, the director has chosen to indulge in what he feels is "cool production" versus giving the viewer a front row seat to the performance. The visual often jumps around similar to the music video format of "4 seconds then cut to another view". In fact there are segments where I couldn't count 2 seconds off before the camera angle switches. It was like staring at a strobe light. This made for a viewing experience that ruined the illusion of having a front row seat to the show.However, the Welcome To My Nightmare theatric 4-song medley was an exception to this abomination. The director must have become as captivated as I was, because the shots actually lasted long enough to take them in before changing angles.The sound is great in Dolby 5.1. You get your choice between Dolby Stereo, Dolby 5.1 or DTS. Dolby 5.1 actually sounded better than DTS on my Surround system.2 - "The musical performances within should represent the talent that made the studio recorded CDs sell." - The guys prior to hitting the stage must have huddled and committed to each other to go out and play the music true to the studio versions of the songs. All of the tracks on Live in Montreux are performed precisely. Alice still sounds the same way he did in the 70s. Absolutely amazing.Eric Singer is one talented drummer...too bad his great drum solo on this DVD is visually chopped to pieces by the video strobing effect. The director needs to watch Eric in Kiss' Rock The Nation DVD; that's a DVD done right productionwise.The other hired-help musicians were also quite good. Like I said, musical performances that mirrored the original recordings.One other note is that a live performance includes getting the audience charged up. Man, did this audience ever need charging up! They were zombies. The first 3 rows occasionally looked excited, but the rest of the audience was absolutely dead by the 8th song and there are 27 songs. Either Alice made a very poor choice of venue to record at (The Montreux Jazz Festival), or please just remind me never to go to a concert in Switzerland. The zero audience energy indeed negatively affects the viewing experience.3 - "Theatrics are very cool too, as long as you can pull them off without deterioration in the quality of the music." - The theatrics were great! Alice included a lot of cool stuff that he did in the 70s (the guillotine, the coffin, the dancer), and the band performed the songs to perfection. These guys were all on tonight. Alice did his theatrical magic; it made it a better show and the music sounded great.All in all...it's a very good performance with a very very distracting choice in video production. The second to second video cuts took what was close to a 5 star release down to a visual headache....Yes, it's really that bad.If you are or ever were an Alice Cooper fan, and you've been waiting for a high quality Alice Cooper audio/video release...this is it. If you have strobe induced Epilepsy, by all means skip this.

In some of my other music DVD reviews, I take the tact of applying a set of standards to a release and establishing how the DVD in question measures up. Let me say in advance that when I take this tact, it usually means that I was disappointed in the release. Such is the case with Alice Cooper Live at Montreux 2005.A memo should go out to all bands and music DVD producers that says at minimum: "1) Music DVD's should be produced to the highest standards. 2) The musical performances within should represent the talent that made the studio recorded CDs sell. 3) Theatrics are very cool too, as long as you can pull them off without deterioration in the quality of the music."Let's break it down then for Live at Montreux:1 - "Music DVD's should be produced to the highest standards." - The picture quality in Live at Montreux is outstanding. It's a high-def recording that is stunning in its clarity. Unfortunately, the director has chosen to indulge in what he feels is "cool production" versus giving the viewer a front row seat to the performance. The visual often jumps around similar to the music video format of "4 seconds then cut to another view". In fact there are segments where I couldn't count 2 seconds off before the camera angle switches. It was like staring at a strobe light. This made for a viewing experience that ruined the illusion of having a front row seat to the show.However, the Welcome To My Nightmare theatric 4-song medley was an exception to this abomination. The director must have become as captivated as I was, because the shots actually lasted long enough to take them in before changing angles.The sound is great in Dolby 5.1. You get your choice between Dolby Stereo, Dolby 5.1 or DTS. Dolby 5.1 actually sounded better than DTS on my Surround system.2 - "The musical performances within should represent the talent that made the studio recorded CDs sell." - The guys prior to hitting the stage must have huddled and committed to each other to go out and play the music true to the studio versions of the songs. All of the tracks on Live in Montreux are performed precisely. Alice still sounds the same way he did in the 70s. Absolutely amazing.Eric Singer is one talented drummer...too bad his great drum solo on this DVD is visually chopped to pieces by the video strobing effect. The director needs to watch Eric in Kiss' Rock The Nation DVD; that's a DVD done right productionwise.The other hired-help musicians were also quite good. Like I said, musical performances that mirrored the original recordings.One other note is that a live performance includes getting the audience charged up. Man, did this audience ever need charging up! They were zombies. The first 3 rows occasionally looked excited, but the rest of the audience was absolutely dead by the 8th song and there are 27 songs. Either Alice made a very poor choice of venue to record at (The Montreux Jazz Festival), or please just remind me never to go to a concert in Switzerland. The zero audience energy indeed negatively affects the viewing experience.3 - "Theatrics are very cool too, as long as you can pull them off without deterioration in the quality of the music." - The theatrics were great! Alice included a lot of cool stuff that he did in the 70s (the guillotine, the coffin, the dancer), and the band performed the songs to perfection. These guys were all on tonight. Alice did his theatrical magic; it made it a better show and the music sounded great.All in all...it's a very good performance with a very very distracting choice in video production. The second to second video cuts took what was close to a 5 star release down to a visual headache....Yes, it's really that bad.If you are or ever were an Alice Cooper fan, and you've been waiting for a high quality Alice Cooper audio/video release...this is it. If you have strobe induced Epilepsy, by all means skip this.Side Note: This is the Blu-ray page for this release and will only play in Blu-Ray DVD players. Search Amazon again for the standard DVD format release if you've stumbled in here by accident.

Considering that this concert performance of Isaac Hayes was released many weeks ago I'm surprised to be the first to review it. In fact the lack of reviews on Amazon.com made me hesitate to buy it.This is the best full length Isaac Hayes DVD to date in terms of both picture and sound quality, and it offers the DTS option. I count his CD Black Moses among the best 15 R&B albums of all time and kind of expected more of that performance in this concert. But as Isaac once said, some recording labels have told him his music is old, and for that reason (I think) the concert "jazzed" it up in the beginning with an up tempo selection. But progressively more of his classics were performed, though he sounded not a hundred percent as he sounds on the studio sessions.Three negatives on this concert(IMO):1. Political statements should be made elsewhere, not here. After all many third world countries have misplaced priorities, eg. Ghana spending millions of dollars to celebrate an anniversary rather than on rural development.2. Addressing the audience as "children". What? Me a child?3. Patronizing an audience, as a rule, is a no no on a DVD.On the whole I'm very happy with the DVD for the fact that Mr. Hayes gave us this recording before he grows too old to go on. If you grew up in the 60s and 70s this is definitely for you.

The punk goddess PATTI SMITH in concert at THE MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL IN 2005. Its 12 tracks lasting 83mins. The picture and sound are fantastic like all dvds released by eagle rock. I brought it for a friend and its the 1st dvd he ever had of PATTI SMITH and hes very pleased with it. This dvd cost me about £5 which is gr8 for a brand new still sealed dvd. The concert is promoting her album TRAMPIN, so theres a few tracks off that plus BECAUSE THE NIGHT of course. Worth getting if your a PATTI SMITH fan.

the quality of this bluray is fantasticif the phil collins live at montreux was like this it would be like a dreamso patti play spit sing scream we love you pattia lot of old songs are interpreted the same as before but little bit slowerthere is not gloria or horses but some very good songsand with this quality it is great to hear this super concert

another good dvd

Fantastic, unique. Patti in great shape, as always

We spent a whole weekend watching concert films. This was one of the best. The music is great, the stage performance was amazing. Not to many can put on a show like Alice Cooper. From start to finish your transfixed with this incredible performer. Our only complaint was that it wasn't long enough. We could have done another hour or maybe even two and there's no special features. But then again Alice is the special feature.Some reviews complained about the camera angles. Honestly don't see the problem they saw. The camera angles were very alive.