Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual - Alive at 25 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual - Alive at 25 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 10, 2017

My older boy, who is a big EDM fan, is constantly taking his old man to task for misidentifying several subgenres in the idiom, making it clear to this geezer that “deep house” is not the same as “trance”. I’m therefore a little trepidatious about describing Jane’s Addiction’s Alive at 25 concert as anything other than the kind of vague “alternative” label that frequently gets applied to this aggregation. The concert, made up mostly of a live performance of the band’s multi platinum Ritual de lo Habitual album, is a textbook case in a number of subgenres masquerading as that generalist “alternative” idiom, but no matter what niche you want to try to shove Jane’s Addiction into, there are two inescapable facts that are apparent throughout this performance: Perry Farrell’s voice and Dave Navarro’s guitar are completely unforgettable and still (after all these years) incredibly forceful and energetic.

Ritual de lo Habitual has an extremely wide variety of styles, even if virtually all the tunes offer great opportunities for Farrell’s soaring tenor (which actually reminds me quite a bit of Jon Anderson of Yes fame, at least in this particular performance) and perhaps even more so for Navarro’s incredible guitar playing. In fact Navarro’s shredding on several tunes in this set are arguably the highlight of the performance, repeatedly upping the energy in already adrenaline soaked songs.

The band's set list includes:

1. Stop!

2. No One's Leaving

3. Ain't No Right

4. Obvious

5. Been Caught Stealing

6. Three Days (with Special Guest Taylor Hawkins)

7. Then She Did. . .

8. Of Course

9. Classic Girl

10. Mountain Song

11. Just Because

12. Ted, Just Admit It. . .

13. Jane Says

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual - Alive at 25 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de la Habitual Live at 25 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual, Rock Fuel, Cleopatra and Sonic Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Some online sites indicate that a slew of UltraHD 4K cameras were utilized to capture the concert, and the results are generally very commendable. The imagery has been tweaked quite a bit, as can be gleaned by some of the screenshots, with various presentational bells and whistles appended, but the overall look of this concert is extremely sharp and well detailed. Black levels are solid and best of all there really isn't any recurrent issue with crush, despite what is often a shrouded looking stage (especially toward the sides). Lighting regimens make an assessment of a "natural" looking palette a bit of a challenge, but with those strategies taken into account, things look well saturated and at least naturalistic. Close-ups reveal excellent fine detail. There is just the hint of some posterizing going on when the cameras are aimed squarely at lighting batteries, but otherwise this is a problem free presentation.

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual - Alive at 25 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I'm actually a little shocked that this late in the Blu-ray era a high profile concert video like this is being released with only lossy audio, but that's unfortunately the case with Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual Live at 25. As can be seen in screenshot 10 accompanying this review, there's no setup menu available, and the only audio option is a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track. While the surround element is fine, and general fidelity also decent, the fact that this band offers such a propulsive approach, often with massed lower end voicings, will no doubt lead some audiophiles to wonder what lossless audio could have provided for the listening experience. While the track is lacking a certain "oomph" in the midrange and lower frequencies, the overall sound is clear and precise, with no problems in terms of distortion or dropouts. The mix is generally quite winning as well, with only occasional intrusions from the audience overwhelming the stage performers.

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual - Alive at 25 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray disc contains no supplements. The release also includes a CD of the concert as well as a DVD version (the DVD is tucked inside one of the pockets of the fourfold digipack).

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual - Alive at 25 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual Live at 25 finds the band (which also includes Steven Perkins on drums and Chris Chaney on bass) in fine fettle, delivering an extremely high energy set that also features actual go go dancers. The tunes are inviting and well constructed, and Navarro's solos are often amazing. Why this release was only granted lossy audio is the real head scratcher here, and it may well prevent otherwise interested fans from wanting to check this out.