311: Mardi Gras Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

311: Mardi Gras Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 3, 2021

Were things really that normal as late as Mardi Gras 2020? Watching this engaging live concert from 311 which one assumes took place on or around February 25, it might seem momentarily chilling to see a bunch of performers, maskless no less, cavorting before screaming throngs of also unmasked audience members, but I guess the proscriptions which were soon handed down courtesy of a certain pandemic hadn't quite kicked in yet. 311 is one of those perceived "cult" bands which has nonetheless managed to score significant success on at least the indie charts, and this live performance makes it easy to understand why. Propelled by the near Jagger-esque moves of Nick Hexum, which able assistance from Doug Martinez, Chad Sexton, Tim Mahoney and P-Nut, the band is just fun to watch and to listen to. There's nothing hugely innovative about any of their music, but they meld disparate styles together artfully and they offer a consistently high energy performance.

1. Beautiful Disaster


2. All Mixed Up


3. Silver


4. Come Original


5. Gap


6. What The'!


7. Don't Stay Home


8. Stainless


9. Do You Right


10. Purpose


11. Good Feeling


12. Beyond The Gray Sky


13. Better Space


14. Applied Science


15. Don't You Worry


16. You Wouldn't Believe


17. Hydroponic


18. Amber


19. Sick Tight


20. Creatures


21. Down

311: Mardi Gras Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

311: Mardi Gras 2020 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Cleopatra has had a kind of spotty record in terms of its codecs (you'll see below they're still offering only lossy audio), and while some viewers may have a momentary palpitation at seeing MPEG-2 on the Cleopatra masthead, the concert at least enjoys a more contemporary "algorithm". The results are mostly great looking, with nicely consistent detail levels in spite of a number of pretty aggressive lighting choices, including lots of deep blues and reds. Good camera placement helps to keep the imagery varied, though even one solitary stationary camera would still seem like it's in motion when Nick Hexum starts marauding across the stage. There are some minor motion artifacts that are detectable at times, and a bit of crush in the most dimly lit moments.

311: Mardi Gras Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

311: Mardi Gras 2020 unfortunately continues Cleopatra's kind of head scratching insistence on offering only lossy audio for its music centered releases, and this Blu-ray once again features Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes. The surround mix does offer a noticeably more spacious accounting of the band, with good directionality tied to what's going on onstage, but the band's nicely layered rhythm section would have arguably had more force and presence with at least one lossless offering. While there's nothing inherently "wrong" with the Dolby Digital tracks, my score above reflects my continuing belief that this far into the Blu-ray era every disc should have at least one lossless audio track.

311: Mardi Gras Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Slideshow (HD; 2:16)


• Trailer (HD; 1:12)

The Digipack also features a Bonus DVD and a Bonus CD of the concert. Additionally, several trailers for other releases by Cleopatra Entertainment are included on the Blu-ray disc.

311: Mardi Gras Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe seeing "normal life" as relatively recently as late February 2020 can give all of us hope that we can return to that state of affairs sooner rather than later. This is a wonderfully engaging concert with some fun tunes and really appealing stage presence by the band, but Cleopatra needs to reconsider their continued offerings of only lossy audio on either outright concert fare or at least music centered releases. At least this release offers both a progressive presentation and an AVC encode, which previous Cleopatra efforts have not. With an understanding that the lossy audio may be a deal breaker for some, technical merits are relatively solid for those who are considering a purchase.