8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
Captured in London at the Hard Rock Calling Festival on June 28, 2009, this film documents 26 tracks of live Springsteen that begin in daylight and progress through a gorgeous sunset into night. It conveys both the experience of being on-stage and the vast crowd experience of the festival environment. Viewers are able to see Springsteen spontaneously directing the E Street Band and shaping the show as it evolves.
Starring: Bruce Springsteen, Clarence Clemons, Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Nils LofgrenMusic | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: LPCM 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
My wife, who has seen Bruce Springsteen live in concert three times, has informed me the only way to properly recreate a live Springsteen concert experience is to make The Boss an indistinguishable blob seen from a long way away. Luckily that perhaps sad but true fact isn’t the case with this amazing live performance captured on Blu-ray from London’s immense Hyde Park. This up close and personal look at Springsteen and the E Street Band in action gives hope to all of us who may be getting to AARP status a little quicker than we’d like. Bruce is 60, unbelievably so when you take into account the nonstop fury with which he attacks an incredible 27 songs in this nearly three hour long concert. With little fuss and bother, no big light shows, no bells and whistles other than some projection screens on the stage’s wings so that those in the audience who can only make out indistinguishable blobs are able to see something, no dances, no typical rock star “hoo hah,” Bruce and the boys (and the wonderful Soozie Tyrell on violin and vocals) simply come out and put on one hell of a show. It may be a commonly accepted cliché that James Brown was “the hardest working man in show business,” but you’d be hard pressed to prove that after witnessing Springsteen’s dynamo of energy on display here in a concert that lasts long enough for bright sunshine to give way to the shadows of nighttime.
Bruce works hard, so he's allowed to sweat.
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park bursts onto Blu-ray with one of the best looking live concert images I've seen recently. Encoded via AVC and delivered with a 1080i "live" image in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, the concert looks sharp and incredibly well detailed from the first notes in the bright sunshine to Bruce's final "We love you" delivered in the black of night some three hours later. Bruce's black shirt is always clearly delineated from the dark backdrop, which speaks well of black levels and contrast, and colors (mostly in the audience and the sideboards off of the stage) look lifelike and are extremely well saturated. Things actually improve somewhat the darker the evening gets; you'll therefore start to notice dust flecks and the occasional bug flying around (one gets dangerously close to being sucked up Clarence's nose at one point). Close-ups reveal a wealth of detail, and there's an unusual amount of lens refraction utilized here, which throws nice rainbow arcs out over the band.
London Calling offers two lossless audio options, an LPCM 5.1 and an LPCM 2.0, and (somewhat strangely) a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. I spent about 99% of the concert listening to the LPCM 5.1 mix, but toggled briefly to the uncompressed stereo mix and the DD 5.1 mix just for comparison's sake. This is a thumpingly bombastic soundtrack by any measure. Those of you who may have read my review of the new Tom Petty audio Blu-ray may remember I was a bit surprised at how low the bass was mixed on that effort, but there's none of that here. Live in London virtually assaults the listener with a very, very robust low end, which never dissolved into crackling or distortion. Bruce, truth be told, is not the greatest singer in the world, and his hoarseness does very occasionally get gobbled up in the mass of sound the band is putting out, but that's about the only complaint I have with this concert. Otherwise we get a remarkably clean and clear reproduction of the music with no obtrusive audience noise. Separation is excellent, but it's the remarkable fidelity that will impress most right off the bat. Turn this one up to 12--11 won't be quite enough.
Two nice extra performances are featured, both in HD and both clocking in at 6:24. "The River" is performed from the Glastonbury Festival and finally shows Bruce in a more laid back, introspective light. This live performance also looks really cool, with a bunch of flags floating in the breeze. It also features a mournful harmonica solo by The Boss. "Wrecking Ball" is also on tap, in its original music video version memorializing the destruction of Giants Stadium. This one has some great vintage footage of a young, bearded Bruce.
There's no reason to settle for indistinguishable blobs any longer. If you've been lucky enough to supposedly "see" Bruce live, but haven't been lucky enough to be in the front row, or if you've never seen The Boss in concert, Live in London is a tour-de-force performance that will leave you breathless. Even if you are a longtime fan and have had the good fortune to get up close and personal at a live performance, you're going to want to check out this remarkable Blu-ray, which comes very, very highly recommended.
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