Bush: Live in Tampa Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Bush: Live in Tampa Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 15, 2020

Bush is kind of an outlier in terms of being an English band which has found repeated success in the United States, but arguably a little less consistent love in their home country, as can be gleaned at least in part by comparing the chart performances of their albums and singles in the US versus the UK. Often cited as a kind of "Nirvana wannabe" aggregation, Bush either pejoratively or not has been lumped into a supposed "post grunge" genre, but some of their material at least would seem to be at least marginally more optimistic than some of the more morose material that erupted, kind of like Mt. St. Helens itself, from the Pacific Northwest a few decades ago. Lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Gavin Rossdale is certainly charismatic and I actually liked his performance in this concert quite a bit, but my hunch is diehard Nirvana fans wouldn't be shy about insisting that Rossdale doesn't quite have Kurt Cobain's depth, either musically or lyrically. Still, when taken on their own terms and perhaps divorced from any context with regard to the grunge movement in the United States, Bush offers well crafted songs that are typically energetic and often both rhythmically acute and melodic. This 2019 concert in Tampa finds the band performing before an audience that seems almost rapturously enthused at times to be seeing and hearing the band, and all of the guys offer athletic performances on their instruments (and vocally). The one thing I could have done without here are some interstitial backstage interview snippets with Rossdale. They're fine and actually interesting, but they're offered unedited as a supplement on this disc, and I personally would have just preferred to have seen the concert uninterrupted.

The tracklist for the concert is as follows:

• Machinehead
• The Chemicals Between Us
• This Is War
• Everything Zen
• The Sound of Winter
• Body
• Swallowed
• The Disease of Dancing Cats
• Bullet Holes
• Little Things
• Glycerine
• Comedown

Bush: Live in Tampa Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bush: Live in Tampa is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. I have long been on record as being pretty befuddled by some of Cleopatra's choices when it comes to their technical presentations (as you'll read below, this also features the Cleopatra staple of lossy audio), but this one really gobsmacked me not just due to the MPEG-2 encode but that fact in tandem with initial press reports, including our own news post announcing the release that (to quote Cleopatra's own PR):

This 90 minute performance was filmed in 4K RESOLUTION with 15 cameras to capture the show from every angle.

Yes, nothing will quite show off native 4K like an interlaced MPEG-2 presentation, as I almost suspect someone pitched to Cleopatra. Joking aside, the good news is, perhaps due to the native source resolution, detail levels are generally excellent here, including on elements like the all important dry ice smoke or pixellated panels upstage of the band. Fine detail captures things like Rossdale literally drenched in sweat as the concert progresses. There are some banding problems at times, which I tended to notice in some of the brief black and white snippets more than the longer color sequences. Some slight combing artifacts can show up around quicker motions on guitars and drums.

Bush: Live in Tampa Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again a Cleopatra Blu-ray release features only Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 tracks, though compounding that issue this time, at least for me personally, was the fact that I much preferred the stereo track to the surround track. Toggling between them showed clear amplitude differences, with the stereo track being considerably louder despite the added channels of the surround track, and I liked the overall clarity of the stereo track better in any case. That said, these are lossy tracks on a concert video featuring a band that offers some nicely massed mid to low end and some good, aggressive drumming from Nik Hughes, so stating a "preference" here is a kind of an exercise in frustration.

Bush: Live in Tampa Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Full Interview with Gavin Rossdale (1080i; 10:59)


• Slideshow (1080i; 2:14)


• Trailer (1080i; 2:15)

This release also includes a Bonus CD as well as a DVD copy of the concert.

Additionally, trailers for other Cleopatra releases are included. The Digipack also contains an insert booklet with stills and band and production credits, but no real text in the form of an essay or the like.

Bush: Live in Tampa Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bush: Live in Tampa finds the band in fine form, though arguably on a bit of cruise control, as they offer a grabbag of tunes, including a tie- in (with appropriate video in the background) to their song in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. This Cleopatra release is another from this label that offers a basically very appealing concert with some questionable technical decisions in terms of both video and audio codecs that my hunch is some videophiles and audiophiles may find at least annoying.