CSN 2012 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

CSN 2012 Blu-ray Movie Review

Crosby, Stills and Nash carry on.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 19, 2012

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the inimitable contributions Crosby, Stills and Nash have made to the American music scene is that they did it—for the most part, anyway—with two albums released in 1969 and 1970, albums which seemed to sum up a sea change in American pop and rock songwriting and which remain classics to this day, providing significant fodder for the band’s live performances. The history of the band is well documented, with various tensions from previous assemblages bringing the three master musicians together in what can be seen now as a wonderful piece of serendipity, and once Crosby, Stills and Nash was released in in May of 1969, it seemed clear a new supergroup had been formed, one perhaps poised to take up the mantle from The Beatles, who were then at the beginning of the end of their reign as undisputed masters of their realm. With the addition of Neil Young, the band followed up the amazing success of their debut album with Déjà Vu in March of 1970, becoming one of a very few bands whose sophomore effort was as, if not more, successful than its premiere outing. And then a strange thing happened: aside from the live album Four Way Street and a Greatest Hits compilation called So Far, the band didn’t release another album until 1977. The band’s recording history has been spotty at best, mirroring its performing status, which has seen the trio (and occasionally quartet, joined by Young) weather internal disagreements and the external pressures of each of them having solo (and other band) careers. Ironically, that was one of the reasons the trio came together in the first place and insisted their new assemblage bear their names rather than some amorphous band name—it gave them individual identities and would allow them to pursue outside interests if they so chose. And while the band continued to rack up impressive sales and several charting singles in the years subsequent to Déjà Vu, it’s really those first two albums that have most clearly defined the group in the public at large’s consciousness, and songs from those albums just as certainly make up the bulk of this two and a half hour concert filmed for HDNet on April 22, 2012 at The Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo, California.

My second year college Composition – Theory teacher utilized a rather odd concatenation of sources to talk about “extended” chordal tones, i.e., ninths, elevenths, thirteenths and up, especially those arranged as triads that moved in parallel motion, in a lecture one day. He brought the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album along with a recording of Gustav Holst’s The Planets and used little snippets of both of them to give us examples of how musicians of two very different eras and approaches had used similar compositional techniques. The homogenous vocal sound of Crosby, Stills and Nash has been one of the group’s most defining characteristics, to the point where it’s sometimes hard to tell who’s singing what, and I truly wish the news were better for long time fans with regard to this 2012 concert. But we have to face facts: two of the three band members (Nash and Crosby) are 70 now, and Stills in 67. Add to that Crosby’s well publicized years of hedonistic lifestyle choices, not to mention his equally well publicized health scares, and the ravages of time become more understandable.

First, the good news: Nash sounds pretty darned remarkable for his age, hitting most of his high notes and still achieving his mellow, conversational timbre most of the time. Stills has voiced some of his signature tunes down a few steps (nothing too odd about that—aging singers do it all the time), and he improves as the night goes on, albeit with a really poignant raspiness. Crosby’s low end sounds good, if gruff, but he seems off on his high range. The mix of the voices here is often pretty ragged. Because this Blu-ray oddly only features a stereo mix (could that have been intentional to help “bury” the vocal clams?), it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going awry at times, and some of the off kilter singing could indeed be one of the backup band members, especially Hammond B3 organist Todd Caldwell, who can easily be seen cupping his ear to try to find his notes throughout the concert. The bottom line is, those expecting the smooth, studio controlled sounds of the famous albums are going to be in for a rude awakening here.

Instrumentally the three sound quite good, even if their aging fingers can’t quite manage the finely filigreed guitar work that so defined their early sound. It is a little funny to see Stills consistently wander downstage to take solos, still essaying the role of the Rock God. While he’s never going to be mistaken for Eddie Van Halen, Stills still elicits some ferocious tones from his guitar and contributes some nicely wrought moments throughout the concert. The backup band, which includes Crosby’s son James Raymond on keys, is in fine form and helps to recreate the original ambience of the tunes. They take turns taking solos on a nicely extended “Wooden Ships”, with Raymond’s kind of blah acoustic piano work eliciting the same cheers as the nice, piercing tones of Shane Fontayne’s guitar outing and some nice harmonic plucking by bassist Kevin McCormick. (If you haven’t checked out the albums Crosby recorded with his son under the band name CPR, I highly recommend them.)

The band's lengthy concert consists of: Set 1

• 01. Carry On/Questions
• 02. Marrakesh Express
• 03. Long Time Gone
• 04. Military Madness
• 05. Southern Cross
• 06. Lay Me Down
• 07. Almost Gone
• 08. Wasted on the Way
• 09. Radio
• 10. Bluebird
• 11. Déjà Vu
• 12. Wooden Ships

Set 2

• 01. Helplessly Hoping
• 02. In Your Name
• 03. Girl From the North Country
• 04. As I Come of Age
• 05. Guinevere
• 06. Johnny’s Garden
• 07. Learn to Live (So Begins the Task)
• 08. Cathedral
• 09. Our House
• 10. Love The One You’re With

Encore

• 01. For What It’s Worth
• 02. Teach Your Children
• 03. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

CSN 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

CSN 2012 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Alternative Distribution Alliance (evidently a consortium of artists releasing their own material) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Though there are occasional slight combing artifacts on display throughout this high definition presentation, overall this is one of the nicer looking live concert Blu-rays of the past several months. Though the stage is frequently bathed in shades of blue and red, posterizing is at a minimum and banding is virtually nonexistent. Black levels are good and contrast is generally excellent. Some of the midrange shots are a bit on the fuzzy side, but close-ups really pop very nicely, with abundant fine object detail.

CSN 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

CSN 2012 features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo mix, and only a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo mix. This is the only live concert Blu-ray I personally can think of that doesn't include at the very least a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix, if not an actual lossless surround mix. As was mentioned above in the main body of the review, was this done intentionally to "bury' some of the wandering vocals? It's especially odd in that this was evidently done in conjunction with HDNet, which at least occasionally offers surround mixes of its concert fare. Whatever the reason, the good news is that this mix, while obviously narrow and rather dense sounding, offers excellent fidelity and clarity, ironically so much so that the intonation problems in some of the vocals are only too readily apparent. The band sounds great here, with some really appealing low- and midrange frequencies.

CSN 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Conversation with Crosby, Stills and Nash (HD; 15:02) is an interesting peek behind the curtain at the iconic trio, with Crosby perhaps taking just the tiniest swipe at Neil Young by stating that "three has always been a magical number" for the group. Stills discusses some of his childhood memories and how various musical influences have stuck with him from his earliest memories. There seems to be a real love between all three, with a special sort of bond between Crosby and Nash.


• On th Road with CSN (HD; 8:13) features interviews with the backup band and crew, crew being the operative word as Crosby's son James Raymond, who plays keys here, likens touring with the group to being on a pirate ship.

CSN 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Facing one's mortality is obviously a daunting task, and an analogous discomfort may come with watching idols of one's youth age. It's hard to think of two thirds of Crosby, Stills and Nash as being in their seventies, and there's simply no getting around the fact that time has somewhat hobbled these fantastic talents. But the thrill of seeing them recreate so many of their group hits, along with a couple of newer tunes and some of Stills' best solo outings, is enough to overcome any niggling qualms. Just don't expect studio-bound perfection here, at least with regard to the vocals. This Blu-ray offers excellent video and despite the really odd lack of a surround mix in either lossy or lossless form, excellent audio as well. Recommended.