Daryl Hall & John Oates: Live In Dublin Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Live In Dublin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 31, 2015

Hall and Oates comprise one of those groups which has had incredible success with sales and airplay, but which often seemed consigned to some kind of relative netherworld in terms of genuine appreciation for any perceived artistry. Time has generally been kind, though, to the Philadelphians, with Billboard proclaiming them the top duo of all time, a pretty heady accolade when one considers contenders like The Everly Brothers and/or Simon and Garfunkel. Looking at benchmarks like chart history proves how long lasting and pervasive the duo’s impact has been. Every single one of their albums from 1973 through 2004 charted (with three making the Top 5), and their incredible list of charting singles includes six that reached the vaunted Number 1 position (all six of those are included on this concert Blu-ray). This energetic if perhaps too short concert captures the duo, still sounding fine in 2014 with both guys approaching 70 (!), performing before a rapt and occasionally raucous audience at Dublin’s charmingly baroque Olympia Theater.

Aside from their six chart topping singles, this Dublin concert also provides a good if hardly exhaustive overview of the duo's long career. Their set list includes:

1) Maneater
2) Out Of Touch
3) Say It Isn’t So
4) Family Man
5) It’s Uncanny
6) Back Together Again
7) Las Vegas Turnaround
8) She’s Gone
9) Sara Smile
10) Do What You Want, Be What You Are
11) I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)
12) Rich Girl
13) You Make My Dreams
14) Kiss On My List
15) Private Eyes

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Live In Dublin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Daryl Hall and John Oates Live in Dublin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a really nicely detailed high definition offering, one perhaps helped by its progressive presentation. Combing artifacts and banding are non-existent, and posterizing is minimal, once again resulting from oversaturated stage lighting in such hues as purple and red. Stage lighting also doesn't do any favors for shadow detail at the extreme edges of the frame at times, but this is by and large a very commendable effort which is fluid and precise, with no pervasive problems of any kind.

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Live In Dublin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Daryl Hall and John Oates Live in Dublin features two well rendered audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. The 5.1 mix sounds nicely full, with really well modulated mid- and low ranges, giving the great sounding band appropriate punch, especially with regard to the rhythm section. The vocals are clear and well prioritized. Fidelity is excellent and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Live In Dublin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews with Daryl Hall and John Oates:

  The Band (1080p; 7:04)

  Dublin Calling (1080p; 7:09)

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Live In Dublin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hall and Oates are inextricably tied in my memory to my first (exciting!) bout with cable television, back when MTV actually showed music videos. The duo were all over the network at the time (I think it was probably the "Big Bam Boom" era), and I routinely found their singles to be among the more enjoyable fare of the day. Hall still sounds surprisingly facile and fluid, and Oates, a perhaps slightly underappreciated "second banana," is also in top form throughout the concert. Some may wish for a slightly wider array of tunes, but what's here is well performed with immediacy and panache. Technical merits are very strong and Daryl Hall and John Oates Live in Dublin comes Recommended.