Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Sir Terrence May 10, 2009

Live at Radio City is Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds second live recording since their first Live at Luther College was released in 1999. Matthews and Reynolds have excellent musical chemistry, and an amazing ability to weave their individual musical skills together in a seamless fashion. If I were to describe their music, I would not call it plain rock. I would classify it as alternative rock, jazz fusion or jam.

Dave Matthews burst onto the musical scene in 1991 with the formation of his band. Dave won a Grammy for “Best Male Vocal Performance” in 2004, and his band won “Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group” in 1994. They have turned out seven multiplatinum studio albums, one going six times multiplatinum, another seven times. The band has recorded nine live albums, with 5 going multiplatinum. They tour relentlessly, and released 15 recording of their live concerts which are unavailable in stores, but available for digital download. Matthews and his band are a success by anyone's measure, and he could just rest on that success and be done with it. So one has to wonder why he would bother doing a two person concert with all his success. All you have to do is hear them together, and you will understand why. Their previous concerts have usually been in smaller more intimate venues, so this is a real stretch for them to do a concert in a place the size of Radio City Hall. They are so good; they barely broke a sweat in filling this place with interesting rhythmic compositions. The sheer simplicity of their presentation left me completely captivated the entire concert. The lighting was bare bones, but often very dramatic. There were no stacks of amps, a huge drum kit, and multiple sets of keyboards, flashy camera work, or quick pans to pump up the presentation. There is nothing but the music and Matthews's voice to keep you locked into the concert. This is the most sparsely presented concert video I have ever reviewed, but it was far from the worse in terms of entertainment value. Some of the tunes I have never heard before, but I never felt like I wanted to skip past them. Matthews and Reynolds kept my attention locked solid to the screen, anxiously waiting for what song was coming next. You have to be really good and interesting to pull off what this duo has done, as not many artists could do it. For fans of both artists, this is a chance to see them completely stripped of any visual accoutrements, and just sit back and listen to the music.

The musical performance list is as follows:

1. Bartender (8:30)
2. When The World Ends (4:13)
3. Stay or Leave (4:09)
4. Save Me (4:41)
5. Crush (7:54)
6. So Damn Lucky (6:51)
7. Gravedigger (4:19)
8. The Maker (5:17)
9. Old Dirt Hill (Bring That Beat Back) (5:49)
10. Eh Hee (5:00)
11. Betrayal (5:31)
12. Out Of My Hands (5:23)
13. Still Water (2:21)
14. Don't Drink The Water (6:09)
15. Oh (5:09)
16. Cornbread (4:36)
17. Crash Into Me (6:05)
18. Down By The River (5:45)
19. You Are My Sanity (5:58)
20. Sister (3:44)
21. Lie In Our Graves (8:53)
22. Some Devil (5:11)
23. Grace Is Gone (4:12)
24. Dancing Nannies (9:03)
25. #41 (5:48)
26. Two Step (6:29)

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Live at Radio City comes to the Blu-ray format in a 1080p/VC-1 encoding at 24 fps framed in a 1:78:1 aspect ratio. It is rare to find a concert video shot progressively at this frame rate, so I was looking forward to seeing a difference from the standard interlaced fare. Spread out over a BD-50 disc, the video is a stunner from the first frame to the last. Most concerts I reviewed looked like high quality video, but not this one. This is the first presentation that looked like high quality judder free film. It is the most natural looking concert video I have ever seen. Captured with nine high definition cameras, the color reproduction is perfect as it accentuates the subtle but dramatic lighting in the hall. The lighting scheme washes the stage and hall with warm oranges and reds, and dramatic purples and blues, and it spilled out of my set like liquid crayons. Detail is excellent from the wide shots to the close shots; everything is rendered with dramatic clarity and razor sharp focus. There is no noise or compression artifacts found on this presentation. Blacks and contrast are sublime, with terrific shadow delineation. This is the best looking concert video I have ever reviewed bar none.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

When it comes to pushing the envelope on audio fidelity, this disc leads the charge. Featuring a terrific 24/96 kHz Dolby TrueHD encoding, this presentation gives new meaning to the word transparent. I just could not believe what I heard. It sounded like Reynolds and Matthews were in the same room as I was. Every reverberant cue of the hall, and subtle and striking resonance of the guitar strings were recorded with stunning realism. The sound of the two guitars, and piano (when played) was highly detailed, warm, full, and room filling. Every sound just hung into space completely free of the speaker locations, as if the speakers were not there at all. The front sound stage is huge, deep, and well focused creating a holosonic wall of sound at the listening seat.

I compared the output of the PCM and codec's, and the results were pretty predictable. The PCM and TrueHD encodings sound surprisingly similar, with just a little loss of air on the PCM. As this is a front loaded mix with spare use of the surrounds so this is predictable outcome. The TrueHD encoding was a hair more enveloping thanks to the use of the surrounds at a very low level. The Dolby Digital encoding at 640kbps sounded like the sound stage was truncated in every direction, highs rolled off, with entire guitar transients smeared. It did not have the transient clarity and highly detailed sound of the other encodings.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All the extras on the release are located on disc 2.

Documentary: So Damn Lucky (45 minutes) is presented in high definition with a 1080p/VC-1 encode, and accompanied by a 24/48 kHz bit and sample rate stereo track. This documentary covers the history of these two performers, photos, and behind the scenes footage.

Animated Photo Montage (4 minutes) features a series of black and white framed photos underscored by the song "Grace is Mine".

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I must say that I am a huge fan of Sony concert video releases. The quality of their releases is always very high, and they have some very popular and talented artists on their roster. This concert video release is of the highest quality that I have ever seen or heard. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds are guitarists extraordinaire, and give an exciting and captivating performance. For fans of the duo, this is a must own release and I highly recommend it. If you are not a fan but love alternative rock stripped down to its bare bones, check this video out. You may become a fan, or just be enamored by the high quality presentation. I hope Sony continues to shoot concert videos in 1080 progressive at 24fps, and continue to use high sample and bit rates for their future releases. The results are head and shoulders above all other concert videos I have seen or reviewed.