Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 17, 2020

Given their impact on the American rock and pop landscape, The Eagles haven't been extraordinarily well represented on Blu-ray thus far. Our usually pretty liable database contains only The Eagles: Farewell I Live From Melbourne, Eagles: Legacy (which is basically a CD set with the Farewell I Live From Melbourne Blu-ray disc included), History of The Eagles Parts 1 & 2 (along with History of The Eagles) and Eagles: Hotel California as offerings either from or about the band. This welcome addition offers two CDs and a Blu-ray disc featuring concerts given by The Eagles on September 12, 14 and 15, 2018 at the Forum in Inglewood, California. The band includes Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Vince Gill and Deacon Frey, and as can be seen in the setlist(s) below, there's a really nice assortment of tunes associated with the band as well as some of the individual members. An energetic assortment of horns and strings as well as additional band members Steuart Smith, Will Hollis, Michael Thompson and Scott Crago give this concert a full bodied, lush sound.

The Blu-ray includes the entire concert, and there are chapter stops for and lists of various interstitial spoken moments. The following is all of the actual music, without any of the references to the spoken material:

• Seven Bridges Road
• Take It Easy
• One of These Nights
• Take It To The Limit
• Tequila Sunrise
• In the City
• I Can't Tell You Why
• New Kid in Town
• How Long
• Peaceful Easy Feeling
• Ol' 55
• Lyin' Eyes
• Love Will Keep Us Alive
• Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away
• Those Shoes
• Already Gone
• Walk Away
• Life's Been Good
• The Boys of Summer
• Heartache Tonight
• Funk #49
• Life in the Fast Lane
• Hotel California
• Rocky Mountain Way
• Desperado
• The Long Run

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Rhino Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. While detail levels are generally good throughout this presentation, this is one of the darkest live concerts I've seen recently, just from a standpoint of stage lighting. The band is frequently bathed in deep blues which tend to deflate fine detail considerably, and a couple of moments that are lit in deep red tones come very close to posterizing. Otherwise, though, there is a good accounting of the players and audience, with above average fine detail levels in close-ups.

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks, though like a lot of concert video releases on Blu-ray, the disc has been authored to default to the stereo track. While both tracks offer sterling fidelity, the surround track significantly opens things up from the get go, even with regard to the brief shot of a jet flying overhead during some establishing shots. The soundstage is nicely wide but still focused on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, and the vocals are to my ears mixed perfectly.

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the Blu-ray disc does not have any supplements, the Digipack also includes two CDs which present the entire concert. A kind of slim insert booklet contains some stills and the credits for the band and all of the songs.

Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Eagles don't offer anything like radical reinventions of their songs here, but that may actually be a selling point to some fans of the band. It is kind of bittersweet to see (relatively) "new kid in town" Deacon Frey stepping in for his late Dad, but he's charismatic and plays and sings fine. The rest of the band is in top form, and the addition of horns and strings gives this a fuller, more produced, sound. Technical merits are generally solid (especially audio), and Eagles: Live from the Forum MMXVIII comes Recommended.