Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 13, 2019

While it would be another three years or so before they’d claim their only Number 1 spot on the Billboard albums chart (ironically for a release entitled 4), Foreigner was arguably one of the very hottest bands in the world when it was captured in performance in April of 1978 at London’s iconic Rainbow Theatre. Their self titled debut album, which (also) ironically “only” made it to Number 4 on the Billboard album chart, was nonetheless one of the fastest selling LPs (it was that era, after all) of the previous year, and at the time of the Rainbow concert, Foreigner was just on the cusp of releasing its sophomore album, one which did not succumb to that oft cited “slump” of second helpings, and delivered incredible sales and airplay itself. The kind of fun thing about Foreigner, as is tangentially gotten into in a brief essay by Malcolm Dome included in the trifold insert included inside the keepcase of this release, is that the band’s name was equally true for both its players and fans on “either side of the pond”, since Foreigner included both British and American players. The perhaps helped to define a somewhat eclectic sound that Foreigner was able to exploit through a number of now legendary top hit singles.

This is an enjoyably high octane live concert that relies on very little stagecraft (a bit of dry ice and that's about it, aside from lights), but which provides great showcases for the band, and especially for the soaring vocals of Lou Gramm, who seems to be chomping on an epic sized piece of gum but who manages to make it through all the songs unscathed. Kind of interestingly, there is arguably less audience reaction to the "hits" offered in this set than to the almost "In-a-gadda-da-vida-esque" windup version of Headknocker, which clocks in at well over 10 minutes, and which sees Gramm running upstage to man a second drum kit.

Foreigner’s set list for this performance consists of:

• Long, Long Way From Home
• I Need You
• Woman on Woman
• Hot Blooded
• The Damage is Done
• Cold as Ice
• Starrider
• Double Vision
• Feels Like the First Time
• Fool for you Anyway
• At War with the World
• Headknocker

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and Universal Music Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.35:1. The back cover of this release states that this was "restored from the original film reels", and it has an authentically gritty and organic appearance throughout, though the lack of bright lighting, along with sometimes rather heavy grain and even elements like the dry ice "smoke", can tend to mask fine detail levels. There's good coverage of all the players, and in close-ups under decent lighting conditions, fine detail is very good to excellent. There are a couple of longish interludes where the stage is completely black — I thought it might be a glitch of some sort, but lights do come back on and the band picks up once they do.

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes*. There's no comparison between the two tracks on this disc in my estimation, with the stereo mix sounding decidedly anemic when stacked up against the surround mix. The 5.1 mix has excellent spaciousness and a really surprisingly bombastic low end, something that really helps to propel the higher energy tunes. The mix between vocals and band is really good, with Gramm being easily heard even in the loudest accompaniments. There are a couple of weird issues that seem to be "baked into" the proceedings, including some weirdly "silent" clapping in the audience (you can see their hands moving, but no sound is forthcoming), and a few spoken moments by band members that don't even sound overly amplified.

The Audio options menu is just a little wonky, in my not so humble opinion. A large "Live at the Rainbow '78" logo remains fixed in the center of the screen, and you (or at least I) have to look on both sides of it to see the two options, instead of having them both together under each other, as is often the norm on these releases.

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included on this Blu-ray disc.

Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While there are no supplements on this disc, and the concert itself is a fairly "no frills" affair without the arena rock trappings that might be expected of a major band in the late seventies, Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 finds the guys in fine fettle, especially Gramm, who sounds absolutely fantastic on all of the songs. Technical merits are solid, and Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 comes Recommended.