Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 9, 2017

Perhaps because Jeff Beck’s best known work with The Yardbirds appeared in 1966, Jeff Beck Live at the Hollywood Bowl, which was filmed in 2016, is being touted as a “50th Anniversary” affair of sorts, despite the fact that Beck did in fact have a career for at least a couple of years prior to his breakthrough with the Yardbirds. Despite now being in his 70s, Beck moves through a wide array of material in this concert (including some Yardbirds tunes), and shows no signs of slowing down. The Hollywood Bowl is one of the more iconic venues in the world, and Beck forsakes a lot of “arena rock” flash here in favor of pure musicianship, a “trade off” that will probably come as something of a welcome relief for many. With a number of special guest stars like Buddy Guy, Jan Hammer and Steven Tyler dropping by, there’s no dearth of musical talent on stage, but it’s Beck’s own backup band, which includes Jonathan Joseph (drums), Rhonda Smith (bass), Carmen Vandenberg (guitar) and Rosie Bones (vocals) that deserves the bulk of the accolades, along of course with Jeff himself, whose propulsive, sometimes sweet, sometimes growling, guitar is the focal point that keeps this concert continually enjoyable.

The set list for this concert includes:

The Revolution Will Be Televised
Over Under Sideways Down (with Jimmy Hall)
Heart Full of Soul (with Jimmy Hall)
For Your Love (with Jimmy Hall) Beck’s Bolero
Rice Pudding
Morning Dew (with Jimmy Hall)
Freeway Jam (with Jan Hammer)
You Never Know (with Jan Hammer)
‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers (with Jan Hammer)
Star Cycle (with Jan Hammer)
Blue Wind (with Jan Hammer)
Big Block
I’d Rather Go Blind (with Beth Hart and Jan Hammer)
Let Me Love You (with Buddy Guy)
Live in the Dark
Scared for the Children
Rough Boy (with Billy F. Gibbons)
Train Kept A-Rollin’ (with Steven Tyler)
Shapes of Things (with Steven Tyler)
A Day in the Life
Purple Rain (with Jan Hammer, Beth Hart, Jimmy Hall and Steven Tyler)

Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jeff Beck Live at the Hollywood Bowl is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and Universal Music Group with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Once again, some lighting choices in the red and purple regions create just a hint of posterizing, kind of funnily more so with regard to shots of the audience than with regard to anyone on stage. When lighting is at least relatively normal, there are no anomalies of note, and detail levels remain high, though there are occasional combing artifacts when, for example, Beck attacks his guitar with rapid fire hand motions.

Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jeff Beck Live at the Hollywood Bowl features great sounding LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks (the disc is authored to default to the stereo track for whatever reason). The 5.1 track significantly opens up the spaciousness of the presentation, as well as offering much more forceful support for the low end, but it has occasional mix issues with elements like some of the backup vocals. The instrumental forces come through with crystal clarity, and there are no issues with distortion or other problems.

Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the Blu-ray disc contains no supplement, this DigiPack also contains 2 CDs which offer the entire concert.

Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's kind of refreshing to see a so-called "arena rock" concert in an actual arena that doesn't resort to nonstop bells and whistles to deliver some energy. Beck continues to play with fire and grace, and his band and special guests make this an anniversary concert to remember, even if some curmudgeons (ahem) might want to argue about exactly which year is being celebrated. Technical merits are strong, and Jeff Beck Live at the Hollywood Bowl comes Recommended.