Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Lady Antebellum: Own the Night World Tour Blu-ray Movie Review

The South shall rise again—at least if that darned hydraulic lift works.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 6, 2012

There was a time when “country music” meant twangy guitars and nasal, almost yodeled, vocals, typically about lost love and other hazards of living far from the madding crowd. The lost love angle may still be part of the equation, but contemporary “country” music is so gentrified nowadays that many listeners would be hard pressed to really differentiate it from the spate of urban citified pop that regularly inhabits the airwaves. That predilection has tended to bifurcate the traditional country audience, with some people getting downright angry at such acts as The Dixie Chicks (even without their political speechifyin’), while other, perhaps more tolerant, folk applaud the ability of modern day country artsts to assimilate different styles and trends and still keep their approaches at least tangentially related to what has traditionally been called “country music”. While some might infer from Lady Antebellum’s name that the band is staunchly traditional, even reactionary and conservative, in fact it’s one of the more consistently varied modern country bands on the market, one that easily works within an overall framework that might be best described by what has become an epithet in the music community, that oft derided genre Adult Contemporary.

Lady Antebellum has had a rather meteoric rise since its founding in 2006, but some of that rise at least might be attributed to some of the bloodlines at work in the band. Co-lead vocalist Hillary Scott is the daughter of Linda Davis, who had a Grammy winning number one duet with Reba McIntire in 1993 with “Does He Love You”. Charles Kelley, the other lead vocalist of the group, is the brother Josh Kelley has had Top 10 hits with “Amazing” and “Only You”. Now it’s probably not fair to posit all of Lady Antebellum’s success to this “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” philosophy, but in the wild and wooly world of the contemporary music business, having relatives who have already forded the often treacherous waters of getting a major label deal can’t hurt, if we’re being completely honest. To Lady Antebellum’s credit, though, they arrived with a distinctive sound fueled by the dueting capabilities of Scott and Kelley (augmented to tight three part harmonies by co-band member Dave Haywood, who serves as multi-instrumentalist of the group).

Part of Lady Antebellum’s incipient superstardom can probably be traced in the approach this live concert video takes, introducing the three members with actual “above the title” credits identifying them all as they appear backstage before the show, in one of those “arty” black and white supposedly up close and personal moments where fans can vicariously live the glamour of their favorite rock (or country) star. The concert is actually interrupted a couple of times by confessionals, such as Scott’s obviously heartfelt but still kind of self-serving reminiscence about how far she and the band have come and how immensely successful they’ve become. Probably more affecting in this regard is Kelley’s own remembrance which is highlighted with some kind of funny home movie footage from early in the band’s career, when they weren’t exactly playing to sold out arenas and stadiums.

That supposed “glamour” takes a pretty big hit right off the bat when you see the three band members having to crouch uncomfortably below stage, as they prepare to emerge via a hydraulic lift to the screaming throng in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the concert was captured. (There’s a pretty fun and funny supplement included on this Blu-ray from Lady Antebellum’s San Jose performance, where the lift did not operate correctly, and the three looked like hapless bodyless musicians in front of a somewhat confused audience before the trio managed to scramble out of the hole they had found themselves in.) But once the music gets underway, there’s no mistaking what so many have found so appealing about the band. Solid songcraft, decent if unexceptional instrumental backup and very tight harmonies are the order of the day, and this large and appreciative Arkansas audience eats up every last drop of emotion that Scott and Kelley pour into their delivery.

There’s an obvious camaraderie between the three bandmates, and in fact there’s some faux sultriness between Scott and Kelley (one assumes it’s faux, anyway, since both members are married to other people). Haywood often seems to kind of be the literal odd man out, standing off to the side, deeply ensconced in his mandolin or guitar playing and occasionally lending some additional harmonies on several songs. But the three have a definite connection with their audience, which is of course what ultimately counts. Kelley especially is all over the place, leaping, jumping, and exhorting the audience to sing along. You’d almost think this was a bona fide rock concert with elements like that, not the "little bit (of) country" that Lady Antebellum so ably typifies. Lady Antebellum’s Little Rock set list consists of:

• 01. We Owned the Night
• 02. Stars Tonight
• 03. Love Don’t Live Here
• 04. Just a Kiss
• 05. Dancin’ Away With My Heart
• 06. Our Kind of Love
• 07. Perfect Day
• 08. American Honey
• 09. Hello World
• 10. Wanted You More
• 11. I Run to You
• 12. Lookin’ For a Good Time
• 13. Need You Now

Lady Antebellum: Own the Night World Tour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lady Antebellum Own the Night World Tour is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision (an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is one of those times where our screenshots don't do full justice to what a live concert outing looks like, for this is one of the generally sharpest and most clearly defined live performance Blu-rays that Eagle Rock has offered. The stage is well lit, which obviously helps, and the gamut of cameras captures all three band members in a number of great close-ups, with fine detail really popping. Colors are nicely saturated and very accurate looking. There is some very minor posterization in a couple of passing moments, as well as some quasi- moiré caused by the projections which take up the stage behind the band, but otherwise this is a sterling presentation that will easily please Lady Antebellum's legion of fans.

Lady Antebellum: Own the Night World Tour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lady Antebellum Own the Night World Tour features both a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix as well as an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Both of these tracks offer exceptional fidelity and full bodied sound. The 5.1 mix is very appealing, with just enough audience noise and ambient hall reverb to make it seem very "live" sounding but without overpowering the music with distracting clamor. All three main band members sound great, with Kelley's raspy rock influenced voice contrasting extremely well with Scott's more liquid tonalities. The band also sounds just fine, including some nice punchy low end from the bass and drums. Dynamic range isn't huge, as might be expected from an arena show, but when the band settles down into its softer ballad side, both of these audio options support that change effortlessly.

Lady Antebellum: Own the Night World Tour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bonus Tracks include:

  Good Life (1080i; 4:14)

  
  

  Love's Lookin' Good On You (1080i; 3:23)

  
  

  Love This Pain (1080i; 4:56)

  
  

  Sweet Emotion (1080i; 2:48)

  
  

  Black Water featuring Darius Rucker and Thompson Square (1080i; 8:18)

  
  

  What Goes Down Doesn't Always Come Up (1080i; 1:27) features a little stagecraft mishap.

  
  

  What Happens Backstage (1080i; 8:35) offers some nice interaction between the band and their legion of fans.

Lady Antebellum: Own the Night World Tour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those of you who read a lot of my music reviews probably know that I'm not an especial fan of country music, tending to gravitate more toward jazz and classical. But as much as some diehard southerners may want to insist it is, Lady Antebellum really isn't so countrified that even a dull-garn Yankee like myself can't enjoy them. The tight harmonies and appealing songcraft make this band easy to take, kind of like a mellow dose of some Southern brew that has just a little extra rock and pop kick to it. This concert offers great video and audio, and even if the supplements are especially inspiring, this release comes Recommended.