Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theatre Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theatre Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 28, 2018

Denial may not be a river in Egypt, but as a label named after one of the more famous folks to cruise down that iconic body of water, Cleopatra Entertainment seems kind of oddly in denial about what many high definition aficionados want in/on their Blu-ray releases, especially with regard to concert videos: lossless audio. This is yet another Cleopatra release I’ve reviewed which only offers lossy Dolby audio, something that may chafe at the sonic sensibilities of audiophiles who would otherwise probably be better pleased with this enjoyable performance by Sheryl Crow and her band at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York as part of her “Be Myself” tour in 2017. Crow is genial if arguably a little self conscious in this effort, which finds her essaying both some of her best known hits as well as a slew of newer material (some of which she affably jokes about).

Sheryl's set list for this show is as follows:

• Every Day is a Winding Road
• A Change Would Do You Good
• All I Wanna Do
• My Favorite Mistake
• Be Myself
• Long Way Back Home
• Run Baby Run
• Can't Cry Anymore
• The First Cut Is the Deepest
• Atom Bomb
• Halfway There
• There Goes the Neighborhood
• Leaving Las Vegas
• Strong Enough
• Heartbeat Away
• Roller Skate
• Best of Times
• If It Makes You Happy
• Soak Up the Sun
• Midnight Rider
• I Shall Believe

Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theatre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sheryl Crow Live at the Capitol Theater is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and Cleopatra Entertainment with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. That "archaic" compression codec may be part of a rather odd visual presentation on this release, but the closing credits crawl mention both 4K and 35mm cameras, so the concert's heterogeneous appearance can be chalked up at least in part to what appear to be different "technologies" used to capture and/or film the imagery. That said, things have been pretty aggressively tweaked in post, with all sorts of visual "bells and whistles" added, to the point that it's often quite difficult to make out what's going on (as can perhaps be gleaned from at least a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review). A lot of the dimly lit and deeply blue lit material looks downright noisy at times, but I'm at a loss to authoritatively state whether this was a stylistic choice or not, since at least some brief snippets seem to be intentionally "distressed" looking. Detail levels are generally fine when lighting conditions allow, but there's pretty rampant crush throughout the presentation. Now despite what some may feel about my pontificating in my long tenure as a writer, I'm not one of those reviewers who claims to be infallible, and there are certainly whole corners of the internet devoted to what an "idiot" I am and how many "mistakes" I've made through the years. This is all said with regard to what strikes me as a presentation that just looks anamorphically squeezed to me. It's not a huge issue, but Sheryl and her band just look weirdly thin and elongated throughout this concert. Again, I am not stating this is an actual anomaly, I'm simply saying that's how it looked to me.

Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theatre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

At this point in the high definition era, and especially with regard to a music concert, I am simply not willing to give much above a passing grade to a Blu-ray release with only lossy audio options. The two Dolby offerings here sound fine, relatively speaking, though there's perhaps less of a difference between the stereo and surround iterations than one might expect (or hope). The 5.1 track definitely beefs up the mid and lower ranges, and both tracks offer decent fidelity for the often quite colorful sounding instrumental forces (I personally loved all the pedal steel and slide guitar on this offering), but why Cleopatra continues to defy logic and offer only lossy audio is kind of a head scratcher.

Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theatre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Her Words (1080p; 19:50) offers more of the appealing interview with Sheryl that is presented interstitially in dribs and drabs in the concert feature.


• Slideshow (1080p; 2:15)


• Trailer (1080p; 3:50) also includes a brief logo for Cleopatra which is kind of oddly authored separately, so that there's a brief pause between them.

Additionally, 2 Bonus CDs of the concert are included, along with a nicely appointed insert booklet.

Sheryl Crow: Live at the Capitol Theatre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The concert here is quite charming and often very energetic, and Sheryl is in fine form vocally. The band plays with nuance and quite a bit of fervor at times. Even some of the stylistic choices done in post are interesting in their own way. And yet this release is hobbled by some curious technical deficiencies that may make it a risky buy even for some devoted Crow fans. Those fans are encouraged to parse the screenshots accompanying this review and also take into consideration that this release offers only lossy audio.