7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
Music | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (96kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (96kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It’s a little far reaching to have a down and dirty, basic bones rock band like The Raconteurs playing a jazz festival, but that’s part and parcel of the wide ranging allure that Claude Nobs’ epochal Montreux Festival has offered to listeners for more than forty years now. Eagle Rock has made something of a cottage industry re-releasing a rather impressively large catalog of Montreux Festival concerts on Blu-ray, many of which wouldn’t exactly be classified as jazz despite falling under the general rubric of this particular festival’s supposed focusing element. The Raconteurs were almost an accidental band in a way, forged almost haphazardly over the course of a surprisingly long time from the friendship between two of its founding members, Jack White of The White Stripes and solo multi-instrumentalist Brendan Benson. The two crossed paths repeatedly in Detroit through the years, gigged together occasionally and even got around to cutting a few demos in Benson’s attic. The band wasn’t officially formed until two members of a touring “garage soul” outfit (a description culled from this Blu-ray release’s interesting liner notes) The Greenhomes, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler, were added to the mix. While the band did reasonably well on mainstream charts, it really rose to prominence in the United States on alternative stations and perhaps surprisingly exploded in the United Kingdom, where the band’s two albums were quickly certified Gold. (In a kind of funny aside, the band had to adopt its own “alternative” name in Australia, since there was already a band in that island nation known as The Raconteurs who refused to give in to the lucrative suggestion—some might call it a rather hefty bribe—that they give up their name. They’re known there as The Saboteurs.)
The Raconteurs Live at Montreux 2008 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While close-ups reveal some pleasing fine detail and an acceptably sharp image, this concert video is hampered by some inconsistent contrast which gives a lot of the proceedings a kind of milky wash and gauzy appearance that detracts from the overall sharpness and clarity. Since so much of the concert is performed in minimal lighting, the effects are exacerbated by this tendency and what results is a kind of middling, murky image that really only pops when the camera gets in up close and personal, so to speak. Midrange shots are occasionally above average looking, but as is apparent from some the wide screencaps uploaded with this review, crush dominates the outlying sections of the frame and shadow detail even in the relatively better lit sections of the stage is often less than satisfying.
As is typical with most of these Eagle Rock concert releases, three audio options are available, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, an LPCM 2.0 mix and a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. It should be noted that in this case both the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and the LPCM 2.0 are 96kHz 24-bit and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (the track I listened to for the bulk of the concert) streams at consistently healthy rate that approaches 10 mbps a lot of the time. This is loud and not especially nuanced music, but it's obviously hard rocking, sets up its riffs energetically and delivers a lot of power that the DTS track renders effortlessly. The one big complaint here for some might be the actual audio mix, by which I mean the vocals are often just completely subsumed by the guitars, bass and drums, so much so in fact that on a couple of numbers it's literally impossible to tell when the singing has started. A more prevalent problem is an inability to make out anything that is being sung, even when it's possible to discern there's singing going on. Other than that, though, the lossless tracks are remarkably clear and consistent, with brilliant fidelity throughout all frequency ranges, and some especially powerful low end that should have head bangers thrashing appreciatively.
There are no supplements of any kind included on this Blu-ray disc.
The Raconteurs Live at Montreux 2008 is one of those generally above average concert releases that will be good enough to excite longtime fans of the group but which may not be stellar enough to excite newcomers to The Raconteurs fold. The fact that the band isn't a top tier household name probably means this will end up really appealing only to those who already are big fans of White and The White Stripes or for those who have followed The Raconteurs through their so far pretty brief "official" recording career. This Blu-ray offers some very impressive audio, probably its most salient single selling point, but that's counteracted by some less than great video. For Raconteurs (or White Stripes) fans, this is easily worth checking out, at least as a rental.
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