Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Raconteurs: Live at Montreux 2008 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 17, 2012

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.)

While Jack White’s White Stripes aren’t exactly the model of a laid back assemblage, themselves, and have had their own internecine relationships documented in the pretty interesting The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights, even Stripes fans might be surprised by some of the all out aural assault that takes place during The Raconteurs concert in Montreux. A repetitive bass and drum riff, almost like a sonic stutter, starts out this concert until suddenly all hell breaks loose and a litany of fuzzy guitar licks spill over each other in a kind of rampant fury that sets the stage very well for the hard rocking repertoire that the group will then move through.

Truth be told, The Raconteurs haven’t exactly burned up the charts with huge hit singles, though they have managed to make a dent in the Alternative charts (as per their albums) with at least a handful of tunes, one of which, “Steady, As She Goes”, made it all the way to Number 1. The band recreates that hit here, driving it home with a lot of force and fury. According to this release’s liner notes, it was actually this song that served as a major turning point in convincing White and Benson to formally organize a band. Benson had been working on the tune for some time but got stuck on the lyric, and White’s collaboration helped finish the song but also made them both aware that their collaboration was a unique fit for both of them that helped elevate their craft to the next level.

Within the basic confines of The Raconteurs' fairly defined genre, they do some really appealing material. The sound is significantly opened up in some tunes with the addition of what might be at least moderately unexpected elements, like the really colorful and evocative fiddling of Mark Watrous. The cascading guitar work here is also very impressive at times, twisting and turning within a riff basis that somewhat unusually doesn't always favor unison playing. While the band hasn't released any albums since "Consolers of the Lonely", the product they were on tour supporting here in this 2008 Montreux concert, what this concert makes abundantly clear is that the core group really enjoys playing together and that they share a very real rapport with one another.

There’s very little in the bells and whistles department in this concert, aside from a few minimal light effects. There’s also a decided lack of chatter, with about the only talk a kind of repeated mantra that White and Benson occasionally yell out, announcing the band’s name and that they hail from Memphis, Tennessee. That’s actually all well and good for a down and dirty concert like this, one that concentrates on high energy rock and roll and which eschews the typical glitz and glam of arena shows in favor of a more tightly controlled and close knit camaraderie between the players. There’s really little let down once the show gets underway, aside from a few songs that feature quasi-unplugged intros and the like before the full panoply of amplified instruments kicks in. The only problem here is that a band called The Raconteurs would seem to be advertising their story telling proclivities, and once that amplification does kick in, it’s often well nigh impossible to hear what White and Benson are actually singing.

The Raconteurs' set list for this 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival concert is:

• 01. Consoler of the Lonely
• 02. Hold Up
• 03. You Don’t Understand Me
• 04. Top Yourself
• 05. Old Enough
• 06. Keep It Clean
• 07. Intimate Secretary
• 08. Level
• 09. Steady, As She Goes
• 10. The Switch and the Spur
• 11. Rich Kid Blues
• 12. Blue Veins
• 13. Many Shades of Black
• 14. Broken Boy Soldier
• 15. Salute Your Solution
• 16. Carolina Drama

The Raconteurs: Live at Montreux 2008 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

The Raconteurs: Live at Montreux 2008 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

The Raconteurs: Live at Montreux 2008 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind included on this Blu-ray disc.

The Raconteurs: Live at Montreux 2008 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.