The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 26, 2019

Fans of The Rolling Stones may have had a potential scare recently when the band cancelled or at least delayed part of a proposed tour due to some health problems that afflicted Mick Jagger. Those fears have been allayed by a number of reports, including some fun video, that Mick is “back in action” after some heart surgery, and as this review is being published, there are several new glowing reports of the Stones’ first performances in their No Filter Tour. The Stones in concert have always been an event of one kind or another, but their Bridge to Babylon tour from the late 1990s remains one of their best remembered for at least a couple of elements, including a permanent traveling stage that accompanied them to various venues, and the then revolutionary addition of “special requests” delivered via internet voting that made each concert in the tour unique. This is another really high energy performance from the band, but I may invite some umbrage from Stones aficionados by stating that while the band sounds absolutely fantastic instrumentally, the vocals are occasionally a little on the rough side. That said, when things come together vocally, as in a superb "Gimme Shelter" (the backups by Lisa Fischer in particular are fantastic), everything really cooks very winningly. Some of the strongest content here, though, is actually the instrumental accompaniments, many of which have little flourishes that long time listeners may find intriguing and exciting.

The Stones gallivant through a nice selection of tunes in this concert. Their set list is as follows:

• 1. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
• 2. Let's Spend the Night Together
• 3. Flip the Switch
• 4. Gimme Shelter
• 5. Anybody Seen My Baby?
• 6. Paint It Black
• 7. Saint of Me
• 8. Out of Control
• 9. Memory Motel
• 10. Miss You
• 11. Thief in the Night
• 12. Wanna Hold You
• 13. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
• 14. You Got Me Rocking
• 15. Like a Rolling Stone
• 16. Sympathy for the Devil
• 17. Tumbling Dice
• 18. Honky Tonk Women
• 19. Start Me Up
• 20. Jumpin' Jack Flash
• 21. You Can't Always Get What You Want
• 22. Brown Sugar

Note: This is the rare Eagle Rock release that I had some trouble getting to play. It made a rather pronounced grinding noise in both my PC drive and my standalone player, and my standalone player initially "rejected" it, saying it was unplayable. There were no noticeable marks or blemishes on the disc surface.

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080i presentation in 1.33:1. This is another in Eagle Rock's so-called "SD Blu-ray" series, and anyone who has either purchased one of these or even seen some of the screenshots on our reviews of previous releases will know pretty much what to expect. This has the same upscaling issues that many of the other SD Blu-rays have had, with combing artifacts galore (so much so that it was actually hard for me to get what I considered to be decent screenshots, one reason why you only see one full on screenshot of Charlie Watts). There are also prevalent issues with stairstepping on elements like guitar strings. There are some stylistic conceits, like quasi-montages, and those can offer very little detail at times (see screenshot 6). All of that said, some of the midrange and close-ups actually have decent clarity and acceptable if still obviously deficient detail levels. This is one of those "it is what it is" releases, and I parsing of the screenshots included with this review is highly encouraged to at least give some indication of what this can look like.

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen features LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio, with the disc authored to default to the stereo track. And in fact some may prefer the stereo track, as it tends to elevate the vocals in the mix and also arguably diminshes what is at times pretty overwhelming audience cacophony, something that can spill pretty aggressively into the surround channels of the 5.1 version. Both tracks have what sounds like some very minor distortion with regard to Keith's guitar, which can crackle a bit, though I noticed this same anomaly on the CD, so I'm assuming that perhaps someone had a gain dial on a board tweaked a little too hot. Otherwise, though, both tracks on this disc offer excellent fidelity and the surround track does offer some significant oomph in the lower registers, though there is a slightly phase-y quality to the midrange and lower end at times.

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bridges to Chicago (1080i; 18:55) offers four performances from the Windy City with LPCM 2.0 audio:

  Rock and a Hard Place

  
  

  Under My Thumb

  
  

  All About You

  
  

  Let It Bleed

  These have been authored as a "unit" though the menu allows you to choose "individual" songs, and so selecting the first is essentially a Play All button, and starting at any subsequent song will move on to any that follow.

Additionally, 2 Bonus CDs of the concert are included. The DigiPack also contains a booklet with writing and some stills.

The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite a few arguable stumbles in the vocal department, this is a really engaging performance that finds the Stones and their assorted backup musicians in really fine fettle. Mick is typically peripatetic, but perhaps relatively restrained a lot of the time here. Some of the guitar work on this concert is really enjoyable and adds some spark to tunes that may have become too "familiar" for some. Video is about what you'd expect for an SD upscale, but audio is generally fine, for those considering a purchase.