Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Movie Review

Rock 'n' Roll, Straight from the Bottle, No Ice, No Water, No Chaser

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 31, 2011

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been playing and releasing recordings since 1976, and even more astonishing than their longevity is the fact that most members of the band are the same today as when they first assembled in Gainesville, Florida thirty-five years ago. Even the occasional solo venture and Petty's brief adventure with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and George Harrison under the name "The Traveling Wilburys" failed to deter the band from its appointed mission, which appears to have been to play old-fashioned rock 'n' roll, solid blues and country rock for as long as they can stand, shout and move their fingers.

I confess to being only an occasional Heartbreakers fan, collecting the random single and waking up in particular during the brief career of the Wilburys. But one would have to be deaf and blind not to be aware of Tom Petty's presence in American popular music of the last quarter of the 20th Century. If nothing else, the unmistakable twang of his singing voice has a music all its own (and was once deliciously parodied on SNL, which devoted an entire sketch to an imaginary conversation between Petty and Bob Dylan, both of whom spoke in unintelligible slurs).

The roughly two-hour concert on this disc, denominated "Episode 1" and "Episode 2", are part of the Soundstage series presented on PBS by Chicago's local station, WTTW, in partnership with HD Ready, LLC. Both episodes bear 2003 copyright dates and, as far as I can tell, both are derived from the same concert, which was part of the first season of the revived Soundstage series. Both appear to have been broadcast together in July 2003, which was the year after Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The concert was released in 2005 by Koch Vision on a two-disc DVD set that is now out of print. In 2008, Koch briefly acquired rights to several Soundstage concerts for Blu-ray, but this title was never generally available. A few Blu-ray.com members reported finding copies of the Hearbreakers concert on Blu-ray at Sears, and at least according to Koch's published specifications, the disc included nine bonus tracks.

Image now has the rights to the Soundstage series, and the Heartbreakers concert is the latest of its releases. The disc may not contain any bonus tracks, but it can be easily found, and it looks and sounds terrific.

The performers are band leader Tom Petty on lead vocals and guitar; founding member Mike Campbell on lead guitar and mandolin; founding member Ron Blair on bass and backing vocals; founding member Benmont Tench on keyboards and backing vocals; Scott Thurston on rhythm guitar, harmonica, synthesizer and backing vocals; and drummer Steve Ferrone ("our own jet engine", Petty calls him).

Fans looking for a "greatest hits" style of concert will be disappointed, because many of the band's most familiar songs are missing, including such standards as "American Girl", "Breakdown", "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Into the Great Wide Open". Petty even notes in his brief introduction to some of the songs that they're selections the band doesn't frequently perform. Still, it's clear from the reactions of fans near the stage that the cameras catch mouthing the words to every song that true Heartbreakers fans should recognize every "B" side and lesser-known album filler here. And whatever they're playing, this band pulls out all the stops.

Some numbers are familiar, though. The Heartbreakers provide Petty with a credible substitute for the Traveling Wilburys on a rendition of "Handle Me with Care" (though it's hard to compensate for the absence of Roy Orbison from that vocal collaboration). Their renditions of "Refugee" and "I Won't Back Down" are, if anything, better than the official recordings. The wonderful piano solo performed by Tench on "Melinda" is a showstopper.

Other than introducing the band and saying a few words about the songs, Petty doesn't spend much time talking to the audience. He prefers communicating through music. It's clearly what he and these players do best.

The complete song list follows:

Episode 1

1. Baby Please Don't Go
2. Crawling Back to You
3. Handle With Care
4. I Won't Back Down
5. I'm Cryin'
6. Angel Dream
7. Melinda
8. Born in Chicago
9. Red Rooster
10. Carol
11. Refugee


Episode 2

12. Love is a Long Road
13. You Don't Know How It Feels
14. Black Leather Woman
15. I Done Somebody Wrong
16. I Got a Woman
17. Thirteen Days
18. Wake Up Time
19. Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms
20. Lost Children
21. Two Men Talkin'
22. You Wreck Me

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080i, AVC-encoded image for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert represents another fine effort from Image and another solid accomplishment by director Joe Thomas and his technical crew. Of the Blu-rays from this series I've reviewed so far, this one was notable for being light on jaggies, aliasing and any hint of artifacts from the interlaced format. Having now taken screen captures from many of these discs, I've concluded that the style of the performers can have a substantial impact on the quality of the video image. Some performers need to be in constant motion. (Ringo Starr is an example.) Tom Petty and the members of his band radiate energy and intensity, but their motions on stage are economical, so that the energy is expressed by other means: in their demeanor and, most of all, the music. The less your subject leaps and gestures, the smoother your image is likely to be. Certainly this is one of the smoothest and cleanest of the Soundstage discs from Image that I've reviewed.

The lighting is the usual Soundstage illumination that shows the audience as well as the performers. Black levels and resolved detail are consistently good, and colors are rich and well-saturated. Despite the fact that the length of these two episodes puts this concert into "double feature" territory, Image has chosen to release this concert on a BD-25. However, I did not spot any compression artifacts. It's amazing what a compressionist can achieve when there's less motion in the frame.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks for both episodes reflect HD Ready's usual approach to mixing concerts recorded for Soundstage. The viewer is placed in the position of an audience member with the sounds of cheering and applause directed to the surrounds, while the band and vocalists remain spread across the front soundstage, with some degree of presence in the surrounds to create a sense of space and depth. As with Chris Isaak's band, the Heartbreakers are considerably smaller than many of the ensembles featured in other Soundstage programs, but the overall volume of this mix undoubtedly provided a different kind of challenge for the technical crew. If you can't always pick out the individual instruments from the track, you certainly get the sense of being overpowered by a hard-driving rock ensemble, which is as it should be. This is a loud track; so set your volume accordingly. Soundstage and Image Entertainment continue to set a high standard in simulating the feel of a live performance in the home environment, as much as such an experience can be reproduced.

(Note: A PCM 2.0 track is also available for all selections.)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As noted above, the Blu-ray announced by Koch in 2008 and then hurriedly sold off at Sears was supposed to contain numerous bonus tracks, but I do not have a copy to confirm this. None are included here. For the record, the bonus tracks on the Koch disc are listed as: Down Home Girl; I'd Like to Love You; Baby; Not Fade Away; Walls; Yer So Bad; Billy the Kid; Like a Diamond (From The Last DJ Live at the Olympic); Can't Stop the Sun (From The Last DJ Live at the Olympic).

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I stopped going to live concerts a long time ago, but reviewing the Soundstage discs from Image has made me nostalgic for those days. Then again, as with movie viewing, Blu-ray saves you travel time, parking problems, high ticket prices, unruly crowds, crowded freeways and every other inconvenience associated with large-event attendance. Image's affordable releases of the Soundstage series on Blu-ray give every owner of a Blu-ray player the chance to hear major artists perform in the comfort of his or her own media room. Buy a ticket to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert. The performance and the disc are highly recommended.