The Pretenders – Loose in L.A.
Picture: B Sound: B+ Extras: B- Concert:
A-
The Pretenders broke loose
in the year 1980 with a solid initial release of pure rock and well-written
material by frontwoman Chrissie Hynde.
That first self-titles album contained songs like Precious, Kid,
Brass in Pocket, and Mystery Achievement, all of which
established the band as a powerful force and would lay forth their path into
the 1980’s. Strange things happened
though to both the band and to music in general.
Music, more specifically
rock music, was starting to head a different direction leading to more
one-hit-wonders than just about any decade.
Synthesizers were becoming commonplace in the music industry and people
just weren’t feeling the same about plain old rock. Still The Pretenders pressed on with their follow-up Pretenders
II, which slammed home hits like The Adultress, Message of Love,
and Talk of the Town. The death
of James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitarist) and departure of bassist Pete Farndon
only slowed the remaining two members, Martin Chambers on drums and Hynde for a
little bit. They came back strong in
1984 with Learning to Crawl, which truly showed the power of Hynde’s
lyrical style and force. Songs like Middle
of the Road, Back on the Chain Gang, and My City Were Gone
highlighted the release. The remainder
of the 80’s had some ups and downs until 1994’s Show of Independence,
which contained the hit track I’ll Stand By You, which brought back to
life this talented group once again. Since
then they have stuck together releasing material here and there.
Loose in L.A. is a terrific concert from February 2003 showing
just how relentless this group is after all these years. You wouldn’t believe from the performance
that age had any factor in their work, other than for maturity. Brought forth by Eagle Vision this is by far
one of their best releases in terms of content and quality. Filmed in High-Definition, this actually
looks pleasing, especially with the various camera angels and editing, which
makes the experience rockin’. The
footage was shot in 1.85 X 1 and the transfer looks surprisingly better than a
lot of material shot in High-Definition.
The audio options allow the concert to be heard either in Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, or DTS 5.1.
Both Dolby tracks are weak in their presentation, while the DTS offers
the best playback giving more bass and overall coherence of the material. Lyrics push through better in DTS and the
surrounds seem much more active giving a better live perception.
Track Listing (140 Min.)
Lie To Me
Time
Message of Love
My Baby
Talk of the Town
You Know Who Your
Friends Are
Time The Avenger
The Homecoming
Up the Neck
Fools Must Die
My City Was Gone
The Losing
Biker
Complex Person
Nothing Breaks Like a
Heart
Back on the Chain Gang
Don’t Get Me Wrong
Kid
Rebel Rock Me
Night in My Veins
Tattooed Love Boys
Precious
I’ll Stand By You
Middle of the Road
Mystery Achievement
Brass in Pocket
With a track listing like
this, one quickly understands how much material this band has, not only that,
but the arrangement of songs places their classic tunes intermixed with some of
the newer songs from 2002’s Loose Screw album. There are also some extras to accommodate the release such as
back stage footage and the music video for You Know Who Your Friends Are,
which is from Loose Screw. There
is also a concert montage making for a nice handful of extras considering a
lengthy concert, which is worthy all on its own.
- Nate Goss
