Sammy Hagar & The Wabos – Livin’ It Up! In St. Louis (DTS DVD/Image)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Concert: B-

 

 

When he began his career, Sammy Hagar was a lead singer going back to the mid-1970s for a band called Montrose, but it was as a solo singer in the 1980s that he became a hit, with songs like V.O.A. and Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy, he was like Loverboy with some kind of point.  Then, the whole music industry went into shock when he stepped up to succeed David Lee Roth in Van Halen and critics went into further shock when his debut album with them (0U812) was a huge hit, became the best-charting album of the band’s career and was actually good.

 

Of course, Eddie Van Halen eventually had the same falling out with Hagar in 1996 he had with Roth (leading to the stupid decision to hire Gary Cherone to replace him, which made the band implode disastrously) and Hagar survived again as a solo artist with more hits than the new Van Halen.  This even included a tour with Roth!

 

Now, over a decade later, still no Van Halen and Hagar is still touring solo.  He even brings Van Halen drummer Michael Anthony along for Sammy Hagar & The Wabos – Livin’ It Up! In St. Louis, taped a few years ago in the great city with Hagar still a party animal after all these years.  Songs here include:

 

1)     Mas Tequila

2)     Mexico

3)     There's Only One Way To Rock

4)     Rainy Day Women (#12/#35)

5)     The Girl Gets Around

6)     Rock Candy

7)     I'll Fall In Love Again

8)     I'll Take You There

9)     Sam I Am

10)  Little White Lie

11)  I Can't Drive 55

12)  Heavy Metal

13)  Good Enough

14)  Summer Nights

15)  Right Now

16)  Finish What You Started

17)  Best Of Both Worlds

18)  Fight For Your Right

19)  Cabo Wabo

 

 

 

Hagar is in his element and he had a good crowd for the taping.  The band is having fun too and when you add the good sense of party humor, you get a decent concert.  I may not have liked every song and felt bad when Hagar’s vocals were too old to sing the highest “55!!!” on I Can't Drive 55 which he leaves to the audience (ala the “woo woo woos” Howard Jones could not hit is his recent DVD concert) who keep up, but Livin’ It Up! has enough good moments to recommend it for fans and nostalgia.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is colorful and set-up more lively and interesting than most, but detail and even depth can be an issue in this downtrade.  We wonder if this will look better if Image puts this out in an HD format.  The DTS 5.0 is the best mix, but it and the Dolby 5.0 & 2.0 mixes are a bit compressed and though the recording has some moments, it all sounds a bit compressed as if not thought of for multi-channel to begin with.  Extras include Cabo footage with mixed visual quality, a few Music Videos (including a making of on one of them) and interviews with Hagar and the band.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo