Living Colour – New Morning: The Paris Concert (Inakustik/MVD DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B Extras: D Concert: B-
When
Living Colour arrived in 1983, they represented the harder side of the new Wave
with their combination of funk, hard rock and even metal sensibilities, but did
not always get he credit they deserved.
Formed in 1983, it took five years before they hit it big with their
first album Vivid, leading to hits
like Cult Of Personality and Glamour Boys. However, between a decline of Rock, emergence
of Hip Hop/Rap, artificial racial barriers and radio tanking to the lowest
common denominator, they held on until the mid-1990s and folded. Now, there back and their recent New Morning: The Paris Concert from
July 2007 is now on DVD.
Underappreciated
in their time, they still seem a bit ahead of it playing with a feel and
intensity that put them on the map, performing the following songs:
1)
Type
2)
Middle Man
3)
Funny Vibe
4)
Song Without Sin
5)
Nova
6)
Sacred Ground
7)
Memories Can’t Wait
8)
Papa Was A Rolling Stone
9)
Glamour Boys
10) Crosstown Traffic
11) Go Away
12) Either Way
13) Ignorance Is Bliss
14) drum solo
15) Flying
16) Love Rears Its Ugly Head
17) Cult Of Personality
With all
the hype about Guns-N-Roses finally releasing their album Chinese Democracy 17 years (!!!) after it started, you’d think they
were the last and only important story in Rock (or any other) music going, but
acts like Living Colour have been good for years and this 07 minutes long
concert is non-stop, impressive and shows that they have only become better with
time versus some of their contemporaries.
Unlike GNR, the original line-up survives and that was never easy, even
at Rock’s height for any group. Far from
a legacy band, Living Colour is as alive as ever and that makes this one of the
most intriguing and entertaining New
Morning releases to date and there are many to now choose from.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image seems to have originated on HD of some
kind, but I bet this will look really good whenever the Blu-ray rolls around,
as this is nicely shot. The DTS 5.1 mix
is rich and even edges out the PCM 2.0 16/48 Stereo, while both make the Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix seem secondary. Except
for an out of print DVD-Audio of the band that we missed, this may be the
highest fidelity presentation of their music released to date and playing this
good, has demo moments to boot. There
are no extras, though there should have been.
Still, this is one of the best DVD concert discs of the year.
- Nicholas Sheffo
