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Iron Maiden: Live After Death	Quincy Jones: 50 Years in Music: Live in Montreux 1996	Glen Campbell: Good Times Again


Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007	Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis	Queen: Rock Montreal & Live Aid

DVD QuickTakes

QuickTakes Archive

Chris & Rich Robinson: Brothers of a Feather - Live at the Roxy

Amassed from three sold-out shows at the Roxy in L.A. earlier this year, “Brothers of a Feather”displays Black Crowes founders Chris and Rich Robinson very much in their natural habitat. A front porch-like stage setting, complete with table (for beers), chairs, and an oft-referred-to coat rack, brings the casual best out of these hippy sibs as they breeze through a career’s worth of obscure Crowes tracks, unreleased artifacts, and well-disguised covers. Twenty songs over nearly two hours of tape, with splicing from three nights (which isn’t always so seamless, like when Rich removes his coat at the end of the opener “Horsehead,” only to have it magically back on for “Cursed Diamond”). A few new originals get propped up, including a Dylan-ish “Someday Past the Sunset” and a bluesy, slide-guitar number called “Magic Rooster Blues.” They forego the big, popular Crowes hits, opting instead for quieter, more subtle material. Chris, looking as skuzzy and unkempt as ever, strums awkwardly on a few cuts, including “Over the Hill” by Scottish folk singer John Martyn, one of many hard-to-identify covers. But when they really want to bring it, the Robinsons succeed wildly. “Better When You’re Not Alone,” with a really cool harmony vocal by Rich, and the catchy sing-along “Welcome to the Goodtimes,” featuring a nifty saxophone part and spot-on background vocals by two ladies, are the project’s highlights. A rustic, bare-bones version of “Jealous Again,” also finding Rich’s vocal contributions, winds up the DVD in signature fashion. ~Red Rocker

The Dresden Dolls: Live at the Roundhouse London

The top of the DVD says it all: "This is the Punk Cabaret." The Dresden Dolls taped two shows at the legendary Roundhouse in London and brought a small army of dancers, singers and musicians to assist them in putting on one of the most thrilling concerts you’re likely to see (Master of Ceremonies: Margaret Cho, no joke). Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione are cute and clever on tape but they’re positively ferocious live – put Viglione near the top of the list of best drummers in rock today – and there is much more to them than "Coin Operated Boy." Their pre-encore closer, "Sing," leads the audience to continue singing long after the song is over (think U2’s "40"), and you won’t believe what they do to Tears for Fears’ "Mad World." They even get Lene Lovich (!) to join them for a song. It surely cost them a ton of money to record this show for posterity, but thank God they did. ~David Medsker

Frankie Laine: That Lucky Old Sun

The legend of Frankie Laine has slightly diminished over time, mostly because it’s been almost 40 years since his last Top 40 hit. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that Laine, who passed away in February 2007 at the age of 93, actually had more than 60 Top 40 hits in his career. In the field of pop music interpretation, the man was a musical force to be reckoned with, and he could bounce back and forth between jazz, country, rhythm and blues and popular standards without blinking an eye. In this 1976 performance, recorded in Sheffield, England, as a special for the BBC, Laine runs through 12 songs, including some of his biggest hits: "Jealousy," "Dream A Little Dream of Me," "Your Cheating Heart," "Lord, You Gave Me A Mountain" and "Jezebel." Of course, he also does his signature song – the theme for "Rawhide" – though, surprisingly, it’s the third song in the set. (If he’d been in the States, you can bet that it would’ve been the closing number.) Unfortunately, however, there are several moments of pure schmaltz, such as his version of the theme to "Love Story" and a cover of Morris Albert’s "Feelings." Despite Laine being in fine voice throughout, it feels more like a nightclub act than a proper concert. If this is the only video artifact of Frankie Laine in a live setting, more’s the pity. ~Will Harris

UB40: Live at Montreux 2002

Eagle Rock has released so many shows from the Montreux Jazz Festival in the last few months that we’re considering adding a "Montreux DVD of the Month" slot on our Music DVD home page. That is not to say that the sheer ubiquity of the titles should result in listener fatigue. Indeed, this set by UB40 from 2002 is a keeper, with an impressive, comprehensive set list that covers all their U.S. hits (the Neil Diamond cover, the Al Green cover, the Smokey Robinson cover, etc.) and U.K. singles like "If It Happens Again" and "Don’t Break My Heart." And resist the urge to snark at a show by a band that’s 15 years past its heyday: bands like UB40 can put on a solid live show until they collapse into a pile of dust onstage. The one gripe about the show is that, as a live video, well, it’s awfully fun to listen to, at least. Pop it while cooking dinner: actually watching the band play is a bonus, but by no means essential to the experience. ~David Medsker

Detention Lounge, Vol. 1

Despite countless flips through Roget’s Thesaurus to come up with a better description of the contents of this DVD, the phrase "fucking excruciating" remains at the forefront when it comes to properly summing up "Detention Lounge." Although it’s emblazoned with a front-cover warning which declares that "this DVD contains REAL HARDCORE HUMOR," this series – which purportedly draws creative inspiration from "Hee-Haw" – fails miserably in its attempts to be funny. While the NYC heavy metal/hardcore scenesters no doubt find it hysterical to watch stalwarts like Jesus Knevil, Purple Pam, and Sun Lord screw around on camera, it’s inconceivable that anyone else could endure the full 123-minute running time of this disc without being drunk, high, or in a coma. The ostensible jokes come from the "The Louder You Yell the Line, The Funnier It Is" School of Comedy, with the sketches generally not even up to the standards of "Mad TV." The music’s decent enough as hardcore goes, and Pam appears to be almost as hot as she was in the ‘80s – when she worked at a record store I used to frequent in Norfolk, VA, called the Music Man – but the god-awful material surrounding both her and the tunes makes it impossible to recommend to anyone. If you want to hear the songs, go to MySpace, but avoid picking up this DVD at all cost. ~Will Harris