Alice Cooper - Brutally Live

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Audio and Animation  Music Video - Gimme  Multiple Angles - Alice Cam (6)  Web Link
Rating
Year Released	2000
Running Time	99:00 minutes  (Not 105 minutes as stated on the packaging)
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (?)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director	David Barnard
Studio Distributor	Eagle Rock Entertainment  Warner Vision Australia	Starring	Alice Cooper
Case	Black Amaray
RPI	$39.95	Music	Alice Cooper

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192 Kb/s) English (Dolby Digital 5.0, 384 Kb/s) English (DTS 5.0)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

    Recorded at the Apollo Hammersmith in London on 19th July, 2000, this concert goes to prove that they sure don't make them like they used to! Part of the Brutal Planet Tour, the concert provides a nice mixture of classics and newer stuff:
 
 

    Long before the feeble pretenders came along, Alice Cooper was the original shock rocker: the songs demonstrated it, his stage persona demonstrated it and his shows demonstrated it. He managed to offend an awful lot of people, and yet beneath it all there was actually a lot of talent and the fact was that he did create some memorable albums. Whilst he arguably reached his creative peak with the awesome and arguably atypical Welcome To My Nightmare album, this album often overshadowed other gems like Billion Dollar Babies. Beneath the shock rock exterior there was a lot of depth to many of his songs, and most of the best are here to enjoy - albeit some in somewhat truncated form. Just be warned, just as the packaging suggests, some of the program may be slightly unsuitable for the younger viewing audience.

    He may be getting on in years, but he still can do it better than most if not all of the feeble pretenders to his crown. Fans will need not hesitate in seeking out this concert DVD for in general it is an excellent effort. In fact, anyone with an interest in rock and roll should indulge themselves in this 100 minutes of worthwhile viewing.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The simple description of this transfer is that it is generally very sharp throughout, very well detailed with plenty of shadow detail on offer for a concert. Clarity is quite exceptional and there is no hint at all of any grain in the transfer. There is no hint of any low level noise in the transfer. This is another one of those stunning concert videos that every so often emanates from this source, just to remind you how good concert videos can actually look.

    The colour on offer here is similarly quite brilliant. Wonderfully vibrant with some gorgeous depth to the colours (except when the intense stage lighting gets to overpower everything), there are absolutely no complaints here at all as far as this looks. Sure, the stage lighting occasionally gives the main star a slightly ghastly (and ghostly) look, but this is all part of the show. Every so often the stage lighting gets a tad overboard in the reds creating some noticeable oversaturation, such as during Only Women Bleed. However, within the context of the entire show, this is not too bad and given the generally well saturated feel to the transfer, is not entirely distracting. There is no apparent problem with colour bleed in the transfer.

    There does not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Somewhat amazingly for a concert video, there is little in the way of film-to-video artefacts, with only some barely noticeable and certainly not distracting aliasing to be found. There is nothing in the way of film artefacts in the transfer. Indeed, the only blemish in the mastering is some picture break up towards the end of School's Out, about thirty seconds before the end of the song (sorry, but it is difficult to be more precise in view of the lack of encoded timing information on this DVD). This takes the form of pixelization of the lower third of the picture for no more than one second. It only affects the main transfer and does not affect the alternate angle. Very disappointing.

    Not as disappointing, however, as the shocking layer change on this RSDL formatted DVD. This gem of a shocker occurs just after the start of the song It's Hot Tonight and is so noticeable as to be laughable. Whilst appreciating that concert DVDs always create problems with respect to layer changes, why on earth place it after a song has commenced?

    Whilst no subtitle option is listed on the DVD, nor in the specs above, there is actually something on the DVD. It is designated 1 and consists entirely of a ghostly Alice Cooper head that appears when the alternate angle options are available. It defaults to on.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is an excellent effort indeed, with a nice crisp, clean sound that really allows the music and vocals to come up really well. It is a nicely balanced soundtrack and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. It might have been nice to have some surround encoding, but other than that this is one of the better concert efforts to pass my way recently.

    The Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack on the other hand is not so hot. Indeed, it could best be described as tepid. Apart from being severely underwhelming without a bass track, the surround channels tend to cause too much diffusion in the music. This tends to diminish the impact of the sound somewhat and this is compounded somewhat by a slightly recessed vocal track in the overall mix. Whilst it is certainly still listenable, at no time did I feel like it was a natural sound. The rear surround channels carry a fair chunk of the audience ambience, but also carry just a little too much music to be entirely convincing.

    The DTS 5.0 soundtrack however... What can one say? It might not actually have a bass channel here, but it really does not need it. There is ample bass carried in the other channels to give this soundtrack a really natural kick. This has a lot more presence to the sound and really is the way to listen to this concert if you can. Whilst some of the balance is a tad out - there is just a little too much presence to the guitars in the rear channels for instance - it is still a gorgeously encompassing sound that conveys far more of the emotion in the music than the Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack does. Generally excellent stuff indeed and a fine demonstration of how much impact DTS sound can have even without the bass track.

    There did not appear to be any sync problems in any of the soundtracks.
 
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Music Video - Gimme

Multiple Angles - Alice Cam (6)

Web Link

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
31st March, 2001