Jimmy Barnes-Raw: Live in Concert (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio Gallery-Photo Music Video-Love And Hate Music Video-Thankful For The Rain Interviews-Cast Biographies-Cast Notes-Wild Colonial Boy
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	43:21 (Case: 70)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Peter Wynn
Studio Distributor	Liberation Music	Starring	Jimmy Barnes Ian Moss
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$32.95	Music	Various

    Every now and then I sit down to take a look at a disc with high expectations, all set for a really enjoyable concert or film only to be let down dramatically after being forced to watch something considerably less than entertaining. Jimmy Barnes - Raw Live In Concert is one such disc. It really is a major let down and an example of how not to market a concert DVD in 2005.
   
    Recorded at Melbourne's Colonial Stadium (now Telstra Dome) in March 2001 in front of some 30,000 fans, this had all the makings of being something rather special. But an odd selection of songs, an all-too-brief running time, a poorly mixed soundtrack and a generic performance from both Barnes and band makes this little more than a promotional piece.

    Backed by a full band, including backing singers and even Chisel stalwart Ian Moss towards the end, there are a measly ten songs played in all. Barnes launches the show with the title track off his then most recent studio album, Love & Hate, a song that proves it is well named. The man fires up pretty quickly and moves straight into Bob Dylan's Seven Days, followed by a rather interesting take on a soul classic - Land Of 1000 Dances. Barnes finally launches into something more appropriate for his voice with a quite well executed Lay Down Your Guns from 1991s Two Fires album, before the song the crowd has come to hear is played. Khe Sanh is one of the classic Australian songs, yet in this show it seems to be treated just like all the others and comes across quite bland. Cheap Wine picks up a bit, but it is not until Ian Moss takes the microphone for a rousing Bow River that things really start to rock. Unfortunately just as the show starts to look good, there is just one song left. Working Class Man is delivered with the passion and energy it deserves, for a song that is Barnes' trademark, but alas the show is over. 43 minutes? Give me a break.

    Just the following ten tracks comprise this all-too-brief concert:

Video

    A fairly bland concert receives an equally bland video transfer.

    It is presented full screen in an aspect of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is not a top shelf video transfer by any means. It really does look far older than barely four years. There is a little grain, though it is not overly annoying. Shadow detail is above average and there is no low level noise.

    Colours are a bit mixed, which is only natural for a concert. No problems with bleeding or posterization are evident, though some of the performers appear quite bright on occasion.

    No compression artefacts are present. A tiny bit of aliasing pops up here and there, but is so minor it is not worth mentioning.

    There are no subtitles available.

    With the concert running just over 40 minutes, the use of a dual layered disc was always going to be unlikely - this is a single layer disc only. As a result there is no layer change to navigate.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The quality of the last couple of concert soundtracks that I have sampled has been superb. Quality, all enveloping and engaging dts or Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks that enhance the listening experience to a new level have been the order of the day. Sadly this disc does not continue that trend. More bland is on the way.

    There are two audio tracks on this disc, these being a PCM 2.0 stereo soundtrack and a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound effort encoded at the higher bitrate of 448 Kb/s. Both soundtracks lack any of that real punch that lifts the truly great soundtracks above the rest. They both do the job required of them, but in a rather unremarkable fashion.

    The lyrics are well positioned in the soundtrack, coming across as clear as Jimmy Barnes' voice will allow. There are no audio sync problems.

    There is virtually no surround channel use, which was a big surprise.

    The subwoofer does a bit to support the music, without being noticeable.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

Gallery-Photo

    11 colour photos spread across four screens. They are small and really quite repetitive.

Music Video - Love and Hate

    As the title suggests this is the music video for the song from Barnes' last studio album. True to its name, it really is a song you are going to love or hate. Runs for 2:57.

Music Video - Thankful For The Rain

    A much more mellow song, the Thankful For The Rain video runs for 4:08.

Interviews-Cast

    Doug Mulray interviews Barnes, discussing briefly how he decided to become a musician. Runs for 4:44.

Biographies-Cast

    Two bios are available, one for Jimmy Barnes, the singer who led Cold Chisel to fame, and the other for The Wild Colonial Boy, which outlines some information about Barnes' Colonial Stadium concert and the songs he sings during the show.

Notes

    The DVD jacket features a full page of text explaining each song and a bit about the performance in addition to listing the tracks and their writing credits. The summary information is the same as found in the biography for The Wild Colonial Boy.

    This DVD appears to be the same as the one available in other regions.

    Jimmy Barnes Raw - Live in Concert is one of the poorest modern concert DVDs yet seen. Clocking in at just over 40 minutes it is too short and simply not worth the money. Plain dull in the video stakes it also features an unimaginative Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack. It is not helped by the screaming warble of Jimmy Barnes which at times borders on the incomprehensible. The only song with any redeeming qualities is the excellent Bow River, sung by long-time friend and fellow Cold Chisel member Ian Moss. One to avoid for all but the most diehard of Barnes fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall