Elvis Costello and the Imposters-Live in Memphis (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Bonus Track-4 Featurette-Road Trip Documentary - Off The Beaten Path Featurette-Radio And The Fans
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	83:33 (Case: 165)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (8:56)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Michael B. Borofsky
Studio Distributor	Eagle Eye Media Rajon Vision	Starring	Elvis Costello Steve Nieve Pete Thomas Davey Faragher Emmylou Harris
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Elvis Costello

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Recorded live at the Hi Tone Café in Memphis on September 17th 2004, this is Elvis Costello in true rock and roll mode. The Hi Tone Café is a very compact venue, so the audience is small and the show has an undeniably intimate quality. I was fortunate to see Elvis Costello and the Imposters on their last tour of Australia in July of 2002 at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, which is a gigantic venue in relation to this. The Imposters is identical to his former band The Attractions, aside from a new bass player. The musicians performing on this DVD are:

• Elvis Costello (Guitars, Vocals)
• Steve Nieve (Keyboards, Theremin)
• Pete Thomas (Drums, Percussion)
• Davey Faragher (Bass, Backing Vocals)

    In this show Elvis is showcasing songs from his recent album The Delivery Man, as well as a wide selection of "rockier" tunes from throughout his career. The Delivery Man album features an appearance by Country star Emmylou Harris, who joins Elvis and the band on stage for several duets; I Still Miss Someone, Heart Shaped Bruise and Wheels. Of the songs performed here, my favourites are Radio Radio, Country Darkness and Monkey to Man. The encore is particularly excellent, first beginning with his signature tune Alison, with which he cleverly incorporates lyrics from Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds. This is followed by the most rocked-up version of Peace Love and Understanding I've ever heard, and finally closing with the instantly recognisable Pump It Up.

Video

    This video transfer is excellent. The concert was captured on high definition digital video, which has been transferred faithfully to DVD.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.75:1, complete with 16x9 enhancement. The image is tight to the frame on the top and bottom, with small black bars on the left and right.

    The image is sharp and clear, and really looks fantastic on a big screen. Fine detail is very good, even down to guitar strings and hair, and there is a lot of detail visible throughout the performance. If you look closely, you can easily spot the broken "A" key on Steve's keyboard!

    Shadow detail is similarly excellent. The club is rather dark at times, and these shades of black are all carried realistically.

    Much of the performance is punctuated by bright stage lighting of various shades, all of which is transferred faithfully and without any bleeding or inconsistencies to be seen.

    Obviously there are no film artefacts present, this being a digital source. There doesn't appear to have been any obvious MPEG artefacts introduced in the transfer process. The video has been encoded with a constant, healthy bitrate of 7.18Mb/s.

    The feature is not accompanied by any subtitle streams, however the Road Trip documentary does have quite a few to choose from.

    This disc is dual-layered (DVD9 format), with the layer transition placed early in the feature between the songs Mystery Dance and Blue Chair at 8:56. The layer break was completely transparent on my system.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three soundtracks to choose from, the default of which is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, encoded at a rather thin 192Kb/s. Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and dts 5.1 (768kb/s) soundtracks are selectable on the fly or via the set-up menu.

    Elvis Costello's singing voice is always distinct and easy to discern above the other instruments. Audio sync is perfect.

    This surround mix is certainly faithful to the atmosphere of the venue. The band is evenly spread across the front soundstage, with the vocals occupying the centre speaker. The use of the surround channels is limited to spill from the stage and crowd noises. The microphones for audience noise must have been placed very close to the bar, because throughout the performance loud clanging of bottles can be heard in the rear left channel (59:50 is a good example). There are a few instances of feedback and a little buzz from some of his older guitars, but this is otherwise a very clean and well weighted live mix. There were a number of times, particularly in the first few songs, where I felt the keyboards needed more presence in the mix, but this is more than made up for in the remainder of the concert.

    The default stereo soundtrack is very thin and overly busy on the ears, I found. The Dolby Digital 5.1 option envelops the listener, is much broader and contains a considerable increase in depth. The dts soundtrack has been encoded at a much lower volume level in comparison to the other two, and has some distracting low bass fluttering coming from the LFE channel. I attempted to alleviate this by tweaking my low pass filter, with minimal success. Aside from this and the difference in volume, there was little to separate the Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts soundtracks, each of them showing comparable brightness, channel separation and depth.

    The subwoofer is used effectively to augment the kick drum, toms and bass guitar. Of the two surround options, the Dolby Digital is the best in this regard and is my preference.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Bonus Songs (4)

    Four songs were cut from the performance and are presented here with the same audio options and video quality as the feature. The songs include My Baby's Gone (3:30) and Sleepless Nights (5:02) with guest Emmylou Harris, an upbeat number titled There's a Story In Your Voice (3:20) and the slightly bizarre opening song from Delivery Man, Button My Lip (8:07). There is no play all function provided.

Documentary - Off the Beaten Path: A Road Trip With Elvis and Pete (52:46)

    Elvis Costello and Pete Thomas climb into the back of a '55 Cadillac for a tour around the musical attractions of Memphis, Arkansas and other places of interest. This fantastic documentary includes many back seat conversations between Elvis and Pete as they drive about, visiting places they know of and often getting out to walk around. First visit is the Stax Studios Museum, followed by an interview on the legendary King Biscuit radio show. Elvis buys a Purple suit and a dodgy guitar for $150, which we later see on stage. The trip ends with a visit to the studio and lodgings the band used when they recorded the Delivery Man album.

    This documentary is accompanied by selectable subtitle streams in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. The transfer is presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced and also includes Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Featurette- Radio And The Fans (4:10)

    This short featurette shows the gigs being announced on the radio, followed by hoards of locals in line to buy the very limited amount of tickets. The venue's staff seemed apprehensive about the prospect of such a world renowned artist performing in their little club, which made me chuckle. The piece closes with who I presume is one of the producers, up on stage prior to the performance asking everyone to turn off their mobile phones. He could have asked the bar staff to take it easy with the bottles! This featurette is presented with 16x9 enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio

    The video transfer is great.

    The audio transfer is faithful to the club vibe, however the dts stream has some minor LFE issues.

    The extras will fascinate fans, and are pertinent to the feature.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall