The Band-Live at Loreley (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Introduction Active Subtitle Track-Notes Featurette-High On The Hog Featurette-On The Road Again Featurette-Music Influence Featurette-J.J. Cale and 'Crazy Mama' Featurette-'The Weight' Featurette-High On The Hog Featurette-Musical Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	64:41 (Case: 74)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Christian Wagner
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Levon Helm Garth Hudson Rick Danko Jim Weider Richard Bell Randy Ciarlante
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$39.95	Music	The Band

    This disc is a live video recording of The Band's appearance at a two day music festival at Loreley (strange, having been there, I thought it was spelt and pronounced Lorelei) in Germany during June 1996. The Band has been around for something like 30 years, with three of the original five members still doing the rounds. The blurb describes them as an American Southern rock band, but in reality they present a fusion of modern rock and traditional blues music which will appeal to a wide variety of tastes. This concert is heavily based on The Band's (then) recent album release, High On The Hog, but it also contains several traditional songs from a number of sources.

    The Band's age certainly ensures one thing - the quality of musicianship on display is far better than your average modern band. This one fact alone suggests that, even if I can't compare them to other recordings, the performance presented on the video is likely to be every bit as decent as their other contemporary performances.

Video

    The image is formatted in a standard TV 1.33:1 ratio, and is therefore not widescreen enhanced. It is presented on a single layered disc. The picture quality, being video sourced, is far from being outstanding. The fact that this was an outdoor event, with a mixture of stage lighting and ambient daylight (on an apparently overcast day), further harms the picture. On a positive note, these issues tend to add to the "live" character of the material.

    As you would expect, the picture lacks sharpness in all areas. The complex of drums, microphones and cabling appears as simply a colourful mess in many of the full stage shots. However, close-ups are perfectly acceptable and deserve no criticism. Shadow detail is, like most video sourced material, poor, but there is no low level noise.

    The colour palette is subdued, with most of the colour being displayed on the musicians' faces and in the stage lights - in fact the former tend to take on the hue of the latter. There is no colour bleeding except in the few cases of camera panning, when the video camera is unable to cope with the speed of the panning image. Aliasing is pretty much always on display, largely as a result of the poor resolution inherent in the video source. Cross colouration is also evident in many shots where microphones are visible (which is pretty much all the time).

    In summary - this is video sourced material - slightly worse than usual because of the lack of a controlled environment.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    I didn't notice any audio artefacts such as dropouts or clicks introduced by the recording process. However, Track 3 (Stage Fright) was marred by some significant feedback squeals on Rick Danko's vocals (in fact Rick's microphone seemed to produce these effects to a lesser extent throughout the whole concert). Otherwise the audio is clean and distinct and highlights the individual performances without difficulty.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Introduction

Active Subtitle Track-Notes

Featurette-High On The Hog

Featurette-On The Road Again

Featurette-Music Influence

Featurette-J.J. Cale and 'Crazy Mama'

Featurette-'The Weight'

Featurette-High On The Hog

Featurette-Musical Notes

• Lyrics
• DTS audio track

• Interviews
• Musical Notes

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall