Nelson, Willie-Live in Amsterdam (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	108:51
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:38)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Marieke De Maar
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Willie Nelson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Willie Nelson

    Now myself, I quite like old Willie and enjoy his songs whenever I hear them, but until now I had never seen him perform live (recorded or otherwise). I very quickly got used to the fact that singing can be optional for him, and that something closer to a pitched talk tends to get the job done - along with the odd bit of fancy guitar work. Still, I found him to be very entertaining and I am only a passive fan; it was an eye-opener for me to see young women almost throwing themselves on him at the end of the concert, doubtless connecting with his strong lyrics regarding men and women and his palpable charisma. It is clear to me why he remains very popular, and he will sing and play his guitar until he literally drops.

    A Willie Nelson fan should need no encouragement to get this disc, though for the rest of us perhaps a rental will keep us happy enough.

Video

    The transfer had the typical video look we are used to from Image Entertainment, being more functional than anything. There was a slightly soft look to the image, though it was detailed enough - perhaps it was for the better given that the average age of the band members could almost boil water. Whilst the main camera focusing on Willie was fine, certain other shots were quite poorly defined and often noisy, especially long shots. Again, we have seen this kind of thing before in music videos and it does not detract from the enjoyment in any major way. Shadow detail is very good, and there was no low-level noise, making for a smooth and clean picture.

    Colours were rendered naturally enough. Being more of a laid-back atmosphere, there was little in the way of multicoloured lights, but whenever blues and reds did show up they were without chroma noise or bleed.

     There were no MPEG artefacts noticed, and no video artefacts save for some edge-enhancement and softening due to up-conversion from an NTSC source.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring between Chapters 16 and 17 at 57:38 minutes, placed nicely during a song change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Willie Nelson's strong vocal style could cut through a brick wall, and it comes across very well in this recording. Unfortunately, his microphone is accompanied by a buzzing, which must have been a real nuisance for the engineers. The gate on his mike (a device which "opens" and "closes" an input) was getting a workout, and only when he sung could the buzzing be heard. With the whole band going full pelt, it was not a problem, but at other times it was quite obvious. There were no major audio sync issues, but then again it was not totally without problems. It seemed as though the good camera on Willie was in sync, and the other cameras peppered around were slightly out of sync, which made for a somewhat disjointed feel - but it was not enough to be distracting.

    The sound on both 5.1 soundtracks was very clean and well-balanced, with the bass guitar providing a nice warmth to the mix. The placement of the artists was reflected in the front soundstage, so that anyone "camera left" appeared to come from the left, and so on. This made for easy listening and reinforced the illusion that the band was playing live directly in front of me; the occasional buzzing only made the illusion that much greater, and having done live sound mixing I can easily forgive it. Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS tracks performed very well, and there was little if any difference between them.

    The surrounds were used sparingly, and never to accommodate instruments; rather, they provided an ambiance much as one might expect, with Willie's mike spilling into all the speakers in a subtle manner and the crowd placed mostly up front and to the sides.

    The subwoofer was in constant use, though did not call attention to itself. It lent solid weight to the bass guitar, and was integrated very well.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    Both versions are identical except for having PAL and NTSC formats respectively.

    I can recommend this concert to Willie Nelson fans, who should enjoy his intimacy and laid back nature. The video and audio, though flawed, are perfectly adequate given that this is a live recording.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall