The Doors of the 21st Century - L.A. Woman Live Review

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(More customer reviews)Rather than discuss the endless debate that surrounds the Doors of the 21st Century, I'll come right out and say that I'm an enormous fan of The Doors and an equal fan of the D21c. Seeing Ray and Robby live has been the defining expierence in my musical life.
On to the DVD-
The performance:
This is a solid performance. I have heard every recorded (pro and audience) concert of the D21c, so I know when the guys are truly 'on'. I also attended the show the group put on in Atlanta 2 days before this gig in Houston. Needless to say, the Houston show blows away the rusty, almost lifeless performance they gave in Atlanta (to the band's credit- they were not lifeless... the audience was and that undoubteldy affects the performance).
So, the actual performance is very good. It's not their best, but it's more than worthy of a dvd release. Ian is his usual self- it takes a song or two to warm him up, but once he's primed- he's incredible. As many fans of the D21c know, Ian occasionally forgets a lyric or two... fortunately, he is focused throughout this gig and only lets out a minor slip up in Hyacinth House. Well done Ian.
Ray and Robby both show that they have only gotten better with age. Robby in particular has gotten considerably faster and cleaner and the result is stunning. Every one of his solos is precise and flawless. In particular, his solo at the end of Break on Through makes me say "whoa" everytime I hear it. He throws in a different run and it just fits perfectly. On the other side of the stage, Ray puts on an equally stunning show- putting on a more flamboyant show than he ever did back in the days of the original Doors lineup. He's managed to increase his showmanship while still remaining perfectly faithful to all the Doors classics. Incredible.
Do note that inbetween a few songs are interview clips with Ray Robby and Ian. When I first heard about that feature, I thought for sure that it would ruin the flow of the show. Luckily, the clips only add to the whole expierenceand somehow, they manage to not ruin the feeling of seeing the guys live. Very well done.
Video quality:
Unebelivable. This is the sharpest concert dvd avaliable- outdoing the amazing "Rush in Rio" (which I considered the pinacle in concert video quality). The picture is crystal clear with fantastic camera work. You get plenty of steady, lengthy closeups of Ian Ray and Robby. The absolute coolest parts are the numerous shots of Robby's hands. The video quality is so good, you can count every knick, dent and scuff on Robby's cherry Gibson SG. Wow. Truly top notch camera work (fantastic angles) and a flawless digital, widescreen recording. A+ This is the new standard in concert dvd video.
Audio quality:
Yet again, this dvd delivers. The DTS track will knock you out if you have the proper equipment to enjoy it. Mean while, 2.0 stereo mix sounds good on any set of speakers... even through usually crappy tv speakers. This audio mix is perfect. In particular, the drums (provided by the great Ty Dennis) sound phenomenal. The snare has a perfect kick to it... I absolutely love it. You have to hear it all to know what I'm talking about. The rest of the band comes through equally well. Ian's vocals sound as good as they ever have (by the way, his vocal delivery here is 1000 times better than it is on the live cult dvd) and Ray and Robby are both mixed very well and very evenly. Angelo Barbera on bass cuts through perfectly... you really get to hear every note he plays. That makes it easy to enjoy the small bit of his own style he adds to various Doors classics. He's great. The audio is great. The only minor complaint is that the crowd is mixed a little low on the 2.0 mix.
Negatives:
-The Dvd does not contain the whole performance. Alabama Song, Backdoor Man and Five to One were edited for the dvd. Also, Crawling King Snake (a song from the la woman album) was not played at this show. Luckily, you do get to hear part of the D21c's rendition of that classic tune during from a show in Paris last December.
-Lack of bonus footage. There is alot of D21c stuff out there to choose from... all the tv performances (including the never aired 5-1 performance from the Carson Daly show) as well as footage from various other concerts. A commentary track would have been cool too (though we do get interview clips between some of the songs).
Conclusion:
This is a 5 star dvd. If you are capable of accepting the fact that there can be a Doors life after Jim Morrison, you will have a blast watching this disc. Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger are truly gods in rock music and it shows comes through on this disc. They are having the time of their life playing these great songs again. Ian Astbury is equally amazing... stepping into an impossible situation and performing brilliantly. I can easily say that he is the greatest frontman that I've had the pleasure of witnessing live. Finally, lets not forget the perfect rythym section of the group. Ty Dennis plays the classic Doors tunes without flaw- adding his own power and style when he feels it necessary (and that power and style really brings the songs to life). Angelo Barbera on bass takes over for Ray Manzarek's left hand and honestly, he does it better than Ray ever did. There is not one note that sounds out of place- Angelo manages to make his string bass sound identical to Ray's mushy piano bass. Unreal.
Thats it. The pros far outweigh the cons. This is a fantastic dvd. Long live the D21c.

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A Note from The Doors' Ray Manzarek: This is the tour that never was. The tour that was supposed to happen when Jim came back from Paris. The tour that we were all eagerly anticipating. In May or June of 1971, Jim called John from Europe and asked him how LA Woman was doing. John told him it was doing great and that the critics actually loved it, too. Jim was excited and wanted to go on the road as soon as he got back to the States. The two of them even talked about taking the bass player - Jerry Sheff - on the road with the four original Doors to duplicate the sound of the LP. Unfortunately, as we all know, on July 3rd, 1971, Jim leapt upward into the loam to join Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix - and the LA Woman tour never happened. We lost a great friend and a great poet, and we never got to play the songs from LA Woman in a live concert setting. But now, finally, we can bring you LA Woman in its entirety! Robby and I as The Doors of the 21st Century, along with Ian Astbury on lead vocals, Ty Dennis on drums and Angelo Barbera on bass, have recorded the complete album and it is here on this DVD for your insight, pleasure, and discovery - and for our completion. Robby, Ian, and I thank you for Jim. We hope he will be pleased. Songs include: Roadhouse Blues, Break On Through, When The Music's Over, Love Me Two Times, Changeling, L'America, Love Her Madly, Down So Long, Hyacinth House, Cars Hiss By My Window, Texas Radio, Riders On The Storm, LA Woman, Light My Fire, Soul Kitchen.

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Backstage and Dangerous: The Private Rehearsal Review

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(More customer reviews)I am not sure if the previous reviewer was looking for a greatest hits type cd. This live session is for REAL fans only. They don't play a single hit. It was recorded the day after the other two Aquarius shows (with no audience). The band sounds loose and is in a good mood. It is Jim that definitely does not want to be there. He really just says what he feels and sticks it to the record company that is paying for this session (there is a track called "there are 1000's of dollars riding on this day"). It is very funny and I just love it. Again, they don't play any of their hits... so if that is what you are looking for look elsewhere. If you are a die-hard fan looking for a unique recording of one of your favorite bands, buy this cd. Very good sound quality as well.

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Strange Days Review

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(More customer reviews)"Strange Days" was The Doors' sophomore effort, the attempt at bringing back for another round the kind of feverish, poetic magic attained in their classic debut. Few follow-ups have achieved the kind of artistic, sonic accomplishments The Doors got here which is why many consider "Strange Days" their best effort, second only to their first album. Now in light of the 40th anniversary of the band's introduction to the world, Doors engineer Bruce Botnick has taken all their albums and remixed them from the original master tapes, what he achieves here, as with the remastered debut, is a complete resurrection of a classic recording. The album now breathes and screams with fierce energy and detail. The opening title track is now a true gothic opus as the effect of the first synthesizers is better appreciated in Jim Morrison's menacing delivery of a world gone insane. John Densmore's drums are heavy and intense while Ray Manzarek's organ is more defined. "Love Me Two Times" is a ferocious blues rocker with a killer bass now more audible while the creepiness of "Horse Latitudes," a spoken-word piece Morrison wrote in high school, is more striking this time as many of the layered effects are clearer. "Moonlight Drive" has better piano/organ parts. Some purists have been scoffing at the remixing, claiming these are not the same albums. This is a wrong analysis, what Botnick has done is create a more clear, defined piece considering the older recordings suffered from the original technological setbacks of the 60s and in the case of the first album even the speed was off. Solos and instrumentals are easier to hear now and the sound quality is superior to anything previously released. This is the same debate that was sparked in 2002 when "Elvis: 30 #1 Hits" was released and was also bashed for taking the original masters and remixing them. These are the same songs, same vocals, same instrumentals, simply put back together to sound as they were originally intended to sound. "My Eyes Have Seen You For Example" has a sharper bass and piano section. Morrison's voice never plowed under, it is even more ferocious in this mix. The great epic "When The Music's Over" is a glorious powerhouse of musical expression and poetics mixed with rock. Morrison's frantic screams are brought up and Robby Krieger's masterful solo is also more detailed here. The song is a timeless work that is fitting for our current, uncertain times. In it Morrison speaks for a world caught in a war and a youth culture waiting to explode. If only he had known that in the Bush/Iraq era, his words would still be perfect for the times. "Strange Days" itself was originally released in 1968, right when Vietnam was starting to heat-up and more and more young Americans were returning in bodybags as others took to the streets. And yet what sets The Doors apart from other bands of the era is that their music is fitting for all times, all moods, because darkness is an ever present reality. Morrison was ahead of his time, this is more clear now than ever. His black leather-clad image of a wild, poetic frontman has been emulated countless times over, even his stage attitude was a precedent for Iggy Pop and Punk, listen to "Horse Latitudes" and you can see where Patti Smith was spawned. "Strange Days" is one of those great rock n' roll albums that will live on as long as there is music in the world, Jim Morrison will remain an icon for generations of rebels and the sound the Doors produced is set in stone. Now remixed and remastered, this album lives again, more potent, more dangerous than ever.

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STRANGE DAYS, first out in October '67, went to #3 andintroduced the Doors classics "People Are Strange," "Love Me Two Times" and "Strange Days." In-depth liner notes by BarneyHoskyns, co-founder of online rock library Rock's Backpages. Two bonus extras include previously unreleasedversions of "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times."--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Live in Pittsburgh 1970 Review

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(More customer reviews)Another Doors show recorded for the Absolutely Live album makes its appearance from Bright Midnight Records, once again uncut and complete. (Actually, Doors engineer Bruce Botnick notes in the liner notes that a couple of snippets are forever gone, so a portion of Light My Fire has been inserted from the Philadelphia '70 show, as well as another short piece).
Shorter than the previously released shows, this is nonetheless excellent. Unlike the recently released Boston 1970 3-CD set, Morrison is completely with it here, and the band is spot on. The singer becomes more talkative as the show goes on, and the set list is fantastic, a true gem for any Doors fan. This is the first and by far the best recording of the ultra-rare Someday Soon. (The other version, recorded in Seattle weeks later, pales in comparison with a drunk and distant Morrison). This version has appeared before on the bootleg boxset Stages, though it was incorrectly labeled Baltimore, 1970.
Highly recommended for fans new and old. The liner notes and packaging are very nice, in keeping with the fresh job done for the Boston shows. Looks like the bulk of the material recorded for Absolutely Live has been released, with Detroit, Philly, Boston, two Aquarius double-disc sets, and some (but not all) of the Felt Forum material having already appeared over the last decade. A complete set of those four Felt Forum shows are ripe for proper release.
Apparently, no overdubs on this one, either. Just the original tapes, remastered by Botnick, who continues to be involved with every Doors release. Skip the 50th greatest hits package they've put out, and get this instead. Much credit to the band for releasing these shows. Though they still release far too many redundant packages of the studio albums, they finally got to the vaults for the material fans have been asking about for decades. Easily one of their best live albums.

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Recorded on May 2, 1970 at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena duringThe Doors final tour with Jim Morrison as lead vocalist, LIVE INPITTSBURGH captures a spectacular concert performance from thelegendary quartet. A single-disc tour de force, the album featuresover an hour of incendiary energy from Morrison, keyboardist RayManzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger asthey take the audience on an epic musical journey. The powerfulrecording was expertyly mixed and mastered by the Doors longtimeengineer/producer Bruce Botnick, who recorded several showsfrom the band s now-historic 70 tour on multitrack tape for theAbsolutely Live album. Along with classic Doors hits and choicecovers, highlights include Morrison s improvisational riffing duringan exciting 22-plus minute version of When The Music s Over, leading the band into bits of songs they d never played live.

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The Doors - Live in Europe 1968 (1991) Review

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(More customer reviews)Any lack of polish in this production is pretty much due to the available video and film equipment of the day. That said, much of the old camerawork is quite creative and nicely done. In fact, I was riveted to this film from start to finish.
The onstage performances have a beautiful, timeless quality to them. The musicianship of the band comes across very nicely, this being a time before bands had stylists, directors, choreographers, and wardrobe masters.
Just amazing to see how, more than Morrison's charisma, more than any stoned-out vibe, the music itself was the true source of the Doors' power and energy. So seldom do we get to see excellent rock music performed without a lot of record company b***s***. Nobody told the band how to behave onstage, nobody but Jim dictated what he was going to wear, and so on. This footage was a revelation in that way.
To observe, on this DVD, Ray Manzarek hunched over his keyboards, fingering some amazing riffs, is to see a rather amazing illustration of rock performances that were all about THE MUSIC.
An absolute "must" for all Doors fans, and a real treat for fans of west coast rock. Recommended to anyone who has an interest in classic rock or sixties culture.

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Filmed during their 1968 European tour, The Doors are captured in performances in London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. Paul Kantner and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, who shared the bill with The Doors on this tour, narrate this compilation.Track Listing: 1. Light My Fire 2. Love Me Two Times 3. Back Door Man 4. Spanish Caravan 5. Hello, I Love You 6. When the Music's Over 7. Unknown Soldier 8. Light My Fire (II) 9. Five To One 10. Alabama Song

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The Doors - Live In Vancouver 1970 (2CD) Review

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(More customer reviews)Albert King opened for The Doors in Vancouver June 6, 1970, The Doors asked him to jam with them for four blues standards, they were only months away from starting the recording of L.A. Woman in the fall of that year. And from the versions of the songs The Doors played "Live in Vancouver" it seems they already had the blues on their minds.
There was some experimenting going on in Vancouver. The Doors were seemed to be pushing the limits of rock or at least stretching those limits between rock and the blues. At first it sounds like the Vancouver show is more sedate (not sedated) than the Felt Forum shows a few months prior. Upon a closer listening you can see The Doors were going for more of a bluesy feeling than a hard rock sound, and explains why Morrison, in introducing Albert King gives a quick tutorial to the audience about the two main indigenous forms of American music blues and country coming together in rock `n' roll, he`s tipping the audience off as to what they're doing.
The instrumentals in most of the songs highlights the bluesy feeling such as in "5-1" and "Light My Fire." While they didn't change the song substantially, during the instrumental of "Light My Fire" Morrison comes in using "St. James Infirmary" as a starting point and slips in some bucolic, blues tinged imagery from "Porgy and Bess" to highlight the blusier aspects of The Doors usual repertoire "the fish were jumping, and the cotton is high." What band today of the same caliber as The Doors would or could risk such onstage experimentation?
That's not to say The Doors didn't delve into their psychedelic roots they played "When The Music's Over" and an interesting rendition of The End. Early in their career The Doors were interested in dissonance for their experimental journeys, in Vancouver they show that assonance had taken over their experimental interest. The End in Vancouver is a mature rendering of that song, it isn't as frantic as earlier versions, The Doors let it play out like a noir film, Morrison stacking the familiar images upon each other, until the dramatic crashing climax, creating a movie for the mind of the audience.
Albert King played four songs with the band onstage, "Little Red Rooster," "Money," "Rock Me," and "Who Do You Love." King's solos on these songs, like the rest of the CD doesn't display a lot of unnecessary pyrotechnics but is solid playing all the way through.
I've been to a lot of rock concerts and listened have listened to a lot of live albums but none of those seem to have the context or coherence that The Doors were able to imbue into their best shows, and this is one of their best.
These Bright Midnight releases are great for fans like me who didn't have the connections to get bootlegs, or weren't' collectors but still longed to hear the shows they've long heard about. The Bright Midnight releases are like raiding The Doors archives without having to worry about the quality, the sound is crisp and clear. The liner notes give you some background right from The Doors' own pens that's more reliable than second generation legend. "The Doors Live in Vancouver" will make a nice addition to your collection.Jim writes The Doors Examiner.

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The Doors rock the Great White North with this unreleased 1970 concert featuring a guest appearance by blues legend Albert King.Four months into the band's 1970 Roadhouse Blues Tour, The Doors lit up Vancouver like the Northern Lights with an incandescent performance ignited by a rollicking set list, and blues legend Albert King, who sat in for four songs. Rhino and Bright Midnight Archives capture every shining moment with The Doors - Live In Vancouver 1970.

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