Audioslave - Live In Cuba
Performance
Production
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Audioslave - Live In Cuba
Performance
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Billed as "the first American rock band to play a concert in Cuba", Audioslave greeted nearly 70,000 elated Cuban's at the Anti-Imperialist Plaza in Havana on May 6th, 2005. This whole "only band to ever play Cuba" claim is not entirely accurate though, since, although not really "rock bands", Billy Joel and Bonnie Raitt have both played Cuba in the past - albeit in much smaller, heavily controlled, indoor shows, which paled in comparison to this monstrous outdoor event. Although the band never got to meet him, I wonder if Castro was watching in the wings from some air conditioned perch along the plaza, singing along to "Sleep Now In The Fire" while sucking on a big fat Cohiba Esplendido. I'm sure he loved those Rage Against The Machine dudes. The fact that this performance was so historic and provided the first concert DVD from this celebrated new supergroup makes all of the problems with this DVD that much more disappointing. First of all, the only audio track provided is PCM stereo? Didn't the circumstances warrant a DTS surround mix, or at least Dolby Digital? I seriously doubt Audioslave had any major budgetary constraints for this project, so it was probably due to a rush to get the thing released, considering that the performance was in May of this year. I could have waited a few extra months. Secondly, the video quality was very hit and miss, with too many out of focus shots, and unless you like seeing a different camera angle every two seconds, the camera direction sucked. Finally, and most importantly, Chris Cornell's performance was downright embarrassing. I was never fortunate enough to see Soundgarden in concert during their all too brief reign, and this is the only Audioslave performance I have seen so far, so I don't know if this was just an off night for Cornell. I hope it was for the future of the band. On record, Cornell's voice is the epitome of power and passion, but this night he was terribly strained, pitchy, and off key. As a frontman to one of the most dynamic new rock bands in the world, he was simply missing in action. I was stunned at how lethargic and tranquilized he appeared - just staring blankly out into the crowd, with this strange dazed and paranoid look in his eyes most of the time. He appears to be pretty healthy and sober these days so I'm curious for an explanation. The rest of the band simply killed as they always have. They obviously knew what was at stake this night, and poured everything they had into the performance. Tom Morello continues to impress me more and more every time I see him. His funk-rock riffs, scorching solos, and quirky sound affects provide one of the most unique guitar experiences you will ever hear. Commerford and Wilk laid down some tight and powerful rhythms, which had the crowd grooving non-stop. The setlist was an even split between songs from the new Out Of Exile album and their debut. They also performed three Soundgarden classics "Spoonman", "Outshined", and "Black Hole Sun", the later being performed by Cornell on solo acoustic guitar. Although his guitar playing was admirable, it sounded like he had forgot how to sing the song. What little he did remember was stiff and soulless. "Spoonman" fared even worse, although the band managed to inject some fire into the original. Fortunately Cornell made up for these two missteps a little later with a nice performance on the great "Outshined". Half way through the show, Cornell took a break while the band proceeded to blow away the crowd with a knockout instrumental version of the Rage Against The Machine anthem " Bulls on Parade". They then made the mistake of allowing Cornell to join them on Rage's "Sleep Now In The Fire", which he ruined with his half-assed attempt to semi-imitate Zack de la Rocha. Believe me when I say it just didn't work. They should have done an instrumental medley of Rage classics instead. There is enough good things about this DVD to make it worth getting. With only two albums under their belt so far, Audioslave already have a ton of great songs in their arsenal. Every song played here was impressive. When Cornell wasn't screaming his way through most of the heavier songs he came through on most of the ballads especially "Like A Stone", "Be Yourself", and "Shadow On The Sun". The show finished strongly with Cornell playing "I Am The Highway" on solo acoustic as the band joined in a few minutes later to really kick it into overdrive. This was followed by killer performances of two classics from their debut album, "Show Me How To Live" and "Cochise", which were just made to be performed in front of 70,000 screaming fans. This DVD comes in both deluxe and regular additions. Get the deluxe edition since it is only a few dollars more but includes four extra song performances and a bonus CD. The special features include what is called the "TV Version" which is a 22 minute piece produced for television, which contains five song performances intermixed with behind the scenes footage in Cuba. An excellent 37-minute documentary that provides a fascinating look into the history, culture, and people of Cuba is also a highlight. Thankfully the band didn't inject too much of their Marxist loving politics into the proceedings, although their enamor with Che Guevara was made more than obvious numerous times. If you can manage to not be too distracted by Cornell's performance, then this DVD is certainly worth your time. Hopefully they get things right the next time around. Hell, even the mighty Led Zeppelin had their Song Remains The Same. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - November 2005 |
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Set List |
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Running Time: 91 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - October 2005 |