Blues Traveler - Live Thinnest Of Air
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Blues Traveler - Live Thinnest Of Air
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Thinnest Of Air captures Blues Traveler at their annual 4th of July show at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, in Morrison, Colorado. This has been a tradition for the band, and their fans, for over ten years now. This is a documentary style concert DVD, and features loads of behind the scenes footage interspersed throughout the song performances. One the bad side, there is no "concert only" option, which would skip over all of the behind the scenes stuff, but, all of the behind the scenes segments are each assigned their own chapter, which makes it easier to skip past them and get right to the song performances. I was only a mild Blues Traveler fan before purchasing this DVD, and still remain so after viewing it a few times. To begin with, I was never a huge fan of the whole "jam band" style. I can barely tolerate the Grateful Dead, I enjoy the Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule, and Phish has some decent stuff, but I certainly don't go out of my way too often to listen to this type of music. Blues Traveler are one of the better jam bands around, and they have their own distinctive sound - thanks to the virtuoso harmonica playing of John Popper. In fact, Popper really is Blues Traveler. His vocals are powerful and unique, and his harmonica playing is phenomenal. I think that any of the other band members, even Chan Kinchla, could be replaced and the band would not skip a beat. Clocking in at well over three hours, and featuring 25 songs spread over two disks, this is one hell of a long DVD. Damn jam bands! They do give you your money's worth though. Blues Traveler's most recent album, Truth Be Told, gets the most play here with seven songs, and each of their earlier albums are represented by at least two songs. Most of the fan favorites are covered with two notable exceptions, "Runaround", and "But Anyway". The backstage footage showed how they choose teach night's setlist, from a master list of all of their songs, and how each show can vary drastically from the next. The behind the scenes stuff was mostly very entertaining, but they definitely showed way too much of Popper, half naked in his hotel room bed, chain smoking, and looking like a slob. He lost a ton of weight recently, but believe me, he's got some serious toning up to do. Ben Wilson and Tad Kinchla getting pedicures together, at a Korean nail salon, was pretty funny. The DVD begins with the band arriving at the amphitheater, and then some pre-show, backstage footage follows. The band takes the stage at dusk and the footage of the venue and surrounding scenery is simply stunning. Seeing a concert at Red Rocks has now been added to my "must do before I die" list. The outstanding camera work only adds to this fantastic viewing experience. Slow, sweeping camera shots, with ample wide angle shots of the entire stage and venue are expertly used. The audio and video quality were both spectacular as well. Crisp DTS and Dolby 5.1 surround sound, with deep bass and excellent instrument separation. The colors of the light show and the Red Rocks landscape looked wonderful, and the widescreen picture was sharp and clear. The concert got off to a good start with a rocking version of "Carolina Blues", one of my favorites from the Straight On Till Morning album. For the third song, they brought out the show opener, Ziggy Marley, to lend his voice to his father's classic, "No Woman, No Cry". Popper totally lost himself in the song, and he and Marley made this one of the show highlights. Being the 4th of July, the band played the "Star Spangled Banner", as darkness fell, and the fireworks show began. The other show highlight was a fiery performance of "Crash Burn", which closed the second set, and had the crowd frantically screaming for more - even after more than two hours of jamming. Overall, I found most of the live versions of their songs to be inferior to the studio versions. They were often at a slower tempo, and just sounded more tame than the originals. It should be the exact opposite of this. Blues Traveler has a lot of great songs, but they also have a lot of very mediocre songs, and these tended to drag the show down. For a nearly three hour concert, I found myself being desperately bored during some of it. I am an amateur guitarist, and usually focus mostly on the guitar player when watching a concert. I found Chan Kinchla's guitar playing to be very repetitive, and uninspiring. Some of his solos were pretty good, but his rhythm guitar is almost a non-factor. He doesn't fill out the songs as much as he should, leaving them often sounding very thin. If you are already a Blues Traveler fan, you will certainly love this DVD. If you are new to the band, it is definitely worth checking out. Just be prepared for some jamming my friends. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - December 2004 |
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Running Time: 196 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - November 2003 |