DVDs & BluRays

This is part 3 of a 4 part piece I am writing, inspired by a pair of Smashing Pumpkins concerts and a DVD documentary. As you may or may not know, I am a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, I always appreciate their work. I feel the need to preface this piece by saying that as it will give you an insight into the context of my commentary.

It's been something of a Smashing Pumpkins month for me. In addition to back to back concert events, I also picked up a copy of the band's most recent DVD release: If All Goes Wrong.

There's been a number of amazing concert tours in the past few years... many of which I was lucky enough to attend. Certainly up near the top of the ones I wish I could have seen is the Zappa Plays Zappa tour. Critically acclaimed, this project was the brain child of one Dweezil Zappa, who put together an amazing band, complete with a few special guests, to tour performing the music of his late father, Frank Zappa. Having not been able to see Frank when he was still performing, I thought this was a really cool idea and was looking forward to catching a show.

Way back in July, I was lucky enough to attend the 2007 Crossroads guitar festival, held right here in the Chicagoland area. Just recently, I finally got the check out the DVD release to commemorate this unique concert event. There were tons of great performances that day, so I've been looking forward to viewing this DVD for a while now and seeing what songs/artists/collaborations were chosen and how the footage looks.

For the past few days I've had the pleasure of screening part two of the new The Song Remains the Same release. I was pretty excited about finally seeing the film to go with the soundtrack and the bonuses certainly sweeten the deal a little.

A while ago, during the first months (I think it was that long ago) the Soul of Rock 'n' Roll was live, I shared a clip of Bob Dylan doing a duet version of "Girl From the North Country" with Johnny Cash. That was a clip from the Johnny Cash TV Show and was actually one of the first times I heard about this aspect of Cash's career. Running from 1969 to 1971 and hosted by Johnny Cash himself, the show featured a variety of musical performances, small comedy sketches and more.

Some bands have a serious shortage of concert footage in their catalog while others have a multitude available for their fans. Take the Rolling Stones... they've been performing now for 40+ years, which has resulted in a lot of concert footage, and recently they have made a point to release entire concerts from their recent world tours. Just the other day I got the chance to check out the latest DVD set, The Biggest Bang, from the band of "no farewell tours" and I thought I'd write a review.