DVD: The Bangles - Return to Bangleonia
Label: Shout! Factory
Released: August 14, 2007
I've always loved the Bangles. Even the big sellout of Different Light still had the sweet harmonies and sixties jangle that I loved in their days in the Paisley Underground. I don't operate under the illusion that bands often recapture their prime when reuniting, but I did expect an energetic show and an enthusiastic crowd for this 2000 set at Hollywood's House of Blues. I got some of the former and none of the latter.
Part of the joy of a good live performance is drawn from the vicarious energy of the fans lucky enough to be there. Without that energy and its interaction with the band, there's really no point to a live recording. That's the biggest problem with this DVD. Most of the fan noise is filtered out, even between songs. That's just half the crime though. It really doesn't appear as though the crowd had much to offer anyway with only a few hands in the air for "Walk Like an Egyptian" and little other response. It looks like a crowd at the theater, not a rock show.
With little energy from the crowd, the Bangles are only partially culpable for a lack of excitement in their performance. Still, great bands rise above adversity and the Bangles aren't fully able to do that. Things don't get off to a good start with their cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter." One of the several fine covers from their prime, the song, Vicki Peterson's guitar leads in particular, drags as though they're unsure of themselves. By "If She Knew What She Wants," the band is in better form and they manage a soild if unspectacular performance. To their credit, they play five new songs that would ultimately end up on Doll Revolution (still three years away at the time of this show) rather than playing it completely safe with the material from their two biggest and least personally creative records. While they did pull three songs from All Over the Place (including "Hero Takes a Fall," which may be their best tune), I would have gladly traded "Angels Don't Fall in Love" (from Different Light) and "Get the Girl" (from the Austin Powers soundtrack) for "James" and "Dover Beach." Still, at least they kept the contributions form Everything to a minimum and threw in a solid cover of the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard." So, the set list was decent, but not perfect and once they got going, the did justice to the songs I love.
Return to Bangleonia showed me what I always suspected was true: The Bangles are merely a good, not great, band, no matter how much I love their music. Still, the songs sound good all these years later. It makes me wonder why the crowd was so dull. With a little help, the performance may have come across much stronger. It also makes me wonder why anyone would go to the House of Blues. It's not a venue that's conducive to fan participation and energy, so why not just stay home and listen to records?
Rating: 6/10
posted by bob_vinyl at 7:43 AM
9 Comments:
I totally disagree with you. The DVD is great. The audience was quiet, but that is not The Bangles fault. They played great songs, although they weren't your favourites, the girls feel comfortable singing them. For me your review is completely dull and nonsense. At last a live DVD to enjoy, sing and dance!
This comment has been removed by the author.
Angel - Thanks for stopping by. While you may have found my review to be dull, I'm pretty sure it makes sense.
I get the impression that it didn't take much for the Bangles to impress you. The band is somewhat to blame for a lifeless crowd. If they can't energize their fans, what's the point? You can enjoy and sing and dance to the studio albums (albeit without that Seeds cover), so what more do we get from the DVD? Mind you, I enjoyed it, but it was because the songs are still good, not because the performance enhanced them.
I also disagree with you on everything you've said. How can you love their music when you "like" only one or two songs from each album? What you see on the live DVD, and what FANS that love their music see goes beyond black & white.
Gel-man - I never said I only liked one or two songs from each album. I did say that I would have chosen a few different songs. Every band has songs in their catalog that are better than others and I simply liked a few that they didn't play more than a few that they did.
You'll have to clue me about what was "back & white" in my review, because it's actually quite balanced. I think you would prefer that I blindly loved the DVD, which would ignore the fact that it wasn't as good as I'd hoped from a band that I've liked for almost 25 years. That would be the black & white approach. The reality is that there is some good and some bad on this DVD and I was simply honest about it.
I also have to disagree, the crowd was definitely lively at the concert, I was at the show in Los Angeles when it was filmed and the energy is there, maybe just not evident on the release. It was absolutely great fun and you had to be there.
V
I would like to point out that a lot of the concert is cut, like the energetic I'm not talking, two other songs, parts of two songs, and some of the banter. It was orginally 90 minutes, but they cut almost 20 minutes out. Perhaps thats why the crowd appears dull, the better parts are probably cut.
Anon- Thanks for the comment. That's a great insight into what perhaps went wrong with the DVD. It's a shame, because most of my criticisms have to do with the high hopes I had for this.
I too always dug The Bangles...they were a bridge band for me when I was told to expand my horizons in the school newspaper or lose my all-metal column, and so I flocked to The Bangles and fell in love with them, so I'll reserve judgment until I actually see this footage...but Bob, you're definitely taking one on the chin!
Post a Comment
<< Home