Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
A two-part Soundstage concert broadcast on PBS in July 2003.
For more about Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Live in Concert and the Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray release, see the Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on December 31, 2011 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Live in Concert Blu-ray Review
Rock 'n' Roll, Straight from the Bottle, No Ice, No Water, No Chaser
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been playing and releasing recordings since 1976, and
even more astonishing than their longevity is the fact that most members of the band are the same
today as when they first assembled in Gainesville, Florida thirty-five years ago. Even the
occasional solo venture and Petty's brief adventure with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison
and George Harrison under the name "The Traveling Wilburys" failed to deter the band from its
appointed mission, which appears to have been to play old-fashioned rock 'n' roll, solid blues
and country rock for as long as they can stand, shout and move their fingers.
I confess to being only an occasional Heartbreakers fan, collecting the random single and waking
up in particular during the brief career of the Wilburys. But one would have to be deaf and
blind not to be aware of Tom Petty's presence in American popular music of the last quarter of
the 20th Century. If nothing else, the unmistakable twang of his singing voice has a music all its
own (and was once deliciously parodied on SNL, which devoted an entire sketch to an imaginary
conversation between Petty and Bob Dylan, both of whom spoke in unintelligible slurs).
The roughly two-hour concert on this disc, denominated "Episode 1" and "Episode 2", are part of
the Soundstage series presented on PBS by Chicago's local station, WTTW, in partnership with
HD Ready, LLC. Both episodes bear 2003 copyright dates and, as far as I can tell, both are
derived from the same concert, which was part of the first season of the revived Soundstage
series. Both appear to have been broadcast together in July 2003, which was the year after Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The concert was
released in 2005 by Koch Vision on a two-disc DVD set that is now out of print. In 2008, Koch
briefly acquired rights to several Soundstage concerts for Blu-ray, but this title was never
generally available. A few Blu-ray.com members reported finding copies of the Hearbreakers
concert on Blu-ray at Sears, and at least according to Koch's published specifications, the disc included nine bonus tracks.
Image now has the rights to the Soundstage series, and the Heartbreakers concert is the latest of
its releases. The disc may not contain any bonus tracks, but it can be easily found, and it looks
and sounds terrific.
The performers are band leader Tom Petty on lead vocals and guitar; founding member Mike
Campbell on lead guitar and mandolin; founding member Ron Blair on bass and backing vocals;
founding member Benmont Tench on keyboards and backing vocals; Scott Thurston on rhythm
guitar, harmonica, synthesizer and backing vocals; and drummer Steve Ferrone ("our own jet
engine", Petty calls him).
Fans looking for a "greatest hits" style of concert will be disappointed, because many of the
band's most familiar songs are missing, including such standards as "American Girl",
"Breakdown", "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Into the Great Wide Open". Petty
even notes in his brief introduction to some of the songs that they're selections the band doesn't
frequently perform. Still, it's clear from the reactions of fans near the stage that the cameras catch
mouthing the words to every song that true Heartbreakers fans should recognize every "B" side
and lesser-known album filler here. And whatever they're playing, this band pulls out all the
stops.
Some numbers are familiar, though. The Heartbreakers provide Petty with a credible substitute
for the Traveling Wilburys on a rendition of "Handle Me with Care" (though it's hard to
compensate for the absence of Roy Orbison from that vocal collaboration). Their renditions of
"Refugee" and "I Won't Back Down" are, if anything, better than the official recordings. The
wonderful piano solo performed by Tench on "Melinda" is a showstopper.
Other than introducing the band and saying a few words about the songs, Petty doesn't spend
much time talking to the audience. He prefers communicating through music. It's clearly what he
and these players do best.
The complete song list follows:
Episode 1
The 1080i, AVC-encoded image for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live in Concert represents another
fine effort from Image and another solid accomplishment by director Joe Thomas and his
technical crew. Of the Blu-rays from this series I've reviewed so far, this one was notable for
being light on jaggies, aliasing and any hint of artifacts from the interlaced format. Having now
taken screen captures from many of these discs, I've concluded that the style of the performers
can have a substantial impact on the quality of the video image. Some performers need to be in
constant motion. (Ringo Starr is an example.) Tom Petty and the members of his band radiate
energy and intensity, but their motions on stage are economical, so that the energy is expressed
by other means: in their demeanor and, most of all, the music. The less your subject leaps and
gestures, the smoother your image is likely to be. Certainly this is one of the smoothest and
cleanest of the Soundstage discs from Image that I've reviewed.
The lighting is the usual Soundstage illumination that shows the audience as well as the
performers. Black levels and resolved detail are consistently good, and colors are rich and well-saturated.
Despite the fact that the length of these two episodes puts this concert into "double
feature" territory, Image has chosen to release this concert on a BD-25. However, I did not spot
any compression artifacts. It's amazing what a compressionist can achieve when there's less
motion in the frame.
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks for both episodes reflect HD Ready's usual approach to mixing
concerts recorded for Soundstage. The viewer is placed in the position of an audience member
with the sounds of cheering and applause directed to the surrounds, while the band and vocalists
remain spread across the front soundstage, with some degree of presence in the surrounds to
create a sense of space and depth. As with Chris Isaak's band, the
Heartbreakers are considerably smaller than many of the ensembles featured in other Soundstage
programs, but the overall volume of this mix undoubtedly provided a different kind of challenge for the
technical crew. If you can't always pick out the individual instruments from the track, you certainly
get the sense of being overpowered by a hard-driving rock ensemble, which is as it should be. This is a
loud track; so set your volume accordingly. Soundstage and Image Entertainment continue to set
a high standard in simulating the feel of a live performance in the home environment, as much as
such an experience can be reproduced.
(Note: A PCM 2.0 track is also available for all selections.)
As noted above, the Blu-ray announced by Koch in 2008 and then hurriedly sold off at Sears was
supposed to contain numerous bonus tracks, but I do not have a copy to confirm this. None are
included here. For the record, the bonus tracks on the Koch disc are listed as: Down Home Girl;
I'd Like to Love You; Baby; Not Fade Away; Walls; Yer So Bad; Billy the Kid; Like a Diamond
(From The Last DJ Live at the Olympic); Can't Stop the Sun (From The Last DJ Live at the
Olympic).
I stopped going to live concerts a long time ago, but reviewing the Soundstage discs from Image
has made me nostalgic for those days. Then again, as with movie viewing, Blu-ray saves you
travel time, parking problems, high ticket prices, unruly crowds, crowded freeways and every
other inconvenience associated with large-event attendance. Image's affordable releases of the
Soundstage series on Blu-ray give every owner of a Blu-ray player the chance to hear major
artists perform in the comfort of his or her own media room. Buy a ticket to Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers: Live in Concert. The performance and the disc are highly recommended.
Soundstage: Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: Other Editions
