“Jane’s Addiction: Live Voodoo” Blu-ray Review
In 2009, Jane’s Addiction spooked up a musical celebration on Halloween Night at the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans. On August 31, Eagle Rock will capture their one-of-a-kind concert experience on their first ever live DVD and Blu-ray: Live Voodoo. Conquering the hard rock world in the late eighties / early nineties, Jane’s Addiction created a landscape that many alternative rock bands would follow, such as Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine. Formed after a meeting of the minds between Farrell and Avery, the band started a buzz in LA after the addition of Navarro and Perkins. In 2010, with over 7 million albums sold in the US alone, Jane’s Addiction is still regarded as a pop culture tour-de-force. Live Voodoo brings their supreme and inimitable live experience home.
Synopsis
Live Voodoo features the original Jane’s Addiction line-up – guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery, drummer Stephen Perkins, and enigmatic frontman Perry Farrell – enjoying a glorious reunification. They carry the crowd through 13 cuts, predominantly culled from their first two albums. The band stirs up some voodoo of their own, buoyed by the mesmerizing magic of Farrell’s unmatched stage presence, and Navarro’s hyper-charged and heavy riffage. Roused to a riotous climax, the stage is invaded by a singing, dancing and costumed mass of fans in pure punk rock fashion. In addition to the New Orleans show, the DVD and Blu-ray feature bonus footage from LA gigs in 2008, a photo gallery, and a featurette from NME.
Jane’s Addiction has long been a staple of rock radio for decades now and nary a listener of their local rock station hasn’t heard some of their more infections songs (most notably “Jane Says,” which is of course included here). Any of you now turning to YouTube to witness some of that old 80’s and 90s rock again for yourselves, be forewarned: Jane’s Addiction made some weird ass music videos. I just personally got done watching the video for “Been Caught Stealing,” and now wish I’d just rewatched their performance on the concert instead. I will say that the acoustic performance of “Jane Says” was probably one of the more surprising and quite frankly the best part of the concert—with all the fans on stage and the band members clearing enjoying the brief reunion. Even if that one dude dressed up appears to have been texting someone on his phone instead of dancing and paying attention to Farrell right in front of him.
I was quite blown away by how great the band members looked. Aside from Farrell’s strange glittering jump suit, he looked in surprising good health—which really goes for everyone as well, including the apparently ageless Dave Navarro who has looked the same for the last decade. Despite never being a huge fan of the band, I was really entertained by the entirety of this concert and was rather bummed when it ended after only an hour and a half.
The full track list for this concert includes:
1.) Up The Beach
2.) Mountain Song
3.) Ain’t No Right
4.) Three Days
5.) Whores
6.) Then She Did…
7.) Been Caught Stealing
8.) Ocean Size
9.) Ted, Just Admit It
10.) Summertime Rolls
11.) Stop!
12.) Jane Says
13.) Chip Away
Overall it’s a Recommended disc for fans of the band as well as fans of the 80s and 90s rock music scene as it’s a nice blast from the past.
The Blu-ray
Eagle Rock Entertainment brings Jane’s Addiction – Live Voodoo to Blu-ray in a standard Elite Blu-ray case. A booklet inside contains information and photos from the concert as well as information about the group and this particular production. The menu system for the disc lays out everything in a nice and tidy fashion. There are even a few extras to check out as well.
The video arrives in an AVC encoded 1080i transfer and the concert itself is oddly…compressed and blurry most of the time. There is a lot of smoke and lighting effects on stage so that can account for the blurriness, but considering the concert isn’t even that long you’d think they would’ve relaxed on the compression to reduce the blocking…unless this is as good as it ever looked, in which case I guess I’ll take what I can get. It was by no means a terrible transfer, but it was definitely one of the more disappointing and most soft looking transfers I’ve seen from Eagle Rock in a long time. As is usual with Eagle Rock releases, the concert itself boasts three audio tracks as well, a DTS-HD MA, DD5.1 and a PCM track. All three have their merits, but it’s the DTS-HD that is the king of the listing here, as it has a nice spread about the room and represents the individual musical styling’s remarkably well.
Extras include a pair of songs of live tracks from 2008 (“1%” and “Ocean Size”). Also included is a NME Featurette and Photo Gallery. Not the most packed release there ever was, but at least it’s something.
Overall a Recommended release for fans. Newcomers will want to stick with a rental.
Jane’s Addiction – Live Voodoo is now available on Blu-ray.