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Psychedelic Furs - Live from the House of Blues

Psychedelic Furs - Live from the House of Blues

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $22.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Flawless!
Review: A previous reviewer must have been watching a different concert than I was. It is a peerless performance all around. Richard Butler has a stage presence that is spellbinding, and I couldn't take my eyes off him. The overall quality is flawless. It only gets better with repeated viewings. A must-have if you're a fan of their music.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great concert, good dvd
Review: I agree that the sound could be a little better in places, but all in all this is a good dvd. The song selection is pretty decent, although my favorites tend to be from their first two and last two albums, not much else in between. I actually think Jon's guitar sounds better than on some of the albums. They could have done without the keyboard sounds, but that's my opinion.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent show, great DVD
Review: I had the good fortune of attending this show, and the DVD was like a time machine taking me right back to the House of Blues. It was an all around excellent performance. The stand out element would have to be the energy and style of frontman Richard Butler, who still has one of the best voices of any old/new school Alternative act. The song list is nothing less than awesome for a Psychedelic Furs fan: Love My Way, Heaven, Pretty In Pink, Dumb Waiters, Sister Europe, Heartbreak Beat and so on.......The DVD is first rate; the sound is good with a ton of bass that is tight and deep. The picture is super clear with no flaws. And you actually get some extras: Artist Profile explaining the band's history with the band interviews, a song commentary, Foundation Room acoustic performances with three songs: Love My Way, Wrong Train and Cigarette. The last extra is a Trivia Game. A great show and DVD from a band that still manages to retain its dignity and respect in a pop-culture wasteland of corporate Alternative, corporate radio and corporate MTV.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Horrible Mix
Review: I know that it is a challenge to get music DVD's to sound good playing them on a PC. You have too many factors like the software DVD processing, soundcard processing and a lack of proper bass-management to send the right signal to the speakers. BUT alot of DVD's sound great on my PC played through Philips Acoustic Edge 5.1 soundcard and Klipsch Promedia 5.1 THX speakers...this one DOES NOT.

Plus the style of music and the voice of the singer is the type that most people (including me) can't take in large doses. I was weary by the end of the 3rd song.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No surprise, a wonderful performance.
Review: I too had the good fortune to see the Furs on this tour, several times in fact, and this video really captures them in all their power. Granted the sound quality of the disc is fair at best but as to their "unrehearsed, sloppy performance" I would suggest that the Mountain View reviewer missed, or perhaps never got, the heart of what the Furs are all about. The Furs have always been, and continue to be, a band of deep emotion with strong punk roots. Remarkably, they remain as fresh and vital in 2001 as they were when I first saw them in 1981 and continue to hit the chord of a band with a deep soul. Unfortunately, all but one of the new songs showcased on this tour were omitted from this disc, a real mistake in my opinion. Despite that, this DVD is proof that the Furs talent and influence are one of the best-kept secrets in music. This DVD should be in the collection of any lover of music of substance.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: You Should Have Been There
Review: I was actually in attendance at one of the two Los Angeles House of Blues shows that comprise the material on this DVD, and I have to say I am less than impressed with the finished product. First of all, rock and roll shows should never be captured on video if it can be avoided. We have all seen so many great FILMED concerts, that this just looks flat to me. The Furs cheaped out this time and it shows.

Second, as others have stated, the sound quality plain out sucks. I was at this show, and I really enjoyed their performance, so I am doubly disappointed that I have to compare my memories of such a great rock show with this inferior product. The sound levels abruptly rise and fall more often than the stock market, and Richard Butler sings so far behind the beat that it is distracting.

I do have to give them credit for choosing to play some of the more obscure songs off earlier albums, and there are some songs that they do justice to like "Pretty in Pink," but overall I can't sit thru this thing without cringing. Skip the disc and just see 'em live. Better luck next time guys.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: You Should Have Been There
Review: I was actually in attendance at one of the two Los Angeles House of Blues shows that comprise the material on this DVD, and I have to say I am less than impressed with the finished product. First of all, rock and roll shows should never be captured on video if it can be avoided. We have all seen so many great FILMED concerts, that this just looks flat to me. The Furs cheaped out this time and it shows.

Second, as others have stated, the sound quality plain out sucks. I was at this show, and I really enjoyed their performance, so I am doubly disappointed that I have to compare my memories of such a great rock show with this inferior product. The sound levels abruptly rise and fall more often than the stock market, and Richard Butler sings so far behind the beat that it is distracting.

I do have to give them credit for choosing to play some of the more obscure songs off earlier albums, and there are some songs that they do justice to like "Pretty in Pink," but overall I can't sit thru this thing without cringing. Skip the disc and just see 'em live. Better luck next time guys.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absoulutely incredible performance!!
Review: I was fortunate enough to have attended this show earlier this year and have been eagerly awaiting the DVD. I already saw the recorded performance on DirecTV for free but I'm still getting the DVD as it is currently impossible to record the pristine sattelite picture onto ... videotape. And besides, the money spent is more than worth it.
Richard Butler is clearly one of the great performers of our time and here he is in top form. He clearly appears to be savoring in the moment. Nothing nostalgic about this performance either. The music sounds just as fresh and immediate now as it did almost 20 years ago. A testament as to just how ahead of their time they truly were. I wholeheartedly recommend it to any newer fan or any younger people who wonder where the magic and aura of performing has gone in this "nu-metal-corporate alternative-thug rapper era" we find ourselves in. If only we still had rock performers with a presence that is sheer cool rather than menacing and intimidating. Richard Butler is just that and then some...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: INCREDIBLE SHOW!!!
Review: I'm not sure what show the reviewer (Average Only) saw, but the one on this DVD is "INCREDIBLE". Being quite a DVD concert fan , I can honestly tell you this is one the best performances I have ever seen. The picture quality and the way it was shot is unsurpassed. The sound is awesome in 5.1 or DTS. I was never much of a "Furs" fan when they were popular, but have grown to appreciate them in latter years, this show "made" me a die hard fan. These guys have come back in a BIG way. Just buy it, you wont regret it...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Into You Like A Train
Review: The power and elegance of Richard Butler and gang on this recording make for easily one of the most entertaining offerings of 2001. The set is beautiful, with soothing, mysterious lights, colors and images that provide a subtle background for the band -the band that is unequivocally keeping rock "alive." The sound is full and multilayered - the musicians, flawless. The Furs' addictive new single, by the way, renders attempts by other bands played on the radio (namely the one that uses the line 'I feel so alive, for the very first time') hopelessly futile and annoying.

This DVD provides a nice collection of classic Fur tunes and new singles, all performed with an excitement and energy not seen in most concerts by most bands these days. The Furs are not some eighties rehab band. They are presently a strong, vibrant rock band that deftly creates music that opens the mind and feeds the soul. They are more forward-looking and 'progressive' than the <change-the-bongwater, twenty-something MTV drones> calling themselves rockers today.

Why is it so difficult for bands these days to achieve even a small percentage of the quality of The Psychedelic Furs? When Fur fans are asked, "Why are you only listening to bands that were around in the eighties" what comes to mind is that those who survived the eighties and then have gone on to become truly accomplished musicians blow away the garbage we hear every day on the radio. We just want good quality music, like the music on this recording; played by musicians who not only know what they are doing, but do it with pride and happiness.

Am I getting older and sounding a little like my parents when I castigate so much 'modern music?' Surely. But just give me the integrity, intelligence, and musical mastery of bands like The Furs and I'll give it a listen any day.

Look for releases by Butler and Furs in the future. Freshness and mastery can go hand-in-hand. This guy proves it like no other.


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