The Long Road Home - The Concert [DVD] | Live Music Performance | Perfect for Home Entertainment & Music Lovers

This is an absolute MUST-HAVE for anyone who has spent the past thirty-five years enjoying CCR (and Fogerty's post-Credence work), while watching so many of their other favorite musicians grow old (or dead).Make no mistake, this performance is NOT a "Revival Reunion".No other CCR members participate here (we lost John's brother, Tom, back in 1990; Doug & Stu have been touring as Credence Clearwater Revisited).That's okay. The original band's show wasn't particularly high-energy even back in the '70s, consisting mainly of John moving from one part of the stage to another to stand flatfooted and sing up at the microphone (just like Willie would have, down there on the corner), while almost casually pulling an incredible repertoire of sounds out of whatever guitar he was playing at the time. The rest of the band hardly mattered; they were all competent, but he could just as easily have hired local musicians for his "travelin' band".Fogerty's current ensemble (a couple of whom bear an almost eerie resemblance to original CCR members) is similarly competent (although noticeably tighter than Credence was in live shows) and they find themselves similarly upstaged. Of course, that doesn't matter to professionals, and I'm sure it wouldn't have been an issue for the other "Poor Boys" either if they weren't all supposed to be partners with equal stakes in the music.So what's new? Practically nothing, except that John's singing, playing, and energy level have all increased dramatically as he got older. He still has his same stage mannerisms, but they're more animated, now that he's entered his second childhood. Which is a pretty accurate description of Fogerty's style. He acts as though it's Christmas morning and he just got all those guitars from Santa. Wow! Look at this! Watch me do this! John looks like he's having so much fun onstage that even his songs filled with pathos (and he's a master of those) make you wanna dance.All of which is beautifully captured by producer James Pluta and Martyn Atkins, director. The basis for the DVD was a concert held September 15, 2005 at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Once a movie house at the corner of WILshire Blvd and WesTERN Ave. it was converted to a show theater in 2002. It maintains its old look, though, and makes a perfect venue for presenting artists whose success have made them stadium-style acts in the sort of up-close-and-personal atmosphere that allows an audience to experience them as they were when they first became so popular. In Fogerty's case, a theater like the Wiltern would once have seemed a step up from an Oakland street corner.There are some who might be a little put off by the fades between the songs, like tracks on an album rather than like a continuous concert performance, but that's because it probably wasn't a continuous performance. Although superficially documentary in style, the DVD really is a collection of John Fogerty performing his best works. It happens that John's best performances are in front of live people. And it also happens that entertaining a house full of live people often requires a different line up of songs than what you want for the best DVD. So, although all the "cuts on the album" originate from the Wiltern Theatre concert(s?), there is no between-song banter, no backstage goofing around, none of the roadies load-in/setup/soundcheck footage that always finds its way into rock concert documentaries. Just individual live performances that are as good or better as anyone has ever seen them. Captured forever. Thanks, Jim and Marty!In the liner notes, only five lines are given for the filming credits, while the sound recording credits include post-production, remixing, and mastering which shows how important getting the sound right was. And it shows. You wanna crank the ol' surround sound up to just below speaker-protection level for this baby. Every instrument is recorded clear and bright and you can hear Fogerty's every rasp. And every note that he bends and plays with until that exact moment when he feels like hitting it square. Who says white boys can't sing blues? Fogerty shows that SOME old white men can do it just as well as some old black men.You know all those DVDs (and VHS tapes, too. Go on - admit it) of all those concerts that are up in your closet providing a home for your collection of dust balls and house spiders?Well, this one isn't likely to end up among them.