The Doobie Brothers: Live At Wolf Trap Review

Tornado Red
Tornado Red Posts: 939
edited June 2013 in Music & Movies
For anyone who’s a concert blu-ray collector like myself, or just a Doobies fan, I’ll try to give my take of their Live At Wolf Trap BD that came out today. Recorded at Wolf Trap Performing Arts in Virginia, 2004. Most of the notable characters are present, but no Michael MacDonald which, on a personal note, was fine with me. It’s a 23 song set, the lack of White Sun the only song I really missed. The first song is Rockin’ Down The Highway with the intro being a motorcycle running through the 5.1 system at random, very cool.

So just a little about the sound and video: both are stellar. Concerts on blu-ray I find to be hit or miss, mostly miss actually, when it comes to the video presentation. Many are set up with the live audience in mind, and sometimes don’t come off well to the camera’s eye (the dreaded “stage bathed in blue light” comes to mind). This one is certainly nothing like that, the stage is very well lit and I found the PQ to be excellent on my Panny plasma. One more thing about the video portion; the editing is well done, and you don’t have to watch through a stroke inducing camera change every 1.5 seconds.

The sound is also top notch. 11 in the band that night in all, including 3 in the horn section. The guitar work is just phenomenal, and the LFE gets a nice workout with the kick drum and bass guitar. Harmonies on “Black Water” are as great as I remember and are reproduced here flawlessly. Sound options are a default LPCM stereo track and an awesome DTS-MA 5.1 track.

Rare to find a concert with video AND audio both this good. Lots of interviews as well. Eagle Rock does a good job, mostly, with concert BDs and this is certainly one of their better ones, even though it was delayed a couple of times. Also available in DVD, btw. I paid $14.99 in Canada for it today, I consider it “well bought”. Hope this might help someone who’s interested :cheesygrin:
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Comments

  • muncybob
    muncybob Posts: 3,228
    edited June 2013
    Nice write up. $15.85 at Amazon for me, think I just found my belated birthday gift to myslef :)
    Yep, my name really is Bob.
    Parasound HCA1500A(indoor sound) and HCA1000(outdoor sound), Dynaco PAS4, Denon DP1200 w/Shure V15 Type V and Jico SAS stylus, Marantz UD7007, Polk L600, Rythmik L12 sub.
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  • decal
    decal Posts: 3,205
    edited June 2013
    Most of the notable characters are present, but no Michael MacDonald which, on a personal note, was fine with me.

    I agree wholeheartedly with you on that. IMHO, McDonald was the worst thing to ever happen to the DBs.
    If you can't hear a difference, don't waste your money.
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  • Tornado Red
    Tornado Red Posts: 939
    edited June 2013
    decal wrote: »
    I agree wholeheartedly with you on that. IMHO, McDonald was the worst thing to ever happen to the DBs.

    For sure. Not that I dislike him, but with their R&B/Rock sound, he just never seemed to be a good "fit" IMO. Kinda like if Kenny Rogers sat in with Muse :cheesygrin:

    A small thing about this BD: 3-4 songs seem to have a small PiP with a band member on the bottom left of the screen at the songs onset. I believe a previous DVD release had this and it was "clickable" to hear them talk about the song. It didn't seem to function and would disappear after a few seconds. I was so busy enjoying things that I didn't spend much time with it, I may play with the Oppo some tonight and see if I can make it work.
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,545
    edited June 2013
    Thanks Red, I'm on this like a fat kid on a cupcake.
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Source: Rotel CD14MkII CD Player - Speakers: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • vmaxer
    vmaxer Posts: 5,120
    edited June 2013
    Sounds good, I am also a fan of concert DVD's.
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  • Tornado Red
    Tornado Red Posts: 939
    edited June 2013
    Tornado Red wrote: »
    For sure. Not that I dislike him, but with their R&B/Rock sound, he just never seemed to be a good "fit" IMO. Kinda like if Kenny Rogers sat in with Muse :cheesygrin:

    A small thing about this BD: 3-4 songs seem to have a small PiP with a band member on the bottom left of the screen at the songs onset. I believe a previous DVD release had this and it was "clickable" to hear them talk about the song. It didn't seem to function and would disappear after a few seconds. I was so busy enjoying things that I didn't spend much time with it, I may play with the Oppo some tonight and see if I can make it work.[/QUOTE]

    Ah ha. Seems the PiP is accessed via your pop up menu, giving you a little background to the song...don't know why they wouldn't include that as an instruction someplace in the packaging or on the disc instead of forcing a mindless dork like myself to meander through the remote for half an hour:rolleyes:
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