Dom Robinson reviews
REO Speedwagon: Live in the Heartland
Distributed by
Essential/Cooking Vinyl
DVD: 
CD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 94 minutes
- Cat no: SOUND003
- Year: 2008
- Pressing: 2008
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 18 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 16:9
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £14.99
- Extras:
Interview, 2 Extra Songs
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Director:
Producer:
The Band:
Kevin Cronin: lead vocals/rhythm guitar/piano
Neal Doughty: Keyboards
Bruce Hall: Bass/Vocals
Dave Amato: Lead Guitar/Vocals
Bryan Hitt: Drums and Percussion
Growing up with the pop and rock music from the '80s being my musical background, REO Speedwagon
were always seen by me as one of those classic stadium acts from that era, pumping out good quality tunes.
That said, they only had three hits in the UK, and while their two biggest hits, Keep On Loving You and Can't Fight
This Feeling got to the top slot in the US, over here they respectively attained No.7 (April 1981) and No.16 (March 1985),
while inbetween saw a No.19 for another favourite of mine, Take It On The Run (June 1981).
Performing for the American live concert TV series 'Soundstage', the band perform 16 songs from their repetoire over the years,
and with a line-up that has changed a number of times - something that happens to all great bands, especially a band that are
now celebrating 35 years in the business, the DVD includes the aforementioned US No.1s as well as hits from their latest
album, Find Your Own Way Home.
Kevin Cronin certainly makes for a great showman and in this concert, I found the best tracks are Find Your Own Way Home,
which has a classic '80s feel - which really works for me, even though it's a recent track from last year, Take It On The Run,
Keep Pushin', Can't Fight This Feeling, Time For Me To Fly, Keep On Loving You, Ridin' The Storm Out, Golden Country and
the finale, 157 Riverside Avenue. There are a few fillers along the way, such as Dangerous Combination, but this
is still a worthy purchase for big fans and well worth a rental for anyone who enjoyed any of their music throughout their long
career to date.
The concert is presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen and does look very good indeed, with nothing obvious in the way of
artifacts, but although it states that it was recorded in HD, that cannot be viewed on a standard definition disc although
I'm watching an upscaled version via my Xbox 360 with a VGA connection so that certainly helps, although what does make it
suffer a bit is the fact that it's an NTSC recording converted to PAL so it looks a little on the soft side. That said, it's
at its best when it comes to close-ups on the band - these look particularly fantastic on a 37" plasma screen.
The sound is exceptional, being in Dolby Digital 5.1, however, and that shines across every single one of the 16 tracks on
the disc.
The extras include a brief Interview (10:37), presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen like the concert, in which Kevin
Cronin (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Neal Doughty (keyboards) talk about how they got together and you do
get to hear some amusing stories from their early days; plus some additional tracks (15:51) - acoustic versions of Ridin' The Storm Out
and I Needed To Fall, interspersed with some chat between the band and the presenter at XM Artist Confidential.
The DVD contains 18 chapters, one for the opening, one for the end credits and one each for the 16 tracks, so you couldn't ask
for more there. The main menu features a looped piece of music and some images, but what this disc really could use is subtitles
for the lyrics - these should be essential on all concert DVDs.
The full list of tracks included are :
