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(More customer reviews)This is Marianne Faithfull at her blazing best, where she was born to be ... in front of an adoring crowd in Hollywood (or "Hollvwood" as the front cover for some reason spells it). Mind you I'm biased; I attended this concert (and yes I hit the pause button a couple of times to enjoy seeing me and my boyfriend bopping along in the crowd-reaction edits - funny thing, he and I have been together going on 18 years and this is the first time he's been to a Marianne concert with me ... he was fascinated to see the woman who has provided the soundtrack of my life for the past 41 years). I'm also biased because the Henry Fonda Theatre is approximately 120 seconds' (yes seconds) walk from our house, making it a very easy gig to attend in terms of transportation and parking (always an issue in Los Angeles). We also saw a brilliant Damien Rice concert at this theatre a couple of years ago ... there's something about the venue that brings out a wonderful intimacy between artists and audience - funny how it looks so high and wide on screen ... it's much more cozy than the camera suggests. At the time of the event, many Marianne fans were ticked off with the amount of seats that were marked 'reserved' for the staff of KCRW, our fab local NPR station which has admittedly sponsored Marianne's concerts on a couple of occasions, but surely those of us who've bought the albums with our hard-earned money - in other words, Marianne's devoted longtime fans - deserve a fairer shake at first-come, first-served seating ??? Take note in future, KCRW, we want to see a little more courtesy and a little less ligging or we'll stop listening !
That beef aside, the concert found Marianne at the peak of her powers, and while all the band are superbly supportive of the Diva, the tremendous Lew Soloff, playing jazz trumpet like he's trying to save all our souls, lifts wonderful songs like "She" and "Guilt" onto a new and redemptive plane. The DVD features the full concert, but I would have enjoyed hearing again those chirpy asides to her band and the audience which have not made the final cut: for instance, when the audience screamed "We love you!!!" Marianne's "Well, I love you too" was met with choruses of "But we REALLY love you!!!!" ... at which Marianne turned and said to us "And I really love you too ... why do you think I'm here tonight? It's really difficult for me to get INTO the United States, you know ... after all...(and here she chuckled to herself) I'm SO dangerous" ... doubtless a reference to US Immigration laws that will not allow her in for any length of time owing (presumably) to her long-gone history of narcotic addiction ... funny, I would've thought a recovering addict would be the very sort of person we'd all WANT to allow into the country - power of example and all that. But Marianne and her partner/manager Francois - who can be thanked mightily for such stunning management of Marianne's last decade of work - have to undertake these American visits on the fly, as it were ... and when a lengthy US tour is not an option, why not release a concert DVD for everyone to enjoy? And enjoy it you will, but do play it from start to finish, with the volume LOUD, and give yourself over to an hour and forty-five minutes of sheer bliss. The DVD extras include an interview , neatly structured as meditations on the various songs in Marianne's repertoire, and the very VERY spooky video of "There is a Ghost" directed by Robert Wilson, with Marianne in her "Black Rider" makeup/mode, the Devil-as-Hungry-Ghost, that is very minimalist indeed and extraordinarily effective - a literal video profile. Oh, and there's also a CD of over an hour's worth of highlights from the concert. And a nice liner insert, plus terrific pics by Mick Rock ... what a deal. But I have one caveat .. this may be a fault on the DVD I purchased, but on the song "Guilt", as Lew Soloff finishes his trumpet solo, there is a brief (1 sec.) freeze on the disc that couldn't really come at a more annoying moment ... is this fault common to the entire pressing? Or is it a hiccup caused by a transition on the dual-layer disc?
Apart from that, you need, seriously NEED, to own this DVD.
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