Gravel Road Music decided to revisit their first release, Vegas Rhythm in their new book-series. The book/CD combination has the February 3, 1973 D.S. on CD and some extras on a DVD-rom.
Design
This book has even more pages than the Love American Style one (112), full with photos. To refer to the Aloha special, we get first 10+ photos from that show, before kicking into the actual Vegas-season. First 30+ pages are for the diner show, and then the midnight shows follows. Unfortunately the quality of that part is lesser, but more unknown pictures to me (but I’m not a jumpsuit junkie, au contraire). The last part of the book is a ‘behind the scenes’ about making the original and this version.
Content
As said, it’s the diner show on CD. The original was great sounding and so is this, I do hear no difference. We did review this CD back in 2007 and I underline that one.
The first thing I tried to play was the DVD thou, my Blu-ray player thought the disc was incompatible and the amount of wine I consumed prevented that little light to pop up, so I tried my regular DVD player, with no luck either. Yes, the next day, when I was sober, it turned out that it was a DVD-rom and not a regular DVD. The disc has a movie of footage from this season. It is edited as if it is a full show. I used to faint when I got material like this in the 80s, but nowadays I am spoilt and can’t watch longer than a few moments and this is far from the worst footage I have seen.
Furthermore the DVD-rom has the soundboard audio from the midnight shows of February 2 and 3, both released in the past on several CDs, Don’t Think Twice, Hilton Double Shot (2nd) and I’ll Remember You (3rd). For the ones who missed them a nice addition.
Conclusion
For die hard “I want it all”-collectors a must, for those that missed the original too. Even some others might want it for the pics. I do know themed pictures books of lesser quality that are more expensive.
Lex...summed it up quite well...my thoughts exactly..
You are right. What a kind of DVD is this one ???
Let me try and answer that question - a totally useless one. I've managed to get the video section to play on the computer (not worth the effort) but as for the audio, forget it. Why couldn't this have just been a normal DVD with audio only for the two shows - better still, put the audio on CD. Instead we get a useless piece of junk. At least the CDs and books are OK but next time Gravel Road, give us a DVD we can actually play.
It is just an extra... if you really need the audio it takes just a little effort to play it or even burn it on CD.
Surely it's all part of the package - this costs more than the other one so we ARE paying for it. It shouldn't require any effort to play it. Out of interest, has anyone been able to play the audio on their DVD player. Mine reads the disc, shows JPEG in the display and brings up the two shows in the menu. That's as far as it goes, nothing I do allows it to play. Pointless.
VivaLasDavies, I completely agree with you. I have the same problem with the DVD. In fact, I could not load it on the DVD player or on the Mac. I only managed to play it on the Blu-ray player. As for the audio, I got as far as you did. And, yes, we are absolutely paying for it. Instead of getting three shows, as promised, we get one. The book is great, though.
My DVD player wouldn't recognize it either,only the Bluray. I really think Gravel Road should re-press this as a proper DVD and send it out free of charge. (I won't hold my breath)
:D I have only just today got this Rhythm Revisited book/Shows release. Generally i agree but people seem rather harsh on this up-grade release.It's Actually rather good!~. I listened to the 3.2.73 D/S and was completely blown away by the 10/10 soundboard quality a magnificent upgrade(as was the 2.2.73 M/S also sounds much better-fuller and gresat mix voice and instrumentations heard) less so the copied FTD release of 3.2.73 M/S. So in regards of audio quality i notice a really great improvement and am very happy about this aspect. Regarding the dvd- it is poor quality, so i have ignored it. I do find it 'odd' that i was immediately able to play the 3.2.73 D/S on a cd player-because it IS an actual CD...then find i had to burn my own CDR's from computer of the 2 shows on the DVD to hear them-strange!~ :|
As far as the book goes...well yeah it's 'ok' and some pictures are very nice, but i found the tiny small less than A5 size a bit dissapointing. :| still its well put together-although the opening pages of Aloha pictures are NOT sharp. so all together. Am i happy with this up-graded gravel road release? Well partially i'd give it a 7/10 because of great sounding-definately improved soundboard shows, a passable book, but looses points for not having all shows to listen to on CD's to start with and a only slightly above average book-which is 'ok' but small and no more than that. A pass mark, but room for a better product i feel. :)
