In today’s age of manufactured talent less pop stars you have to hand it to the artists that still write and actually perform their own original material. Versus the one’s who simply head into the studio with a team of writers and producers and who don’t even have the talent to actually sign live but instead just lip sync. Jewel whether you like her music or not is an artist, she writes her own material and even co-produced her last album. At times she is incredibly engaging at other times slightly annoying but, her …yrics are richly textured and captivate the imagination.
Video
The fullscreen transfer of this live show is somewhat soft and grainy. The image looks at times almost like it was shot on a video camera instead of film or high-end DV. There is very good shadow detail but the bright parts of the image depending on the light wash color likes to saturate especially with yellows. This was fairly obvious at somewhat annoying, it makes Jewel look like she ahs a pound and a half of make up on.
Audio
The first two thirds of the show are simply Jewel and her guitar on stage, the audio is sharp and clear with very good room ambience. Her voice hangs in the air in the room and her guitar glistens in front of you. Crowd sounds are nice and distinct from the rear channels as well. The last third of the show Jewel brings her full band on stage and things are still good but the low-end is lacking and disappointing. We have both a Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio track, with the DTS track beating out the Dolby track with much better dynamics and room ambience.
Special Features
The special features start off with four live videos and an interview with Jewel talking about her latest album and what it was like to take 2 years off. Throw in a photo gallery, a jukebox (the ability to rearrange the order of the songs in the live section of the disc), a discography and a web link to Jewels site as well as Eagle Rock Entertainments’ site. The menus are scored and of the motion variety.
Final Thoughts
If you are a fan of Jewel, the disc is pretty decent if a little on the lite side of things; for the rest of us at least give it a look to see a real artist in action. The audio is spectacular in the first two thirds of the performance and almost makes up for the disappointing video.
Special Features List
- Bonus performances: Love Me Just Leave Me Alone, Do You Want to Play?, Jesus Loves You
- “Standing Still” on the road video
- Interview
- Jukebox
- Photo gallery
- Discography
