Review of Who, The: The Vegas Job Live in Las Vegas

Introduction

There`s a nice little story behind the concert featured on this DVD. An Internet company, pixelon.com (no website now), claimed to have invented a revolutionary method to deliver television-like images to the computers of anyone with an Internet connection. The entire MGM Grand in Las Vegas was hired out to show this off, with a series of events featuring artists such as Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, KISS, Faith Hill, The Dixie Chicks and LeAnn Rimes. Also getting together for the night were The Who.

However, pixelon.com`s technology was rather lacking (and they got found out, prosecuted etc.), and anyone who wasn`t at the gigs never saw them. Now The Who`s contribution is available on DVD, and here`s the set list:-

I Can`t Explain
Substitute
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
Pinball Wizard
See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me
Baba O`Riley
My Wife
5:15
Behind Blue Eyes
Who Are You
Magic Bus
Won`t Get Fooled Again
The Kids Are Alright
My Generation

Video

A bog standard full-frame concert transfer. It`s a 1.33:1 affair, and pretty much the norm for most concert footage filmed in the last millenium. There are some men on stage, playing instruments. There are some lights. There`s a crowd. It`s not exciting to watch.

But it`s all about the sound, not the visuals, so you can forgive the fact that it`s not all that exciting to look at.

Audio

A selection of 3 soundtracks in ascending order of quality, DD2.0 stereo, DD5.1 and dts. However, none of these mixes are the greatest in the world. The stereo sounds average, and the 2 multi channel mixes concentrate almost solely on the centre channel, with a few little bits of instrumentation scattered across the other front 2 channels.

With so many fantastic music DVDs out there, it`s a bit of a let down when discs are just average. There`s nothing that will put you off listening, it just could have been a lot better.

Features

It`s not an encouraging start when the disc`s authors can`t even get the grammar right, the main menu offering the option of "Extra`s"

What you get is a brief clip telling you about pixelon.com, and some short and rather pointless interviews with Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle. There`s also footage of interviews with members of the crowd, conducted by some obnoxious American interviewer.

Conclusion

Another music DVD brings another predictable end to a review. If you`re a fan of The Who then this DVD will interest you. If you don`t like their work, this won`t change your mind. The songs are somewhat of a mixed bag for the more casual fan. Substitute, Pinball Wizard and My Generation are the only songs on here that I`d listen to again.

So if you are a big Who fan, then you might want to make a purchase. The visuals are uninspiring but technically fine. The sound is ok to listen to but could have been so much more with the right person at the mixing desk. The extras aren`t worth bothering with.

There are quite a few other Who DVDs out there, if you own a recent one like Live At The Royal Albert Hall (recorded in 2000) then you might give this one a miss. If you can pick it up cheap it might be worth a look though.