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Re: TKAA DVD Review

From: "Scott Schrade" <schrade@xxxxxxxxxxx>

The actual movie - I hate to say it but I was a bit underwhelmed. The picture
seemed very dark to me, even with my TV set on maximum brightness - esp-
cially the London Coliseum & Woodstock footage.

I have to admit that, given the hype we've heard about this restoration, I was expecting to be more blown away by the sheer picture and sound quality. That's just not the case. However, not having seen the film in nearly 20 years and now having it in DVD form with re-mastered sound, it's like finding an old, lost friend.

One thing that jumped out at me was that most of the old footage was shot really close up. Not just isolating on one person, but often zooming in on faces for long stretches. There's certainly nothing that can be done about that, but there were points where I'd have killed for a panorama of the stage.

The sound on "Baba O'Riley" & "WGFA" seems diluted. Echo on Roger's
vocals, Entwistle's beefiness toned down, Moonie's drums are very loud, though.
Pete's guitar is extremely low during "WGFA." (I just have the stereo TV
set-up.)

Don't know if this applies to you, but it's worth noting for others: If you're listening on plain, old stereo equipment, you've got to select a 2 channel audio track. The 5.1 track will sound OK, but you notice a difference when switching to stereo. I've listened to other DVDs almost all the way through before I realized I had it on the wrong setting.

The "Who Are You" segment sounds nice & crisp.

I love that segment, too. What other band would go into the studio and record an impromptu version of one of their songs on film for a movie? These guys were not afraid to take chances.

Roger's "Nearly!" is left in & not edited out.

See, I'm just happy to be seeing the movie again. I can see why, having seen it countless times, you'd be less impressed by the production quality. I was too busy just going, "wow."

The "A Quick One" segment has the lights removed.  And the picture suffers
somewhat because they had to "blow up" the original frame in order to re-
move said lights.  That results in a somewhat blurry, unsharp picture.

But, what a great performance. You guys picked this as the best AQO a while back, while I stood up for Leeds. I'm still not sure, but this version makes a very strong case. I wish we had the video for Leeds!

As for extras, so far I watched the OX Cam & audio isolation for "WGFA"
& that was awesome.

WGFA is much better than B'OR. B'OR's just 'dum....DUM, dum" the whole way through. WGFA builds as it goes on, and there's more variation.

All in all, I shouldn't complain. It's decent enough. Hell, it's fucking great.
It's THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT. It's THE WHO!!

Agreed. If you've seen this film dozens of times, you might come away a little disappointed with the results. That is not to say that it's not a HUGE improvement. Judging by the comparison feature on the DVD, the speeded up VHS version was dreadful. If you haven't seen the film for a long time, or have never seen it, you really owe it to yourself to get down to Best Buy (or log on, they had it for $19.99 with free shipping yesterday) before they jack up the price.

Jim M

P.S. Speaking of Best Buy, when I went in to buy mine, I couldn't find it anywhere. I was standing in the music DVD section and told an assistant who seemed like he worked there, "I'm looking for a DVD that was released today, The Kids Are Alright." He replies, "I've never even HEARD of that." (His emphasis) Uuugh. Another assistant with him knew where to take me. It was in the new releases, I just missed it somehow.

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