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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • Full Frame
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Music video
  • Interviews
  • Outtakes
Lenny Kravitz - Lenny Live
EMI/EMI . R4 . COLOR . 131 mins . E . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Cool, it’s the Hair Bear Bunch live! What’s that? Oh, oops...

Well, Lenny and Co. do have very big hair. They also have a kick arse line in live rock’n’roll, which we experience here via footage taken from their 2002 tour through North America and Europe.

However, despite the style of the packaging, which leads us to believe this is an out-and-out concert experience, in reality things are quite different. It’s actually an almost movie length on-the-road documentary, interspersing interviews and behind the scenes stuff with snippets of live performance. This can be frustrating, for just as you’re getting into full air guitar windmill mode a disembodied voice will take over, or even worse we’ll be transported somewhere else entirely.

Director Mark Selinger was given full access to the Lenny experience, which delivers us such treats as hanging in his pad, watching him brush his toothy-pegs, his ruminations on the touring process as they bus around the world, feeling like a rhinoceros and even endearingly Dad-like moments with his daughter a la The Osbournes. It gives an intriguing glimpse into the whole juggernaut-like process, which isn’t always as glamorous as many may think.

But it’s the live stuff that really kicks, and thankfully a few tracks from what is essentially a greatest hits affair come through in their entirety, including the song with possibly the most memorable example of chunky riffage from the ‘90s, Are You Gonna Go My Way, complete with a seriously ROCK ending. Delivered through a remarkable wall of amps that makes that little old thing in China look like a few Lego blocks hastily cobbled together and with more gusto than any hard-touring band should be able to muster, it proves that as long as Lenny and his band are around rock’n’roll certainly isn't dead. Respect!

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

Flip-flopping between letterboxed, non-anamorphic 1.78:1 vision for the live footage and full frame for the doco stuff, those looking for a pristine image would be well advised to look elsewhere. The concert stuff’s sea of jaunty angles and fish-eye lens shots comes up quite well, whilst the behind the scenes footage varies markedly.

Meanwhile, the concert sound in its Dolby Digital 5.1 glory is fabulous, despite being quite compressed and produced sounding, even if it isn’t a particularly realistic mix – with vocals screaming out of the rears at times. The subwoofwoof gives a pleasing whoomp to musical proceedings, whilst those who can only go the 2.0 route should still find it all a pleasing enough aural experience.

The extras department makes a decent fist of making up for the possible disappointment those expecting full live tracks may be suffering, with seven of the songs we’re teased with in the main feature appearing in their entirety, complete with a handy ‘play all’ ability to get down to them all in one rock-out chunk. A couple of interviews offer up a laidback Lenny chewing the fat post-tour with director Selinger for around nine minutes (in seriously killer flares no less), and a further five minutes of Lenny chatting about family history with his Grandaddy. Finally there’s outtakes, in the shape of eight minutes of fun bits and pieces – from a further look at a Silent Bob-alike audience member, to Lenny shaving, to the joys of flam.

Overall the extra live footage saves this from being a diehard fan-only affair, and anybody not in that category may very well be surprised at the number of Lenny’s songs they know. Tune into this disc for some great rock’n’roll with groove that’s perfect for jumping all over the furniture to.


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  •   And I quote...
    "If this is anything to go by then rock’n’roll certainly isn't dead..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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