Search - Out of the Blue: Live & Discovery on DVD

Performance great-sound and quality makes it only 4 stars

music fan | 03/31/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jeff Lynne is fabulous as always, but voice hindered a bit by back up vocals in band. This is nice to have in your collection for ELO/classic rock fans. The sound and picture need some remastering, but this is vintage footage w/great performance. I highly recommend the Zoom DVD between the two, simply because it's the greatest concert I've ever seen on DVD or in person, but this "Out of the Blue" DVD does give you a couple of different songs than that one like "Sweet Talkin' Woman", which sounded great. If you want to buy one, buy Zoom DVD, if you like ELO more than a little, buy both. You will be very pleased."

Interesting...

Rukesta | 10/12/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Well, this dvd has completed my elo collection. I have all their albums and both concert dvds. Having listened to their albums over the last 15 or so years, I always imagined ELO would do an amazing concert.

Pros
- It's good to see some elo footage from the late 70's and the stage spectacle that everyone talks about. I wasn't born until the 80's, so never saw ELO live. However I did see ELO ptII in 1997 and they were amazing, wish they would come back to Australia.

Cons
- They lip-synched on many of the songs
- Sound quality is poor
- Video quality is average, the effects are terrible. However, it was probably acceptable back in the 70s.

Like another reviewer said, the Zoom dvd is much better. Neither this nor Zoom are that watchable. Jeff isn't a very interesting performer. Unless you're a big fan, don't bother with this dvd, get Zoom instead."

Disappointing

TWARN | 06/17/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a fan of ELO for many years now. Before I saw this DVD, this was probably my favorite band, after the Beatles. Not anymore. WHAT is with "Standing in the Rain"? They lip-synched it! Does Jeff Lynne think we're fools? Or was the sound quality (which is poor even on the truley live pieces) that bad that they had to get the album version for audio? I've seen ELO Part II, WITHOUT JEFF LYNNE, DO THIS SONG COMPLETEY LIVE, so WHY COULDN'T JEFF? "Standing in the Rain" is not the only song they do this to. If you listen very closely to the audio, you will hear more strings than you see. The guys are playing, but you don't hear them, you hear a track that was synched up to the performance. If I was one of those guys, I would be pissed, unless the sound THAT poor. Heck, the strings have the best sound quality, just listening to the other insturments, it wouldn't suprise me if it was that bad. On other songs, you hear a lead guitar when Jeff is playing rhythm. Oops! I'm kind of suprised they got away with it. All apologies to Ashley Simpson. I can't believe Jeff Lynne would sink so low. For this, 1 star.

Next, the visual effects are very cheesey.I guess for the late '70's they would have been good, but by today's standards, they're very cheesey. Two stars.

I can't give halves, but if I could, I would give 1 1/2 stars.

If you want to see a good ELO DVD, it doesn't really exist. After watching this, you do see how important Kelly Groucutt really was. He sings on evey song. On some he sings harmony with Jeff from start to finish; on others, Jeff and Kelly take turns on lead vocals: Jeff sings one verse, Kelly sings the next. If anything good came of this DVD, for me it was a deep appreciation for Kelly Groucutt and his contributions to ELO. Zoom is the best DVD for live ELO, but Kelly isn't there and the violin parts are done on guitar (Marc Mann does a wonderful job, by the way, but its just not the same). I would give Zoom (the DVD)3 stars. It's not bad, but its not great. The best DVD with Jeff Lynne is "the Concert for George". It's AWESOME and Jeff does a good job.
If you wan't anything good that's live, but has ELO music, you have to go with ELO Part II. There is no Jeff Lynne, but along with that there is no lip-synching and the strings are real. Besides, Kelly Groucutt and Eric Troyer both do a good job on Jeff's numbers. And, more importantly, the sound quality is GREAT. Try "One Night-Live in Australia" or "the Greatest Hits Live:Encore Collection". ELO Part II has a DVD (of the Australian concert if I'm not mistaken), but I have yet to see it. If you want good sound quality, which is the most important thing right?, you're gonna have to go with ELO Part II, not ELO."