Search - The Who At Kilburn: 1977 [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL

Vote Libertarian | Seattle, WA | 11/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are a Who fan, or want to make a Who fan cry for joy, get this DVD. It's a must-have for any Who freak, second only to "The Kids Are Alright" documentary.

Disc 1 is the complete Kilburn 1977 show and disc 2 is the complete London Coliseum 1969 show. I have a huge bootleg collection and would rate both shows as two of the top five Who shows ever (to say nothing of their historic importance).

The 1977 Kilburn show is "take 1" of the 1978 Shepperton show (see "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" on "The Kids Are Alright"). Both shows were private affairs filmed for the documentary, but except for Moon's shirt, they are almost indistinguishable. If you loved Townshend's and Moon's antics in those clips, this DVD is for you! FYI, this is the show that gave us "My Wife" on "The Kids Are Alright" soundtrack album.

Even better, guitar-wise, is the London 1969 concert. This is the show that gave us "Young Man Blues" on "The Kids Are Alright". This may be Townshend's best performance ever, but I don't want to start that fight here. Finally, why did they break up the London show and move the Tommy section to the Extras menu? Why not keep the entire show intact as the Lord intended it? It's all on the same disc anyway... I'll tell you why: because otherwise this DVD would be so perfect it would pull the rest of the universe into it and then we'd be totally screwed."

4.5 stars for the Kilburn performance section ....

bass boy | Arkansas | 09/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We Who fans finally get to see the infamous Kilburn 1977 gig here. I've seen the Kilburn footage (minus "Dreaming from the Waist"), and it's really good. It's wonderful to see a pre-LP version of "Who Are You" at this show, that bumps and grinds much more than the studio version would almost a year later. Drummer Keith Moon is in fiery form here - much more than he was at Shepperton Studios (for "The Kids Are Alright" movie) some five months later. I think Pete Townshend and John Entwistle might have sounded a little better at Shepperton, but Moon is in better form here on the Kilburn disc. He hits the drums harder, faster and is more precise. Don't get me wrong - I will take any Who footage, especially with Moon and The Ox. Be sure and watch what happens, at the tail end of "My Wife," when someone touches Townshend's guitar picks on Townshend's amp head. YIkes. Don't mess with the Godfather of punk rock, for sure. The camera stays on Townshend, who lets it be known to the guy - and the entire audience - that it's uncool to mess with The Who's stage equipment.
The ragged nature of the band here, most of the time, actually works for them during the Kilburn set. There's an edge to the quartet's efforts, and although there are flubs - Moon comes in too early during the intro of "Won't Get Fooled Again," and Townshend doesn't get all of his mojo on guitar until about 10 minutes into the show. Townshend is wilder here, jumping across the stage, bouncing, hitting his head on his Les Paul and becoming a human cyclone, wrapping himself up in his own guitar cord, than he was at Shepperton. Like the Shepperton footage, the Kilburn set is a keeper.
Hopefully, the London Coliseum set will be equally as impressive ..."

Must see.

silly narwhal | Portland, OR United States | 09/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hey Zebba 9, what film were YOU watching?? The opener Can't Explain is kind of a warmup, after which Townshend is absolutely ferocious on guitar. And as animated & glassy-eyedly immersed as at any time in his career--this is definitely the Pete that would've kicked Abbey Hoffman off the stage again had he showed up. This performance demonstrates everything that makes the Who great~ these guys hadn't performed in a year, and they find spaces that hearken back to Leeds & Isle of Wight. Moon may look a little bloated, but he's in tremendous form musically. They all are, individually and as the collective organism that was the 'Orrible 'Oo.

Perhaps I'm making too much of it, but this performance is a revelation, in my opinion. At a time when they're supposed to have been a spent force, they reclaim and amply display their power here; they turn in a vintage performance for the lucky audience. There is a moment during Who Are You (which gave me chills when they went into it~ WHO KNEW?) where the communication breaks down (honestly, I think Pete aborts too early)....but they recover in spades with Won't Get Fooled Again (watch the roadies banging their heads) and the only reason for the breakdown in the first place was the willingness & confidence to take the chance and journey into open-ended territory.....just like they were doing in '70 during My Generation. Great My Generation here, too, by the way.

I agree about the camera angles, but not to the point of it being relevant to the basic thrill of this film. (Maybe they could release a you-control-the-angles version someday, like you can do for Baba O'Riley & Won't Get Fooled Again on the Kids Are Alright dvd).

I'd recommend this to any Who fan without another thought. I only wonder how this stayed hidden for so long."

An interesting peek at Who history

terpfan1980 | Somewhere near Washington DC, United States | 11/19/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First up, salute to some of the other reviewers here at Amazon, a few of the featured (as I write this) reviews do a pretty good job of covering this artifact of rock concert history that has finally made it's way to Blu-ray disc. As noted, the concert performace is coarse in spots since the band hadn't peformed together in a years time. There are glitches during the performance that quite obviously irritate the band members and remind viewers that what they are seeing was filmed live and includes all of the warts.

What's also included is all of the energy of a Who concert. Pete Townshend's windmill guitar strumming, Keith Moon's frenetic drum playing (including flinging the drum sticks around and losing them time and again...) -- side note: if someone wanted to put together a drinking game for play while watching this film they'd probably want to include Townshend's windmill strumming and Moon's losing the drumsticks as the requirements to take another swig. It wouldn't take long at all to find the participants in such a drinking game pretty well inebriated ;-) -- and of course Roger Daltrey's strong lead vocals. All of which make bassist John Entwistle's performance seem a bit, well, stiff. No one could blame the guy really, as the rest of his band mate's certainly seemed to have the stage pretty well covered, especially with Townshend's jumping/hopping around the stage repeatedly.

The Who At Kilburn is a fascinating film largely because it even exists on film. It was filmed on 35mm film which is rather unusual for concert footage. Thankfully though that medium works well for providing a master for encoding to high def media, and thanks to that the product that viewers get on Blu-ray is, at least at this point technologically, as good as can be achieved on optical disc media.

Note that the Blu-ray disc is NOT RATED. If it were rated, it would probably have been given an R rating for the utterances of the f-bomb at several points throughout the course of the show.

Most definitely worth viewing, and an item that serious Who fans should add to their collection."