The Bangles Return to Bangleonia (видео) (2007)

Сюжет кино: I have been waiting for a live Bangles concert since MTV's professionally produced broadcast of the band's December 1986 Pittsburgh performance. Even though I subsequently recorded a VHS copy of the rebroadcast live performance I was hopeful and official version would some day become available. Alas, it has not. Not yet, anyway. The next best thing is RETURN TO BANGLEONIA.
The 2000 performance was filmed at the famous House of Blues and is captured from various roving cameras. The digital recording is of superb quality. RETURN TO BANGLEONIA is truly a professional product. I hope that a CD version of the performance eventually becomes available. More importantly it was great to see the Bangles together again.
I was initially wary of buying this DVD. Some of the reviews gave rise to the belief that this was not a whole uninterrupted concert. The cartoony-looking DVD cover only served to perpetuate my quandry. When I finally made the purchase I was happy I did so. The DVD is a complete performance, and then some.
The Bangles went their separate ways when the group was just about at their peak. Following the very successful albums/CDs DIFFERENT LIGHT and EVERYTHING, the group stalled. The greatest hits CD, very often a warning sign, and its VHS companion hit store shelves in 1990. The Bangles went their separate ways. It was a decade before they fully reunited for an AUSTIN POWERS soundtrack and subsequently released DOLL REVOLUTION. Unfortunately the decade break took its toll. Marriages, families, and other important distractions ensured that the Bangles would enter the public eye at infrequent intervals.
Even in RETURN TO BANGLEONIA we are treated to some of the wear and tear on the band. Unlike the 1980s' Pittsburgh concernt, where the gals bubbled with energy and enthusiasm, Susanna Hoffs appears to be the only member of the band truly enjoying the performance. Even Michael Steele seems more distant. Maybe this was a precursor to her hopefully not permanent departure from the band. At the conclusion of the House of Blues concert you see her strut off stage while Hoffs and sisters Peterson group hug-bow. It is too bad that Steele does not appear in any of the interview segments in the special features.
In watching and listening to the BANGLEONIA DVD I noted that many of the numbers were performed in a more folksy manner. Accoustic guitars are more evident in this concert. There is no great effort to try and replicate the sound of the original recordings. In some ways this was a disappointment and in others it was refreshing. In any event, the price is right and DVD is high quality.