Live At Slane (Amaray)

"The Red Hot Chili Peppers Live At Slane Castle" deserves more than five stars. I would give it ten stars if I could. On this DVD the Chili Peppers prove they are one of the best live bands in the world and one of the most important bands in rock! I have watched this DVD at least 10 times by now and it remains one of my favorite live concert DVDs. Anthony, Flea, Chad and (the great!) John Frusciante are absolutely at the top of their game here performing favorites like "By The Way", "Under The Bridge", "Scar Tissue", "Californication", "Give It Away", "Power of Equality" and a killer cover of the Ramone's "Havana Affair". Frusciante's clean, delicate, powerful guitar work is effortlessly brilliant and his high soprano harmonies blend exquisitely with Anthony's lead vocals. Anthony puts on an amazing show leaping around the stage like a man possessed. Chad Smith is an absolute monster on the drums; displaying power and precision equal to any drummer in rock. Finally Flea. Oh Flea how I love thee. Let me count the ways. There just aren't bass players this good out there. A true virtuoso. And he plays a pretty mean trumpet too. Buy the video and see for yourself. Watching this video prompted me to go out and purchase the remainder of the Chili Peppers body of work on CD and purchase every other live DVD of them I could find including one that keeps getting sent to me in the wrong region code. From what I can see this is the best live document of the band out there. At $7.99 it is an INCREDIBLE bargain!! I can't recommend it highly enough! "Live At Slane Castle" is one of the best live concert DVDs ever made!

RHCP has been my favorite band for quite some time now. I recently was able to attend one of their live concerts and loved every minute of it. It is amazing to not only hear but also watch them perform their songs to perfection. After attending the concert, I found myself wanting to see them perform live again and again. One of my friends suggested that I get one of their concert DVDs and I immediately went to Amazon.com to purchase one. I must say that the Live At Slane Castle DVD is one of the best purchases I have every made. It contains over 100 minutes of RHCP doing what they do best. The DVD not only focuses on the band as a whole, but gives direct attention to each of the members as he is doing his thing. They perform so many of my favorite songs. Now, instead of playing the CDs, I just turn up the surround sound on my television and watch it over and over again. Unless you have the money and the means to follow these guys around the world, this is a definite purchase. You won't be disappointed.

I’m actually fortunate to have grown up with the music of Red Hot Chili Peppers because many of their songs were played on the local rock radio station where I lived as a pre-teen and teenager (I remember even seeing someone sport a Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt when some members of my family and I visited the Cedarpoint Amusement park when I was around 12 or 13 years old). Anyhow, this dvd of Red Hot Chili Peppers Live At Slane Castle contains 18 of some of their classic hits and is listed to be 102 minutes (with song hits such as Give It Away, Californication, Under The Bridge, Around The World, Scar Tissue, Other Side, By The Way etc.). I enjoyed their performances of Parallel Universe and Can’t Stop the most. However, there is something in this dvd for those who enjoy rock music. The end of the dvd lists their performance on this dvd to have taken place on August 23, 2003 and filmed on locaton at Slane Castle Co, Meath Ireland. There are also wallpaper extras that accompany the dvd of Red Hot Chili Peppers live at Slane Castle such as; The Can’t Stop Wallpaper extra has an image of a buffalo running through what looks to be a colorful and green countryside. The following other imagers for the other five wallpaper extra tracks; Throw Away Your Television-an explosion of various colors, Parallel Universe has a figure shaped as a woman running inside a blueish square (rectangle maybe?) against a turquoise blue background mixed with other colors. There are also wallpaper images for Give It Away, The Zephyr song, and Right On Time.

I have watched this concert probably fifty times and made my friends watch it and even made my favorite radio DJ watch it. I have never seen a recorded concert with this much raw talent, energy and just plain greatness. My hope is that the Chili Peppers will stay together now that they are all sober and go onto the greatness that they have in them. This band could have easily been as great as U2 if they had stayed sober and I think they still have it in them to reach that kind of greatness. Each one of these guys is the best in what they have to bring to the table. I wish them all the best and I hope they will continue to give us the gift that only they can give us.

This is not for the US DVD region, so I can’t watch it. Can’t find where I missed that anywhere on the item description.

Don't get me wrong, I think Live at Slane Castle is an incredible live DVD. It's just difficult for me, because the Red Hot Chili Peppers are on of my favorite bands... Unfortunately, this one pales in comparison, not due to the performance (which is excellent) but due to the song selection. The oldest songs they play (if you don't count a Ramones cover) are songs from "Blood Sugar Sex Magik." Where's "Fire?" Where's "Me and My Friends?" These and others are Chili Peppers classics, and should be included in place of mediocre at best current songs like "Don't Forget Me," and "Venice Queen." The other strange thing about this DVD is the lack of upbeat songs. They opened with "By the Way," for Christ's sake. I'll end this review by saying that despite the mediocre at best set list, the show is captivating, and incredibly well played. It's excellent by the standard of live DVD's in general, but not great by the standard of RHCP DVDs.

There aren't many bonus features, and the audio isn't going to sound studio quality (which is good I think), but this DVD is everything you would want from a Chili Peppers concert. There are nice menu graphics that give you an outdoor concert feel, the chapter cuts are timed well, the intro music is great, and the menu music uses "Venice Queen," one of their best songs. Some great things in this DVD are the matrix-like sweep cuts when Kiedis jumps; the clothing the band wears is individual and priceless (i'm thinking flea's skeleton suit), all easier on the eyes than strategically placed socks; and the transition from late afternoon light, to dusk, to darkness. The crowd is enormous, and watching them bounce inflatables and sing adds to the experience. The band is older, though they show no loss of energy, and play music mainly from their last two albums. I've seen a couple of other concert dvds, and if you would like something like that to be on while you play cards, or if you just like watching concerts on tv, this is one of the best you can get.

I watch this live recording around once a year. As a fan of the band, I feel like it’s the very best recording of them that exists. Each band member is in top form, especially John Frusciante. The production of the recording is also fantastic and extremely well directed. The energy from the crowd is captured wonderfully and the audio mixing is top tier. I highly suggest this.