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  Specs
  • Full Frame
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
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  Extras
  • Teaser trailer
  • Animated menus
Pat Benatar - Live in New Haven
Warner Vision/Warner Vision . R4 . COLOR . 60 mins . E . NTSC

  Feature
Contract

Pat Benatar first came to the world’s attention with her hit debut album In the Heat of the Night in 1979. This was followed up by her second album Crimes of Passion a year later, also a multi platinum earner. Her most successful album, Precious Time, followed next in 1981. Releasing an album a year, she followed her first three successful albums with Get Nervous, Live From Earth, Tropico and Seven the Hard Way. The tempo then slowed a little, but the albums still continued with Wide Awake in Dreamland, Best Shots and True Love. The hit singles over this period had been consistent, including Hit Me With Your Best Shot, We Live For Love, Fire and Ice, Shadows of the Night and the MTV mainstay Love is a Battlefield. Throughout her career, husband Neil Giraldo has also been a constant. He first penned the song We Live For Love on her debut album and they have been together ever since.

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Hit me with your best shot?

After the release of the album Gravity’s Rainbow in 1993, Pat stopped touring to give birth to their second child. At this time she focussed more on her writing and created many new songs. She went back on the road to tour in 1995 with REO Speedwagon and Fleetwood Mac. The tour proved once again to the masses that she was indeed an incredible vocalist. She continues recording and touring to this day.

Pat Benatar Live in New Haven captures Pat Benatar at the height of her fame. It was recorded in 1983 in front of an enthusiastic audience. She is wearing the familiar black mini skirt and also has that familiar dancing style. Were the ‘80s really this tragic? Seriously though, she was a huge success in the ‘80s and this concert captures her at her peak. The big disappointment, however, is the concert length, a rather brief 60 minutes. She belts out most of her hits in this performance and the crowd lap it up.

Track listing...

Anxiety
Fire and Ice
You Better Run
Little Too Late
Fight it Out
Looking For a Stranger
I Want Out
We Live For Love
In the Heat of the Night
Shadows of the Night
Heartbreaker
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Hell is For Children

The biggest exclusion is her biggest hit. Love Is A Battlefield, which was by far her most successful single and is a noticeable absentee here. The majority of her hits are included, though, and Pat and her band put on a good show, it's just a shame about the quality of the transfer.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

The first thing of note is that this release is an NTSC format disc, so you will need this capability to view this concert.

Picture is provided in full frame and it is not the best. Granted the show is 20 years old, but it suffers in many areas. Softness is a problem along with shadow detail, looking decidedly blurry for the most part. Grain is also a minor distraction as is aliasing. Stage lighting causes many problems usually associated with concert releases and colours lack any real depth. This video transfer really looks 20 years old and is perhaps not the best first up DVD release for this talented singer. Over her lengthy career there must be some better concert footage that could have been released?

There are a choice of two audio mixes with this release, the Dolby Digital 2.0 and the DD 5.1 surround. Now the addition of a DD 5.1 mix may sound enticing, but it really isn’t. I am guessing the source material used for this wasn’t that crash hot to start with and perhaps they couldn’t do much else with it, but it really falls flat. Sound is generally muffled with the vocals of Benatar actually hard to hear at some points, being drowned out by instruments. The so called surround mix really sounds like it is simply spread across all the channels with very little definition used. Overall, this is a very disappointing mix that does the artist no justice. The DD 2.0 mix is slightly better, but is still not up to scratch. On the good side, audio synch appears to be accurate.

The only extra with this release is some blatant advertising from Rhino entitled DVD Catalog and yes that is the correct spelling – in America! This extra is simply a list of other titles available from Rhino. Perhaps even a discography or biography would have been worthy inclusions?

Overall this is not a bad show, but it is let down badly by poor video and audio. Pat Benatar is a talented singer and performer, but this release really doesn’t do her justice. There are also no extras, so this really is one for fans alone and many of those may prefer to wait for a better quality release.


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  •   And I quote...
    "This is surely not the best shot of this talented singer?"
    - Adrian Turvey
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-NS305
    • TV:
          AKAI CT-29S55AT 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Sony STR-DE685
    • Speakers:
          Sony SAVE815ED
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony SAVE815ED
    • Surrounds:
          Sony SAVE815ED
    • Subwoofer:
          Sony SAVE815ED
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