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KYLIE FEVER 2002
Live in Manchester
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Kylie Minogue
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.77:1
Studio: Capitol/EMI
Features: See Review
Length: 170 Minutes (Total)
Release Date: November 19, 2002
“…Feel
the fever…”
Most
people who know me know I’m an avid music fan, from my monster CD collection
up to playing guitar in a local rock and roll band. So when I had the chance to review the latest Kylie Minogue
concert video, I jumped at it…and with good reason.
She’s
cute as hell.
Okay,
that’s an oversimplification. Truth
is, while America has rudely yawned, Kylie has set the rest of the world on
fire, and deservedly so. In an era
dominated by teenybopper boy bands and lasses who aren’t girls and not yet
women, Kylie Minogue is a refreshing voice.
She makes pop music for grown-ups.
With
the international success of her recent album Fever, though, the States
began to see her as something more than just the bright-eyed gal with the big
smile who turned a remake of “Locomotion” into a chart hit some ten years
earlier. Chances are, if those same
Americans give themselves the chance to watch the new DVD Kylie Fever 2002,
they’ll be quite stunned, if not blown away.
Kylie
simply has one of the best stage shows I’ve ever seen, and one of the most
visually vivid, imaginative and exciting since U2 set out upon their ZOO TV
tour. Her stage is huge, her light
show spectacular, and her background is adorned by five giant and moveable video
screens. Her dancers are first rate
and the choreography endlessly inventive, as are the costumes and the visual
themes than run through each segment of her show.
Her band, actually visible on stage (sometimes a rarity in modern pop),
is solid and strong.
But
none of it upstages Ms. Minogue…as soon as she steps out of her robot-skinned
costume and takes the stage like with drone like dancers in a setting straight
out of Metropolis, there’s no doubt who the star of the show is.
She keeps in character as she belts out the dance hits “Come Into My
World” and “Shocked”, before warming her audience with a smile and
greeting that keeps them on their feet pretty much to stay.
The
music, dancing, stage sets and costumes add up to first class entertainment.
Each time you think you’ve seen something spectacular, Kylie and
company top it. Their Metropolis
motif gives way to A Clockwork Orange for “Spinning Around”.
“Confide in Me” shows Kylie as a cop coming on to an acrobatic male
dancer. She becomes a bedroom tease
for a sultry version of “Locomotion”. Finally,
she returns for two encores, finishing with the worldwide hit “Can’t Get You
Out of My Head”. In between are a
couple of surprising and welcome covers, including “I Feel Love” and “The
Crying Game”.
For
those critics who continue to snub her, this concert ought to be all the answer
they’ll ever need. This show has
it all: good music, spectacular
production, imaginative entertainment, and one terrific star who holds it all
together and channels the energy of the entire show through her performance.
Video
***
This
anamorphic widescreen presentation is mostly high quality, with surprising color
reproduction and clarity for a video-filmed event.
Like most videotape preservations, lower lit settings don’t fare as
well, with less definition and a little more unintentional grain and texture,
but when the stage and light show are going full blast, Kylie’s show is a
feast for the eyes. Fans should be more than pleased.
Audio
***
The
5.1 mix is solid, with plenty of action for the .1 channel, but not as much
discreet use as I’ve heard with other concerts. True, the forward and rear stages open up the whole listening
event in your living room, giving you a full on potent and dynamic concert
experience, but there’s just not a lot of noticeable separation between the
speakers. The clarity is top notch,
however, and the overall offering is still solid.
Features
**1/2
The
disc boasts a few good extras as well, starting with a half hour “Feel the
Fever” documentary, which brings you up close and personal with Kyle while
dishing out interviews, rehearsals, backstage footage and extra concert clips,
while giving you a good idea of just how much work it takes to pull of a show
like hers! There is also a
collection of the video screen projections used in the concert, in case you’d
like to look at them more closely, and a cleverly presented picture gallery that
makes good use of digital effects for a more lively appearance.
Summary:
