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FCA! 35 Tour: An Evening with Peter Frampton Blu-ray Review

  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
  • Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
  • Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), LPCM 2.0 Stereo 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit)
  • Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
  • Subtitles Color: White
  • Region: ABC (Region-Free)
  • Rating: N/A
  • Run Time: 146 Mins.
  • Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
  • Digital Copies: N/A
  • Studio: Eagle Rock Entertainment
  • Blu-ray Release Date: November 13, 2012
  • List Price: $19.98

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Performance
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

The Performance

[Rating:3.5/5]

Veteran guitar-slinger Peter Frampton who made a big splash across the airwaves with tracks from his classic live album Frampton Comes Alive! returns for a 35th anniversary tour in celebration of that monster, 17 million copy seller. FCA! 35 Tour: An Evening with Peter Frampton is culled from the guitarist’s 2011 – 2012 tour for that album’s anniversary and filmed over two nights in February 2012 – one show from the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee and one from the Beacon Theatre in New York. Divided into two sets, the first half of the show sees Frampton run through Frampton Comes Alive! in its entirety with all of its memorable hits, including “Show Me the Way” and “Doobie Wah”. The second half features tracks from throughout the rest of Frampton’s career, including his instrumental album Fingerprints.

The Frampton Comes Alive! portion of the show is fantastic. Frampton reminds us why he was so ubiquitous near the end of the ’70s with wonderful renditions of his classic hits as if time hadn’t passed at all. Unfortunately, things take a bit of a turn in the second portion of the program. Some of Frampton’s own material doesn’t quite meet the same level of memorability as the FCA! material. Also, the second half is burdened with some poor choices in cover songs that just don’t work. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” for instance, is slow and ponderous, losing all of the energy and anger from the The Stones’ original. It isn’t all bad, however, as a rousing instrumental version of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” allows Frampton to display some dazzling guitar chops, and a straightforward rendition of the George Harrison-penned Beatles classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” acts as a fitting close to the sets.

Track Listing:

  1. Somethin’s Happening
  2. Doobie Wah
  3. Lines On My Face
  4. Show Me the Way
  5. It’s A Plain Shame
  6. Wind of Change
  7. Penny For Your Thoughts
  8. All I Wanna Be (Is By Your Side)
  9. Baby, I Love Your Way
  10. (I Wanna) Go to the Sun
  11. (I’ll Give You) Money
  12. Shine On
  13. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
  14. Do You Feel Like We Do
  15. Asleep at the Wheel
  16. Restraint
  17. Float
  18. Boot It Up
  19. Double Nickels
  20. Vaudeville Nanna And The Banjolele
  21. Road to the Sun
  22. I Don’t Need No Doctor
  23. Black Hole Sun
  24. Four Day Creep
  25. Off the Hook
  26. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Video Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

An Evening with Peter Frampton looks rather good in this 1080p AVC encodement from Eagle Rock. Detail is sharp, there are no motion artifacts, video noise is minimal, and there is a strong sense of contrast with little clipping of whites and rather strong black levels.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

The DTS-Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) audio mix is quite energetic and effective at placing listeners in the performance space. It has strong instrumental separation and clear vocals. If there is one flaw it is that low frequencies could have been just a bit stronger, but the midrange is still rather punchy.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:1.5/5]


  • “The Phoenix” (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:23:32) — Peter Frampton discusses the tour and restoration of his newfound guitar.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

Enjoyable, even if somewhat uneven, this Peter Frampton disc is still worth owning for guitar fans and all of those who remember Frampton’s reign atop the charts in the ’70s.

Additional Screen Captures

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Purchase FCA! 35 Tour: An Evening with Peter Frampton on Blu-ray  at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

[amazon-product]B009DT98RK[/amazon-product]

Purchase FCA! 35 Tour: An Evening with Peter Frampton on Blu-ray  at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Performance
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]


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2 COMMENTS

  1. I find your review to be rather harsh. Peter Framptons FCA 35th Anniversary is quite remarkable. How many 62 year old musicians can still pull off what Frampton is doing here? He sounds better than ever and everyone with ears can hear that! Hats off to his band too. It’s an exciting concert and technically superb both visually and audio wise. Frampton has the highest standards and it all shows in this presentation. The band is having fun here and so will you. Buy it without hesitation.
    Unless you prefer talentless hair bands that are schooled in 3 chords and marketing hype. Step aside punks. Frampton is a real musician…

    • Hmm, to each his own, but I would hardly consider my review “harsh,” I think it was quite generous. I mentioned that the first half of the show is “fantastic” and pointed out two particularly strong cover songs from the second half of the show. I just, personally, didn’t find some of his own material to be as strong in the second set as his earlier material. Mentions of hair bands are unnecessary, unless you’re stuck in the 1980’s or something. 3.5/5 for the performance, given the quality of the material weighed against the high caliber of the performance seems about right, IMO. The A/V presentation speaks for itself.

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