DEAD BOYS - RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD BOYS: HALLOWEEN NIGHT 1986 (Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray Review + Screenshots)

DEAD BOYS - RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD BOYS: HALLOWEEN NIGHT 1986

Label: Cleopatra Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 63 Minutes 17 Seconds 

Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 

Video: 1080i HD Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: Stiv Bators, Jimmy Zero, Jeff Magnum, Johnny Blitz, Joey Ramone

Snotty Midwest by way of NYC punk rockers the Dead Boys were caught live during the 1986 Halloween night reunion show live at The Ritz in NYC, the spectacle of it all caught on a single consumer grade camcorder from the back of the club, the audio probably coming from a soundboard recording. After a very brief introduction by Joey Ramone of The Ramones the band strut onto stage, vocalist Stiv Bators clad in a somewhat bizarre leather get-up that looks he's singing for Faster Pussycat or L.A. Guns, maybe even a little bit like Sami Curr from 80's horror flick Trick Or Treat (1986), he's joined by other original line-up members guitarists Cheetah Chrome and Jimmy Zero, bassist Jeff Magnum and drummer Johnny Blitz. They take the stage, opening with their is unarguably their most iconic tune "Sonic Reducer",  which was covered by Pearl Jam in the early 90's, which I am not ashamed to say is how I first heard the the song and discovered the dead Boys, and the crowd goes wild. They dive into all the classics from the their only two albums, the seminal Young, Loud and Snotty (1977)as well as the lesser We Have Come for Your Children (1978). The audio sounds like a decent unremixed soundboard recording, it lacks the high and lows and falls in the mid-ranges, but the bands raw style is well represented just the same, and Cheetah Chrome's tasty guitar leads comes through raw and nasty. Highlights for me include personal favorites from the 1st album like "Caught with the Meat in Your Mouth", High Tension Wire" and "I Need Lunch", playing their covers of Iggy and the Stooges "Search and Destroy" as well as the Rolling Stones "Tell Me", starting off "I Won't Look Back" by playing a bit of  the Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the U.K.", and closing with another rousing rendition of "Sonic Reducer", because, why the heck not? 

That this is a soundboard (there's no audio of the audience) recording with single camcorder shot footage doesn't offer the most ideal viewing or listening experience, but it does capture the band in this moment and time, raw and rocking just the same. Bators stalks around the stage, chewing bubblegum from the looks of it, his stage banter is hilariously dated and weird, complaining about disco and new wave, choosing to dedicate “Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth” to the memory of Cass Elliot, and his voice was in good shape as well. I think that if you're a fan of the band's raw and wild brand of rock n' roll this is a fun bit of lo-fi time travel. While it's low-res and undefined you can follow the performance quite well, see the stage-divers get up on stage and dance around, occasionally be tossed off by bouncers when they overstay there welcome, and the songs sound terrific, even with the less than stellar audio.  

Track Listing

1. Sonic Reducer
2. All This And More
3. Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth
4. Calling On You
5. I Won't Look Back
6. What Love Is
7. I Need Lunch
8. Ain't Nothing To Do
9. Down In Flames
10. Son of Sam
11. Detention Home
12. 3rd Generation Nation
13. Tell Me
14. Search And Destroy
15. Flamethrower Love
16. High Tension Wire

Audio/Video: Presented in 1080p HD this is an upscale of a standard definition video tape shot on what appears to be a consumer grade camcorder. It's low-res and ugly as sin, there are random scan lines and video compression, but it's in surprisingly good shape with not a lot of deterioration. The SD image is smeary and undefined, the camera person who shot does some pans and zooms that are surprisingly adept for what they are. Audi comes by way of English Dolby Digital 2.0, and as stated in teh review sounds like a pretty straight soundboard recording, it has limited range but fares well, the mix is rough and raucous and it serves the snitty punk tunes rather nicely.  

Extras include a 15-min Rare 1980 TV interview featuring Stiv, musical collaborator Frank Secich and interviewer Gary Cubberly, and the also Rare 'Sonic Reducer' Video. Both of these extras are tape-sourced and look worse than the concert with lots of disruption and warping, looking like they were recorded onto to VHS from the original TV broadcast. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. Tucked away inside is a 2-sided insert, on one side we get an image of the band and images of the concert tickets for the show, in the reverse side is a track list with songwriting credits. 

Special Features: 
- Rare 1980 TV interview featuring Stiv, musical collaborator Frank Secich and interviewer Gary Cubberly (15:25)

- Rare 'Sonic Reducer' Video (2:57)

Screenshots from the Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray: 

Extras: