The concert was recorded at the Oakland Coliseum on December 30th and 31st 1981 for Home Box Office. Eagle Rock has taken those tapes and digitally re-mastered the audio for both Dolby 5.1 and DTS surround sound systems so modern systems can get the most out the music. There's not much that can be done about video quality on these old tapes, but thankfully the original film was in great condition and there's only one or two occasions where the video has a bit of a flaw, and even that is just a little bit of colour streaking probably caused by a light refracting in a camera lens.
As for the concert itself, it's everything I could have hopped for. First of all, the band has been expanded by a four piece horn section. There's now fourteen guys on stage in wonderfully elaborate and colourful costumes, moving and dancing in perfect sync with the music and each other. The show opens with an elaborate display of lights and smoke announcing the arrival of the band, who appear either out of hidden entrances or via hydraulic lifts from under the stage.
Unlike a lot of bands who have used elaborate light shows to hide any deficiencies that they might have musically, once the music starts in earnest, the lights and lasers are put on the back burner and the music takes center stage with Earth, Wind & Fire. The stage was set up as a series of ramps and risers, with the horn section having a home base stage left, drums stage right, and keyboards located just behind the drum kit. Dotted around the front of the stage, where a couple of ramps converged, was the home of the vocalists. Stationed around them were little islands of percussion instruments, where one or other of the vocalists would take a turn when not singing lead.
Meanwhile, the bass player and guitar players were in constant motion; one moment standing far down stage with the vocalist, the next scampering - in perfect time with the music - up and down the ramps on all sides. Amazing as it may sound, in spite of it seeming like all fourteen people being in constant motion, it never became chaotic on stage. The choreography was so tight that nobody was doing anything that didn't fit with what was going on with the music or what was happening around them. It was like a set of interlocking cogs that took their impetus from the central gear that was the singers.
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