After yet another Highway number, "Be My Friend", Rodgers introduces a brand new song in the name of "Warboys (A Prayer for Peace)". He plays the acoustic guitar throughout and sings about his desire for mankind to finally get past its need for warfare. This is easily one of his finest moments since leaving Bad Company, which proves that he still has some creative spark left. Speaking of Bad Company, Rodgers finally breaks out some "Feel Like Makin' Love" and "Bad Company" for the crowd, but I just could not have been less impressed with these performances.
Although Paul's vocals were as good as ever, the thick power chord crunch of Mick Ralphs' guitar was completely unrivaled by these performances, even with two guitarists tag teaming the parts. You would think that these live versions would sound more powerful than the old studio versions, but they sounded downright anemic. "Can't Get Enough", which closed out the first encore set, faired only slightly better, thanks in part to the marvelous harmony lead section laid down by Leese and Dengler.
Rodgers' introduces "I Just Want To See You Smile" with "here's a new, old song", since it was a complete reworking of an old reggae song he wrote while down in Jamaica several years ago. Rodgers also revisits "Louisiana Blues", which he first covered on his excellent Muddy Waters tribute album of 1993 titled, Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters. Now this one absolutely rocked the house, the way the Bad Company stuff should have.
A trio of Free classics bring the first set to a close, climaxing with a smokin' audience participation fueled performance of "All Right Now". Free's "I'm a Mover" and "The Hunter" carried the encore set and they simply tore it up. If you have any doubts as to whether this Dengler kid can hold his own with the big boys, then check out his impressive performances on these two numbers. The show closes with a fairly lackluster version of "Can't Get Enough", and then Rodgers comes back out for a solo performance of "Seagull", just him and his acoustic guitar. I never did think that a ballad was a good way to end a rock concert.
The production quality of this DVD was excellent overall. Three audio options are provided in the flavor of DTS 5.1 surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, and Dolby stereo. The two Dolby options were more than adequate, but the DTS track really sounded exceptional. The picture was presented in anamorphically enhanced, widescreen, high-def video, which to us laymen simply means that it looked pretty damn good. The DVD does have one of the worst layer change gaffes that I have ever come across, occurring smack dab in the middle of "All Right Now". There's no excuse for that.
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