Morrison mostly keeps the drama, improvisation, and even the poetry, down to a minimum (at least compared to other Doors live recordings). The setlist is tight and seemingly well-rehearsed, which is especially evident during a medley of "Back Door Man" and "Five To One." But outside of Morrison bending over once to point his ass towards the crowd during "Light My Fire," there is nary a hint of the sort of provocative "indecency" that got both him and his band banned from nearly every arena in America a scant year later.
If anything, The Doors play it both safe and mostly straight on Live At The Bowl '68. Outside of the occasional leap, (and one very dramatic and effective bit where he falls over as if he'd been shot during "The Unknown Soldier"), Morrison displays little of the theatrical flair he is best known for. There is one very funny moment during the mid-section of "When The Music's Over" though. Morrison follows the usual silence of the "I hear a very gentle sound" part by letting a nice burp rip.
But most of the time Morrison and the rest of the band just stand there and play. With just about anyone else, this might make for a fairly boring show. But between Morrison's undeniable stage presence and charisma, and the considerable musical chops of the rest of The Doors, Live At The Bowl '68 keeps you riveted to the screen.
This still isn't quite that definitive live Doors document that fans have been waiting decades for. In all likelihood, it's probably a little too late to expect that. But it comes very close. Bonus features on the DVD include performances of "Wild Child" (from The Smothers Brothers Show) and "Light My Fire" (from The Jonathan Winters Show), as well as behind the scenes featurettes from both then and now.
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