I've been waiting a long time for a good concert DVD from the Jethro Tull camp, and with Live At Montreux 2003, it has finally arrived. Now all I need is one like this from their 1970's heyday and I will be a really happy camper.
Tull's Living With The Past DVD from 2002 offered a pretty decent jumble of performance footage taken mostly from a 2001 London concert, but it was exactly that — a jumble. Behind-the-scenes footage was interspersed between and during most of the live performances, which also alternated between various shows. You will see no such nonsense on this DVD.
Live At Montreux 2003 was, to borrow a phrase from myself, exactly that — A complete and uninterrupted recording of Jethro Tull's July 4, 2003 Montreux Jazz Festival appearance. Back in the summer of 2003, Ian Anderson and his Tull mates visited Claude Nobs' famous festival for the first time, and threw down this amazing 19-song set that covered everything from their 1968 debut album, This Was, to their then soon-to-be-released, Christmas album, which was appropriately titled The Jethro Tull Christmas Album.
The DVD wastes no time getting right to the performance as it starts with the band already on stage as Anderson launches into a fiery harmonica solo to kick off "Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You" from their bluesy debut.
For most of the first half of the set they stick mostly to the acoustic and eclectic stuff such as "Life Is A Long Song," the Christmas album version of "Bourée," referred to here as "Version de Noel," of which Anderson humorously degrades as "sleazy, cocktail lounge jazz," and the folksy Benefit album opener "With You Their To Help Me."
A couple of nice solo-album tunes were also thrown into the mix early, beginning with Martin Barre's acoustic jazz number "Empty Cafe," from his 1994 album Trick Of Memory, along with Anderson's own "Eurology," from his 2003 solo album Rupi's Dance.
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