All Movie Guide

In the fall of 1999, the Who were booked to perform at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas as part of "iBash," a wildly lavish launch party for Pixelon.com, an internet company promising advanced new technology in streaming on-line sound and video. A few months later, it was discovered that Pixelon.com was a massive swindle perpetrated by a man already wanted by the law for stock market fraud, and that the Who's performance, which was supposed to be web-cast to a potential audience of a billion people around the world, was only seen by a few thousand fans on hand for the concert. However, seven years after the fact the Who's "iBash" set has been released on DVD, and shows the legendary British band -- Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle, joined by drummer Zak Starkey and John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards -- truly delivered the goods that evening in a set packed with their hits. The Who: The Vegas Job has been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and the image quality is good, though occasionally the stage lighting effects wash out the video image. The audio has been mastered in two formats, Dolby Digital Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1, and the concert sounds vibrant either way, though there's more body and presence in the surround mix than in its leaner two-channel counterpart. The songs are performed in English, with no multiple language options or subtitles. As a bonus, the disc includes interviews with Daltrey and Entwistle shot the evening for the show, as well as footage of the show's master of ceremonies asking fans in the audience (many of whom seem rather well-oiled) about what drew them to the show. This is a solid document of a strange evening in the life of the Who, as well as clear evidence that the band could still perform with estimable force and passion a quarter-century into their careers. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025493165296
• Source: PASSPORT
• Region Code: 0
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Time: 1:55:00
• Sales Rank: 29,373

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