Am I a Foreigner fan? Yeah, kinda. I enjoy a trip down Foreigner lane every once and a while. They pop up on my Journey Pandora station every once and a while. Yes, I have a station on Pandora Radio specifically tuned to the fine musical prowess of Journey. What's wrong with that? Huh?
I've never been a big consumer of concerts on Blu-ray, I don't really know why. Sometimes they can be quite fun. It's cool to see a concert that you'd otherwise never be able to see. In this case its Foreigner playing on the PBS Soundstage to a group of forty-somethings all gyrating to the rocking good music.
There's not much else to report on the review front. Either you like Foreigner and you've been waiting for this Blu-ray release ever since the invention of the format or you don't care in the least. For those of you who don't care, why are you reading this review anyway? For those of you who do, let me offer up a track list to whet your musical appetites.
"Night Life"
"Head Games"
"Cold As Ice"
"Waiting For A Girl Like You"
"Too Late"
"Say You Will"
"Long, Long Way From Home"
"Double Vision"
"Blue Morning, Blue Day"
"Dirty White Boy"
"Starrider"
"Feels Like The First Time"
"Urgent"
"Juke Box Hero"
"I Want To Know What Love Is"
"Hot Blooded"
All your favorites are here included "Cold As Ice", "Double Vision", and "Hot Blooded". It isn't the longest set list, but the 105 minute runtime is more than enough to get your fill of Foreigner. It's worth a look if you're into concert Blu-rays, and dig Foreigner's sound.
The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats
Image Entertainment brings 'Foreigner: Live' to Blu-ray by way of a 25GB Blu-ray disc, which is housed in a standard keepcase. Coded for region A.
This is the way you expect concert footage to look on Blu-ray. The 1080p picture here has a clean, crisp, digital look to it. Shadows are delineated with perfection as the stage lights swing up and around casting shadows wherever they go.
Detail is sharp too. Kelly Hansen's shirt may look like he stole it from a pair of kitchen curtains, but the small swirly patterns are always easy to discern from the rest of the shirt's jet blackness.
With all the flashing lights, and bursting neon in the background it's easy for concert Blu-rays to slip up every so often and produce mild blocking. Here I didn't see any of that happening. Lights sweep across the screen smoothly leaving no artifacts in their wake. Banding and aliasing were also nowhere to be found. Fans will be proud.
And now for the most important part of a concert Blu-ray, the sound. There are two options here. You can choose the full-bodied lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix, or a 2.0 stereo version.
The 5.1 mix does the band proud, reproducing their famous music with clarity and fidelity. Vocals are always clear as Hansen's vocals ring out through the soundstage. The cheering crowd is piped into the rear speakers, but if I have one complaint it's that the rears are a little unengaged especially for a concert. This could be due to the relatively small audience size, this isn't a huge stadium they're playing in. LFE pounds along with the drum beats and basslines of their most famous songs. There's not much more you could ask from this track. If you want to jam along with Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen and crew then this is the Blu-ray presentation for you.
There are no special features on this disc.
This one is easy enough. If you're a Foreigner fan you'll be all over this release, if not, then it doesn't matter anyway. These concert Blu-rays are for niche audiences only. The video and audio are great so you know that you're getting a very decent concert in return. For fans only.
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