Queensrÿche: Mindcrime at the Moore

Back in the heavy metal-filled days of my teenage youth, I remember writing off Queensrÿche as a hair band trying to mix the rock sound of Iron Maiden with the vocals of Rush. They were two shades of talent shy of Van Halen. Much to my surprise, that is exactly how they still come across to me now, 15 years later.

Ending their 2006 tour at The Moore in their hometown of Seattle, Washington, Queensrÿche decided to give their local fans a special treat - for three sold-out nights they played their two Mindcrime albums back-to-back in their entirety. 'Mindcrime at the Moore' uses performances from all three nights to recreate the best possible experience of one of these special shows.

Unlike I've seen any other metal band do before, Queensrÿche turned their concert into a full-on theatrical production involving original video clips and cartoons, actors, make-up, special effects and voice-overs. I don't know about you, but I go to concerts to hear the music and see the band - not an agenda-filled rock-opera full of bad actors. To top it off, aged frontman Geoff Tate even gives acting a shot, which isn't a pretty sight.

The event begins with Seattle Seahawks' drumline Blue Thunder taking the stage and accompanying the band through snippets of "Remember Now" and "Anarchy X." Once they leave stage, Queensrÿche begins playing just like they did 20 years go, only Tate's voice has become a little more warbly with age.

The show that ensues is filled with jabs at specific politicians, political parties and corporations in general. You'll see a nun helping a junkie shoot-up, then stick the needle into her own arm and get high. You'll see a woman commit suicide, only to have her son walk in a few minutes later. Everything that happens is part of the single-narrative production.

I'm a fan of all live music - be it a genre that I'm particular to or not. The fact that a group of musicians can pull off - and sometimes exceed - a studio sound on stage is impressive, be it a genre I love or hate, but the production itself of 'Mindcrime at the Moore' is too much for me, too much artsy-fartsy content and not enough true rock. It's like watching a bad community theater production with a great live band. It just doesn't balance.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Mindcrime at the Moore' hits Blu-ray on a BD-50 housed in a standard blue keepcase. A six-page booklet is included that details the crew and key production players. Behind the booklet and disc, printed on the back of the cover art insert, is a logo from the 2006 Queensrÿche tour. Upon inserting the disc into a Blu-ray player, a short unskippable vanity reel for Eagle Vision plays before the menu begins.

Eagle Rock has a good reputation when it comes to video quality and 'Mindcrime at the Moore' is no exception. The fan-favorite concert is presented with a 1080i/AVC MPEG-4 transfer in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The quality of the concert itself is decent, not as great as other Eagle Rock Blu-rays, but not terrible either.

'Mindcrime at the Moore' is not as sharp as we've come to expect from high-def, but it still looks pretty good. Great detail can be seen as waves of fog blow through bright and colorful stage lights, as sweat beads up on Tate's face during the second song of the show and in the texture of Tate's black 'Matrix'-esque trench coat - which also exemplifies the great rich black level. Light amounts of noise frequently pop up from time to time, but not in great depth. Edge enhancement and artifacting never make an appearance.

Aliasing and banding aren't present during the concert footage, but are frequent guests in the standard-definition animated and live action videos that play throughout the show. Aliasing is also present in the transparent text that often flashes on screen.

'Mindcrime at the Moore' offers three different listening options: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and LPCM Stereo. The Dolby Digital track is flat, quiet and prominent in the forward channels. The LPCM track fantastically blends the audio between all channels, but the real winner is the Master Audio tracks - at least it is for the first 36 minutes of the show. Around the 36-minute mark, there's an obvious syncing issue where both the music and vocals are visibly off by a split second.

Around the 50:16 mark, sound in the rear speakers chop out. There's no evident moment when it is restored, but it gradually picks up again - that is, until around the 1:08:14 mark. At that point, it not only completely shuts off in the rear and surround speakers, but the volume drops from the front channels. Quiet sounds slowly start playing out of the rear and surround channels in the time that follows, but it isn't until the 1:20:50 mark that it noticeably returns.

At the 1:28:45 mark, the rear and surround channels begin crackling and never let up. But the biggest travesty takes place during the encore. Once again, the rear and surround speakers chop in and out like crazy. It happens so abruptly and frequently that even the untrained ear will pick up on this terrible audio defect. It might as well be a front channel-only encore.

• The Tour Documentary (SD, 24 min.) – It always makes me laugh how quickly people label random behind-the-scenes footage as "documentaries" or "making-ofs." This feature is no different. It opens with fans expressing their love of Queensrÿche and highlights pre-show, mid-show and backstage footage from their show at The Moore and another in Los Angeles - not the whole tour like the feature's title claims. The 2-channel concert audio during this feature is better than that of the actual concert's encore.


• "The Chase" Performed with Ronnie James Dio (SD, 3 min.) – Imagine a concert video compiled of different YouTube cell phone videos from a live performance. That's what the quality of this feature resembles.


• Rock & Ride Charity Motorcycle Ride (SD, 3 min.) – During their 2006 tour, member of Queensrÿche hosted a charity for the Save the Music Foundation in New York City. They rode their bikes across the country between tour stops to help raise money before their NYC Hard Rock Cafe show. This feature is a short promo reel with quick interviews with the band.

I'm not a fan of Queensrÿche. I've always thought that they were unoriginal and 'Mindcrime at the Moore' sure doesn't do a good job trying to convince me otherwise. Instead of paying attention to their music, 'Mindcrime at the Moore' steers your focus to the theatrical production taking place on-stage over the music itself. While the video quality of the live footage is great, the standard-definition video it's riddled with isn't. But the real deal-killer is the bad audio quality. When it's not properly synced, it's crackling and chopping out. Unless you're a Queensrÿche fan, 'Mindcrime at the Moore' isn't worth your time.