Search - Ruben Blades :: Cali Concert

Awful, pirated-sounding recording of a brilliant concert

John Bartelt | L.A., CA USA | 02/07/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Five stars for an AMAZING concert (similar to the one I saw him give live in L.A.) by The Master - Ruben Blades - my personal, musical, and political hero, and the best songwriter and singer alive today.



Zero stars for a virtually unlistenable amateur production. It's a horrible, mushy mix, that I doubt even came off the mixing board, and is unsuitable for discriminating ears. Not much EQ or dynamic range, and a very poor, and constantly-changing, mix/balance throughout.



I can almost guarantee that Ruben Blades had nothing to do with, and would not approve of, this release. I suspect the audio (and it's accompanying video, which I also bought) were pirated. What a shame. I would give almost anything to have a top-quality DVD concert production of Ruben Blades in all his glory with Editus et al. This is nothing that anyone would want to listen to twice - if you can even make it through once without wincing.

"