New Pat Metheny Group DVD due out 10/3! The Way Up Live ...

[Woochifer]

I've been anticipating this DVD release ever since I saw the Pat Metheny Group live early last year in support of their latest album, The Way Up.

The Way Up is a spellbinding album that commands attention all the way through. For one thing, it runs continuously with no breaks and no real song names ("Opening," "Part One," "Part Two," and "Part Three") while threading multiple melodic themes throughout the entire album. Structurally it resembles a prog-rock concept album, except that it's built around jazz improvisation. The album is dense, it's ambitious, it's challenging, it's very radio-unfriendly -- i.e., it's the antithesis of most new music.

With an album structured like this, PMG decided to go for broke by opening the concert the entire album all the way through with no breaks. Watching everything unfold over 70+ minutes was one of the more awesome concert experiences I've ever witnessed. When they finished with The Way Up, the band got a standing ovation and there was still half a concert left to go! (Interestingly, the remainder of the concert almost seemed anti-climactic by comparison) Metheny had revamped his band prior to the disappointing Speaking of Now album, and The Way Up really showcases what these new players are capable of (drummer Antonio Sanchez in particular really demonstrates his mettle this time around).

Since the PMG had released concert DVDs for their three previous tours, I expected (hoped as well!) that a DVD for The Way Up would come out of this latest tour. I read that the PMG had filmed their concerts in Seoul late last year for DVD release, but no official announcements were forthcoming.

But, earlier this month, the announcement came that the tour DVD for The Way Up Live would hit stores on October 3rd. From the track listing on the press release, it looks like the DVD will only include the complete live performance of The Way Up, with nothing from his previous albums. The only bonus feature is a 22-minute interview with Metheny. Might seem like they're short-changing the listener (well, because they are), but as I mentioned, the focus of his last tour was The Way Up and it largely overwhelmed the rest of the show.

No word on the sound specs, but the PMG's previous Speaking of Now Live DVD featured an outstanding 4.1 multichannel mix (deliberately mixed without the center channel) and a full 1.5k resolution DTS soundtrack. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the production quality and sound specs will be comparable this time around.

As an added bonus, The Way Up Live will be simultaneously released on HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Apparently, this will be the first concert video available in all three formats on the day of release.

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