Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

The Carnival of Sins Blu-ray Disc captures Mötley Crüe on their 2005 Red, White and Crüe reunion tour; bringing together the band's classic lineup of Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee. Performing on a circus tent stage set - complete with excessive pyrotechnics, fire breathing midget, erotic aerialists and demonic clowns - the band proved they had not lost their ability to entertain.

The first half of the disc's set is the strongest as the band tear through the hits and fan favorites from their first two and, arguably, best albums of their careers, Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil. From the opening number "Shout at the Devil," they go straight into "Too Fast for Love" and "Ten Seconds to Love," and the crowd seems to enjoy every minute of it.

Unfortunately, things bog down right around the performance of "Wild Side" and the band go into a hodgepodge of their lesser-quality, though still familiar late-eighties material, such as "Dr. Feelgood," "Same Ol' Situation" and "Kickstart My Heart" plus two solos from bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee. Even the wildly successful power-ballad, "Home Sweet Home," is disrupted by Vince Neil's constant need to request the audience's participation in singing along.

Still, Carnival of Sins is well worth it for any Crüe fan solely on the strength of the first half of the set alone in order to hear the band perform their classic material with such zeal. It's like they had a renewed sense of artistic drive. One could sense they were pleased to be performing the material once again; it wasn't just a chore.  The circus tent stage set and over-the-top pyrotechnics and light show also go a long way in keeping one entertained. This is pure spectacle, the likes of which have not been seen since the eighties.

The Picture

Carnival of Sins was originally shot in high definition using twenty cameras and is presented on this Blu-ray Disc in a 1.78:1 1080i/60 VC-1 encoding.  Flesh tones are accurate and black levels are superb. Video noise is sometimes excessive in long distance shots, but mostly the picture is clean and well detailed when the purposeful digital "noise" effects aren't being utilized. The band's extensive light and pyrotechnic show is captured without a hint of macroblocking and there is no evidence of any compression artifacts such as posterization.

The Sound

Offering Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio with no lossless or uncompressed options, the sound on this release was lackluster. Listening to the 5.1 mix for the purposes of this review, the high frequencies were tizzy, the soundstage was closed, midrange was boxy and there was even very distinct digital distortion that could be heard when the crowd noise peaked.

Mixed from an audience perspective, there was far too much ambience applied, giving the mix an amorphous, cavernous sound where instruments just bled together; no doubt made worse by the lossy Dolby Digital encoding. Lead and background vocals were lost straight through the performance and even Mick Mars' guitar, both rhythm and leads, were nothing more than indistinct sounds. In short, a poor mix and lossy codec combine to make this a nightmarish audio experience, which is a travesty. There is no excuse for leaving off lossless or uncompressed audio options from an audio-centric high-definition release such as this.

The Extras

Consisting of mainly behind-the-scenes featurettes, the extras on this disc really do not offer much replay value at all.

• Inside the Big Top: A Mötley DoCrüementary (1.78:1/standard definition) - a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the tour, including looks at the circus tent stage set being set up, the road crew, traveling chef, etc.
• Blow it Up! (1.78:1/standard definition) - band and crew discuss the show's extensive pyrotechnic effects.
• Mötley Crüe's Greatest Tits (1.78:1/standard definition) - the title says it all for this degrading bonus feature. This specifically features the part of the night where Tommy Lee urges female members of the audience to flash their breasts for his "titty cam," as the band so refer to it.  This nonsense was better left off of this disc.
• Meet and Greet  (1.78:1/standard definition) - this behind-the-scenes featurette shows a meet and greet with the band and a group of fans who paid for a special V.I.P package.

Final Thoughts

By no means a perfect performance, but certainly worth it for any fan of Mötley Crüe, Carnival of Sins on Blu-ray Disc is a fine visual document of the band's 2005 reunion tour that unfortunately suffers from an abysmal audio mix made all the worse by the lossy Dolby Digital encoding. I urge all fans of high definition concert discs to implore all studios to offer some form of lossless or uncompressed audio on these types of releases in the future.  It only makes sense for a music-focused disc in high definition!

Where to Buy:

• Mötley Crüe: Carnival of Sins Blu-ray Disc on Amazon.com

Product Details

• Actors: Mötley Crüe
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, Live
• Audio/Language: English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0
• Region: ABC (All Regions)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R
• Studio: Concert Hot Spot
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: May 6, 2008
• Run Time: 200 minutes
• List Price: $29.99
• Extras:
  • Inside the Big Top "A Mötley DoCrüementary"
  • Mötley Crüe's Greatest Tits
  • Meet & Greet

  • Blow it Up