This is Audioslave’s first live dvd, which is performed in Cuba and is supposedly the first time an American band has played in Cuba. I’m not sure if this is true, but I don’t plan to get into that during this review because I honestly don’t know about that. Supposedly, there were 60,000 fans in attendance at this free concert, but in the only extra, a documentary about Audioslave’s time in Cuba; Tom Morrelo states that 70,000 fans were at the concert. I have many complaints about this dvd so here is the review of the dvd,
Audioslave-Live in Cuba where I will mention significant things that happen in certain songs.
The Concert-
The dvd starts off with an intro of the music of Be Yourself that has clips from the video of single Your Time Has Come. The first song performed is my favorite song by Audioslave, which is
Set It Off. Right off it becomes apparent that Chris Cornell does not have a good singing voice because I can’t even understand what he is singing. Throughout the dvd Chris’ voice is hoarse and raspy which pretty much ruins the entire concert. On the song
Your Time Has Come Chris shows some improvement with his voice, but it still isn’t very good. However, probably the most popular song from Audioslave,
Like a Stone is completely ruined by Chris’ singing. The next song that is worth mentioning is the first single off of Audioslave’s sophomore album,
Be Yourself. On this song it becomes apparent of something that I wasn’t sure of. That thing is that parts of this dvd’s sound and video are actually not matched up. This is obvious on other songs to that I will mention later. In other parts of this same song the sound will cutout, although I’m not sure why this is. During the beginning of RATM songs
Bulls on Parade and
Sleep Now in the Fire Tom Morrelo talks to the crowd in Spanish thanking them for their hospitality and dedicates the two RATM songs to them. The shortened version of Bulls on Parade is quite excellent partly because Chris doesn’t sing on it. However, when Bulls on Parade ends and Sleep Now in the Fire starts right up, with Chris trying to rap. The lights turn green up on the stage and Chris covers up his mouth with his hands and the mic while he is attempting to “rap”. The music is performed well, but Chris just ruins it. The Soundgarden song,
Outshined, from the album Badmotorfinger is worth mentioning because it is the best song performed on the dvd. Mainly because Chris does a good job singing on the song and the music is played well keeping its grunge feel. This was a surprise to me for it being the best performed song on the dvd because I’m not even that big of a fan of Soundgarden.
The last three songs performed are all very popular Audioslave songs that are from their first album. Those songs are I am the Highway, Show Me How to Live, and first single Cochise. The first couple minutes of
I am the Highway starts off with Chris by himself on stage playing an acoustic version of the song. It’s obvious that during the song that once again the video and sound are not matched up well. Soon the entire band joins in and the song folds out normally, but with Chris still playing the acoustic guitar. Aside from the sound “pops”, I enjoyed the performance of that song because on the entire concert there is little difference from the recordings of the songs. Then that the lights turn green on the stage again and the song
Show Me How To Live starts up. After a slow start, the song gets heavier with some average singing from Chris. There are also some sound “pops” on this song as well, which bother me when I think about it to much. The final song, as well as first single off the bands debut album,
Cochise is played with some good alright backup vocals from Timmy C. and Chris does an average job on it as well. The concert ends with Chris telling the good people of Cuba that if they can come here once there is no reason they can’t come back again.
The One Lonely Extra-
The only extra on the dvd is a thirty-six minute documentary about the members arriving in Cuba and how much they enjoyed their stay. It features interviews of the band members, as well as attending a press conference, and shows some of the things they did. One thing Tom Morrelo did was go to this outdoors party that happens every night and plays on this acoustic guitar while a guy freestyles to it. They visit
The John Lennon Park where a couple members try on the removable glasses of a statue of John; where they learn the glasses have only been stolen about five to six times. Also, they visit
The Nacional Music Institute where Tim Commerford is blown away by this amazing upright bass player. They also donate many things to the institute as well. I find it sad to say that I enjoyed this documentary more than the actual concert itself.
Pros- Despite my dislike for this dvd overall I did find a couple of things that I thought were enjoyable. The first thing is the performance of the songs Outshined, Bulls on Parade, and Show Me How To Live. Also, I like the documentary a lot and thought it was actually pretty neat and has me convinced that someday I must go to Cuba (somehow).
Cons- Sadly, there are many more cons than there are pros. The first con and definitely the most important, is Chris’ singing on the entire dvd. Most of the time his voice is either poor or slightly average and never is really good. The next con is that sometimes during songs the audio and the video are not matched up well at all, which becomes a real nuisance. Also, at times the sound will cut out for maybe just a second and it is like that on more songs than I mentioned, but I could not really tell because those were “masked” up well in the editing. The last really big con is that there is little variation between the recordings of the songs and the live performance meaning that if you already own Audioslave’s two albums, then there is no really good reason to buy this dvd. Even if you are a huge fan you will still probably be disappointed.
Overall this dvd is one of the most disappointing purchases that I’ve ever made. I had always thought that Chris Cornell had a wonderful voice, but evidently that is only in the studio. So even if you are a huge fan of Audioslave I wouldn’t suggest you buy this because all it is worth is a 2 out of 5. Which is very sad because I like Audioslave better than I ever liked RATM or Soundgarden. Feel free to leave any comments about what you thought of this review, what you think of the band, or what you think of this dvd. Thanks.
