http://warner.com/ Rock's jingle jangle man comes to the Fillmore in California where two of three nights were recorded for this concert. Warner Home Video released this latest video on DVD instead of his earlier works to include some of his latest album work. They should have stuck with the other videos instead.

While no one can slight Tom's music, the video direction of this disc is disturbing. The video starts off with a studio recording of California while showing scenes of the Golden State and the Fillmore in anticipation of the concert. Once the concert starts though, the direction takes an unusual turn and one that I could not enjoy. First the song line up : Jammin' Me Runnin' Down The Dream Swingin' Breakdown Listen To Her Heart You Don't Know How It Feels Mary Jane's Last Dance Mona (with Bo Diddley) Lay Down My Old Guitar Even The Losers Walls Angel Dream Room At The Top Country Farm You Wreck Me I Don't Wanna Fight Free Fallin' Free Girl Now The numbers are performed with most of the original Heartbreakers, Mike Campbell, guitar, Howie Epstein, bass, and Keyboards Benmont Tench-The drumming for this gig is handled by Steve Ferrone and additional guitar by Scott Thurston. They know the numbers very well and the band is tight.

Picture-This filmed concert looks grainy in the darkened atmosphere of the Fillmore and in other dark scenes. Director Martyn Atkins has taken an approach of fast cuts throughout the concert, with the scene changing every five or six seconds throughout the numbers. Logical portions that should stay on one camera or subject are cut to pans of other band members and while this technique could be effective to a certain extent in some numbers, it gets tiring, fast, as the entire concert was shot this way! I found I could not enjoy the music or concert by this always changing perspective. It was like being in one place at the concert for five seconds, and then in a totally different place and view 5 seconds later. Some of the shots were out of focus, garbage shots as well. When Mike Campbell does a guitar solo, I want to see his guitar and finger work, not the drummer or bass player. We are robbed of this in this video. Add to that the shots of backstage workers between numbers which really wasn't interesting (guys moving sound equipment-whoopee!) and didn't really seem to have a point and this concert totally disappoints. Sound-Dolby 5.1 and stereo PCM is offered and does not disappoint. The sound is clear and distinct and shows what a tight band the Heartbreakers are. They enjoy their music and Tom is a charismatic songwriter /singer. The new numbers were mostly acoustic, definitely different from the studio album versions and was sort of a mini-unplugged concert. I would have preferred the electric versions but that's Tom's prerogative.

NADA

I can only hope that Warner releases Tom's other videos to disc as this disc was totally unsatisfying. I wanted a Tom Petty concert and got 5 second snippets of one. While I appreciate the creativity attempt to do something new in a concert video, it didn't click with me at all. I'd pass on this one.