Spooky Tooth and Bangles DVD's

[felser]

A couple of really nice Rock DVD's I just picked up. The Spooky Tooth 'Nomads...' is recorded live in Germany in 2004. Mike Harrison, Gary Wright, Mike Kellie, and good musicians on guitar and bass. They sound amazingly good, especially Harrison, who I consider one of the absolute great rock singers. Miraculously, even though he looks ancient, he hasn't lost a thing. Wright still sounds good, Kellie as good as ever. The two-part keyboard and vocal harmonies between Harrison and Wright are as thrilling as ever. Their "reunion" album in '99 was awful, so I didn't expect how good this would be. But they totally ignore that garbage and do pretty much what you would hope: six tunes from 'Spooky Two' ("Waitin' For the Wind" is chillingly good, "Evil Woman" is as it should be),"Sunshine Help Me" and "Tobacco Road" off of 'Its All About", "Wrong Time" off of 'The Last Puff', and one song from 'Witness'. Nothing from 'The Mirror', 'Ceremony', or the comeback album, all of which are basically useless. Also, if you really like Harrison, his first two early-70's solo albums, done before the '73 reorg of Spooky Tooth, are really good ('Rainbow Rider', from '75 is not).

The Bangles are one of my great musical guilty pleasures. The 'Return...' DVD was recorded at the House of Blues in LA (their hometown) when they reformed in late 2000. The classic group, in very good form, doing all the hits and many of the key album tracks. Michael Steel is especially impressive musically, and Susanna Hoffs is still adorable as well as a fine musician. All four still have excellent chops, and the vocal harmonies sound great. "Hazy Shade of Winter" is breathtaking (as is "Stealing Rosemary"), and the rest is great fun, including a rave-up cover of "Pushin' Too Hard". If you're a fan, you won't be disappointed. Wonderful commentary by Hoffs and the Peterson sisters in the special features. BTW, I also really liked their comeback album, 'Doll Revolution'. Get the deluxe dual-disc version with the DVD features.