Whitesnake – Live In The Still of The Night

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impulse buy

AFM Records
Produced by Coming Home Studios

Many people were highly doubtful over the Whitesnake reunion back in 2003. They were all silenced pretty quickly as it was clear the new line-up was possibly the best yet. Certainly the most entertaining, even if their studio credentials remain unproven as a unit. This DVD proves further that the new-look ‘snake are indeed tighter, heavier and more flamboyant than ever.

Recorded on the 2004 tour at London’s legendary Hammersmith Apollo (where the Live In The Heart of The City album was recorded in 1980) this release gains instant bonus points for including a CD version (with only selected songs, granted) of the show, something all live DVDs should do and something band leader David Coverdale thought wouldn’t happen for contractual reasons. Selling them separately is all well and good, but why should we have to pay twice for the same recording when a deluxe double package such as this is far more appealing?

The key features of a good live DVD are all here; great picture quality, great sound quality and great editing. As I’ve said in reviews before, fast-paced editing can ruin otherwise good live DVDs (see Mob Rules‘ Signs of The Time), but that’s been avoided here, with each shot lasting a sensible length of time. The occasional switch to black and white from time to time is very annoying (and totally unnecessary), but these are only fleeting moments, and can easily be overlooked.

Being a straight audio rip of the DVD, the CD is obviously also excellent in terms of sound quality. It lacks a few songs (there are sixteen on the DVD, not including the unlisted Stormbringer in the middle of Burn, and only ten on the CD), but most of the key tracks are present, with only Crying In The Rain missing from the real stand-out songs of the set.

As any that have seen the revamped Whitesnake will confirm, the new line-up is much heavier than any previous line-up, and guitarist Doug Aldrich in particular really brings a more chugging feel to a lot of the riffs. Purists who think bands can’t change and Whitesnake have been terrible ever since they stopped making the blues-rock of the early albums probably won’t like this new sound, but I can assure the more open-minded that the grooving riffs of tracks like Slide It In and Still of The Night are no less motion-inducing than they’ve been in the past.

As classic rock DVDs go, it rarely gets much better than this.

“ flamboyant ”

Tracklist: Burn / Bad Boys / Love Ain’t No Stranger / Ready An’ Willing / Is This Love / Give Me All Your Love / Judgement Day / Snake Dance / Cryin’ In The Rain / Ain’t No Love In The Heart of The City / Don’t Break My Hear Again / Fool For Your Loving / Here I Go Again / Take Me With You / still of The Night
Bonus CD: Burn / Give Me All Your Love / Is This Love / Love Ain’t No Stranger / Judgement Day / Ain’t No Love In The Heart of The City / Fool For Your Loving / Here I Go Again / Take Me With You / still of The Night

Written by Andy Lye
More: Hard Rock, Live DVDs, Whitesnake