Soundgarden – Live From The Artists Den

Soundgarden's 2013 North American Tour of small clubs was on another level from any other tour I saw them on between 1994 and 2014.

I knew they taped professionally the last show of the three nights at the Wiltern, since then I've probably sent 10 e-mails spaced out occasionally saying, "guys, any chance that Soundgarden show you taped MIGHT see Blu-ray release at some point"? And after Chris' passing, it seemed more imperative they release this document of Soundgarden's finest tour.

So when it was finally announced this year, I just about peed my gitch. Hooray! And this morning at 8am the good postman knocked at my door and brought me the Blu-ray. 1080p24 high bit-rate AVC/MPEG-4 video and lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio (or stereo PCM option also) - this is the real deal. Great looking picture, stunning 5.1 mix. Also the stereo mix is totally dynamic, no loudness wars mastering here. This truly is a well done Blu-ray deserving of the occasion.

Why is the Blu-ray the best option? Well, with the vinyl you get the same digital master but it's gone through the extra step of cutting it for vinyl, plus it's over 8 sides which means listening start to finish you've flipped records 7 times, that's 7 breaks in the flow of the show. With the CDs you've gone from the 24/48 master to a 16/44.1 CD master and the show is split into two halves, you're flipping discs at the half way point (not literally flipping, but changing)

With the Blu-ray, if you just want to listen, you can turn your TV off and play the show and hear it as it was that night, with no interruptions from start to finish, listening directly to the original master in its original bit depth and sampling rate. No additional conversions, no side gaps, just rock and roll, all for 1/4 of the cost of the vinyl and seems to be listing cheaper than the CD too. Perfect! Like you got the studio master for cheaper than the two inferior formats, and I'm not anti-CD or anti-vinyl but when you get the source material it seems that's the way to go. Give me an all analogue-cut vinyl of an album that was recorded and mixed all to tape like The Beatles in Mono sets? Sure, I'll buy the vinyl in a heartbeat.

We finally have a definitive live document of Soundgarden and it's well worth being in your collection. Buy without reservations.

I'll welcome any and all Soundgarden live releases they manage to source from the vaults, but it's nice to finally have such a great performance for home video with a glorious surround track. This one is going to get lots of replay value.