Jewel - Live at Humphrey's by the Bay

Amazon.com

Live at Humphrey's by the Bay is Jewel's first concert disc, and it's a solid success, a blend of signature material and hints of forward progress. Shot just before her 2002 "This Way" tour, the program begins with a startling reminder of Jewel's beautiful pipes on the a cappella "Per La Gloria D'Adorarvi." That protean voice slides gracefully into her whispery and carnal octave-jumper, "Near You Always," adopts a witty, talking blues attitude on "Sometimes It Be That Way," and paints in nocturnal hues for "Grey Matter." Jewel is solo for most of the set, contributing to the sometimes airless feel of her prolific broken-love songs. But "The New Wild West" is an imagistic, extroverted wonder, and "Everybody Needs Someone Sometime" is sassy and shimmering. --Tom Keogh

Description

Shot over two performances on a summer night just before the launch of her ©¯This Way©~ tour,"Live at Humphrey's By the Bay" is Jewel's first ever Live Concert DVD. Remixed and Mastered to Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS Surround and Dolby Stereo, "Live at Humphrey's By the Bay©~ captures the true essence of this Multi-platinum singer/songwriter's decade long career. With album sales topping 25 million, "Live at Humphrey's By the Bay" includes all of Jewel©^s signature songs including Hands, Everything Breaks Sometime, and You Were Meant For Me and brings you a front row seat in an intimate setting by one of the greatest artists of our generation.

Customer Reviews:

Short, but sweet, intimate and interactive........2007-09-08

A beautiful performance by a beautiful singer. Jewel shines in this short (about 57 minutes), but sweet concert performed in San Jose, California. There are also four bonus songs totalling about 14 minutes, an 11.5 minute interview, and a 4 minute picture gallery, thus equalling about 87 minutes in total running time. It's all in full screen, with no subtitle option. There are simple, but effective lighting effects that don't detract from her performance, as well as some nice fades and overlaying of images that help make repeated viewings more enjoyable and soothing. The interactive part of the Dvd, comes in the form of the Jukebox bonus feature, which lets you play any of the 17 songs (unfortunately, NOT any of the four bonus songs) in any order you like. You can even choose to play the same song, 17 times in a row, if you wanted to. It's fast loading and rather seemless. Other music Dvd's also have this wonderful feature, however, a greater percentage of them do not have it!

I listened to the 2.0 channel stereo track and found it loud enough to enjoy (so many music Dvds are so weak in volume that they are almost useless). The four bonus songs are a little louder and thus closer to Cd quality, but it's all definitely good enough to recommend. My favorite performance is Jewel's acoustic version of "Break Me". I watched it so often that I even noticed a very quick digital (audio-only) hiccup, at about the 29:05 mark of the Dvd, during that song. It was on both my rental copy and the one that I bought from Amazon. It's too minor to generally notice, but I was listening so intently, that I noticed it. According to the "This Way" Cd (sold separately) liner notes, "Break Me" is a love song she wrote for her husband, Ty. One of the lines in the song, "sharp end of what you say", was from a Rickie Lee Jones song (Jewel asked her if she could use it).

Some of the concert's song choices are a little questionable, as are some of the omissions (that's why I didn't give it 5 stars). For example, how can you leave out the song, "This Way", from the "This Way" tour concert? How about, instead of playing the same concert version of "Break Me" during the four minute photo gallery, you instead play "This Way", "Life Uncommon", or even "Enter From the East". Note: The photo gallery is made up of eight photos that start off as closeups and then they slowly zoom out: 2 are in b+w, 2 are almost identical photos-like the Dvd cover, 1 nice face closeup, 1 side view of her in sexy pink dress, and 2 other okay poses. Plus, give us more pictures! The Dvd photo gallery from Tori Amos' "Tales of a Librarian" bonus Dvd had 48 pictures (though no zooming), also done in 4 minutes.

After Jewel finishes singing the first song of the concert, she removes her jacket to reveal the trademark Jewel cleavage, and gets a few whistles. She jokingly says, "Wooo...You dorks. Woo, she took her coat off. That's what I like to get applauded for". Another highlight occurs when she calls a pretty blonde woman onstage, who's clearly enamoured with Jewel (watch how Jewel reacts when the woman moves behind her and touches Jewel's shoulders--funny stuff), to help her with the lyrics to "Kiss the Flame". She wasn't kidding. She really has trouble remembering her song lyrics. Again, from the liner notes of the "This Way" Cd, she admits that the false start in "Sometimes It Be That Way" (Live Cd version), was just her forgetting the lyrics--then, on the Cd, you hear a fan shout them out and she says, "Thank you."

Also, in the "Grey Matter" song, there's a verse (taken from the lyrics that come with the actual "This Way" Cd) that goes, "A scrape against silence, a knife across a plate." However, in both the Cd and in her Dvd performance, she incorrectly sings, "a knife AGAINST a plate." Another verse is, "You got gold dust in your pocket, you got moth holes in your soul." But on the Cd live version, she incorrectly sings, "You got MOTH HOLES in your pocket, you got moth holes in your soul." However, on this Dvd, she sings it correctly.

Although, sometimes she intentionally changes words or phrases to keep her live performances different from her Cd's, so that it's more entertaining and fun. For instance, in "Sometimes It Be That Way" (from her Live performance on the "Live at Humphrey's..." Dvd), she sings "He said, SWEETHEART, I don't think you quite understand...", whereas in her Live performance on the "This Way" Cd, she sings: "He said, JEWEL, I don't think you quite understand." The CORRECT lyrics use the word "JEWEL" in the song, so she doesn't always alter the lyrics for every live performance of a song. However, in the Dvd version, she also switched some minor lyrics near the very end of the song, as well.

She finally ends the concert with a soulful and somewhat sexy rendition (yeah, shake those hips Jewel), of "Who Will Save Your Soul?". I liked the occasional quick edits that were used here to match the beats of the song. She also doesn't play her guitar this time, so we finally get a good look at her partial bare belly. Might be a bit chunky, but I think the jeans are just a bit too tight, or perhaps I'm used to seeing too many starved women on Tv. You're still smokin' hot, Jewel, don't you worry.

Of the four bonus songs, "Standing Still", although just a montage, is my favorite. The other three are shot with an often shaky hand-held camera, from a side or three-quarter view. They're rather dull, but at least in "Jesus Loves You" (3:19), Jewel is wearing a tight, low-cut, red blouse, that the camera man zooms in on. She does sing, "Showing ta-tas on the tv is ok...I wanna be ok too.", so the camera man is just doing what she's singing about. Unfortunately, there is no 'Play All' option for these four songs.

So, I really enjoyed this Dvd, but it should have been longer with a better song selection. You were meant for ME, Jewel. I'll wait for you...

wiggle tooth live.......2007-09-06

she is so down to reason, easy to understand and make sense of her music. she is quite an entertainer and fun to listen to.

I Liked Most Of This DVD, But What I Didn't Like I REALLY Didn't Like.......2007-06-17

I've only heard a couple of Jewel songs before watching this tape. I was very impressed with hearing her sing "O Holy Night". I also heard "Standing Still" and "You Were Meant For Me" on the radio.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this DVD. I was impressed that most of the set was with just an acoustic guitar. I also could tell more of an emphasis on the lyrics than a lot of other pop musicians. I thought her audience participation early in the concert was unique and gutsy. And I love Jewel's sound.

Considering I'm a fundamentalist Christian minister, though, some of her songs made me very uncomfortable, especially "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "Jesus Loves Me". It is possible that the lyrics are concerned with hypocritical Christians primarily, and if that is the main focus, I can't argue with her. But if these lyrics are a mockery of Christianity, it is enough for me to consider myself a former Jewel fan. And I hope it isn't mockery.

I'm sure some people will say I wasn't helpful just because of what I said, but I trust readers really want to know how the reviewer sees it subjectively as well as objectively.

Back to being objective, there is a video of her setting up live and signing autographs with "Standing Still" in the back ground. I was disappointed that song was not part of the concert.

In summary, if you like a female folk singer, you'll enjoy this project. I do have some reservations, and it is because I'm trying to decide if Jewel is either someone who was burned by hypocrites, or if she paints all Christians as hypocrites and is basically at war with everything I believe.

My favorite tracks were "Per la Gloria d'Adorarvi", "Everything Breaks Sometimes", "Grey Matter", "Break Me", and "The New Wild West".

fall in love with Jewel all over again.......2006-05-26

This live recording captured over a few summer nights in 2001 at San Diego's Humphry's by the bay is an awesome showcase for the raw and emotional filled songs of this talented beauty. She shows her vocal ranges by beginning with an aria, and who else could pull that off? She also shows forth her song writing skills and her sense of humor early on by pulling a nervous audience member and having her whisper the words of a song she supposedly had forgotten, we think not, but it was a nice moment. All in all, a great DVD to have if you are a jewel fan.

If you've never seen Jewel live.......2005-11-22

I really like this concert DVD, even though I don't have anything to compare it to. But let me tell you something, this DVD does NOT do a good job of showing what a real Jewel show is like. During a regular Jewel show, she spends 2-5 minutes talking in between every song, which she does not show here. Also, she tells stories about many of the songs, and performs comedy acts. This is a good concert DVD is you are a beginning Jewel fan and you would like to have a taste of what she is like live.

BUT, please note that this does not do a good job of representing her live shows. So if you saw this and you decide not to go to one of her shows because you didn't like the DVD, please reconsider. She never plays with a setlist, and the whole show is composed of 95% requests from audience members.

Getting back on topic about the actual DVD, the song selection is very poor, and while they did a good job of making sure her hit singles are included, they did not include many other note-worthy performances.

In my opinoin, the only thing that makes this DVD worthy of $20, is the special features and a few good performances. But you would definatly be better off seeing her live.

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