[.ca] Cranberries: Beneath the Skin - Live in Paris, Vol. 2

From Amazon.com:
Recorded in December 1999 before a massive and wildly enthusiastic French audience, this Cranberries concert is remarkable testimony to the Irish band's seasoning, evolving confidence, and heightened sense of fun in the years since the release of their breakthrough hit singles ("Linger," "Zombie," "Ode to My Family," all performed here). Fans who saw the Limerick-born group's early- '90s tours recognized in singer-songwriter Dolores O'Riordan equal parts gamine, witch, and an inspirational incarnation of W.B. Yeats's Glimmering Girl. Now, however, Beneath the Skin: Live in Paris underscores O'Riordan's more relaxed, womanly stage presence, as well as a rounder, fuller sound from founding members Mike Hogan (bass), his brother Noel Hogan (guitar), and drummer Fergal Lawler. Strutting at various times in a flowing robe, leather mini-skirt, or white pants, the diminutive O'Riordan leads the Cranberries through an overview of their Celtic-tinged, alternately jangly or thrashing repertoire. As always, they're at their best when they reach beyond O'Riordan's tendencies toward lyrical self-congratulation. When they don't, a bit of monotony fogs up the proceedings. When they do, however, which is frequently in Beneath the Skin, the Cranberries demonstrate exquisite pop craftsmanship ("Just My Imagination," not to be confused with the Temptations' classic) and ferocity of spirit ("Animal Instinct"). In any case, the passionate Parisian audience at this show amplifies the band's thorny glories while, paradoxically, easing them into a comfortable encounter with stardom. All in all, this is a must for Cranberries fans and a multifaceted introduction to the group for everyone else. --Tom Keogh

Additional features:
The DVD edition is filled out with supplementary material, some of which is underwhelming (lifeless, backstage photos) while other goodies have genuine value (printed, albeit tiny, lyrics; videos and performance clips going back to 1993). --Tom Keogh

The best Cranberries' Concert Ever!:
With her uniquely sweeet vocal artistry, Dolores O'Riordan dazzlingly shines like ever melodious Irish Rock diamond (If you think there is no such thing, think The Corrs, U2, Sinead O'Connor, Lord of the Dance.., just to name a few...) audio-visually in this rare live concert in Paris, latest as of 2004. (It's about time for another "The Cranberries" album, "Wake up, wake up and smell the coffee" band..!) The 80 minutes live show is full of The Cranberries energy with dedicated band members and cheery audiences. The singer-songwriter Dolores rocks with her natural charm through out the show to a level of musical ecstasy audience yearn for years. The DVD includes Band Documentary Bonus Feature/Short - Live Performance - "How" - 1993 Bonus Feature/Short - Live Performance - "Not Hollywood" - 1996 Bonus Feature/Short - Live Performance - "Saving Grace" - 1999 Music Video - "Promises" Music Video - "Animal Instinct" Music Video - "Just My Imagination", Text/Photo Galleries, Production Stills, Song Lyrics, Photo Gallery. Complete Tracks:1. Promises2. Animal Instinct3. Loud and Clear4. Ode to My Family5. The Icicle Melts6. Linger7. Wanted8. Salvation9. Desperate Andy10. Go Your Own Way11. Pretty, When You're Gone12. I Can't Be With You13. Waltzing Back14. Free to Decide15. Zombie16. Ridiculous Thoughts17. Dying in the Sun18. You and Me19. Just My Imagination20. Delilah and the sweeeet 21. Dreams. -The TreeClub at amazon.com zShop space.

Perfect!:
This DVD shows a great performance of the Cranberries. I really liked it. The voice and everything looks just perfect. This material is something that you cannot miss. If You do not buy it you will regret for the rest of your life. It is a treasure for those who love live concerts and especially The Cranberries. This DVD also includes four songs 'Yesterday's gone' 'hollywood' 'How' and 'saving grace'... Thank you very much for everything dear Cranberries...

Great concert with poor video quality:
The performance is great, the sound simply amazing, but the image quality is simply mediocre. It's full of pixelation...specially on dark scenes. That's why i hate full-featured dvds. In order to fill the dvd with "very interesting" extras on some music videos & the vast majority of movies, the studio has to limit the bitrate compression of the video. This people used a small piece of capacity of the double layer dvd. That's because the 5.1 sound, the pcm sound & the dts sound + the extras. Putting all the extras on other dvd and let the concert & sounds on other will gave the studio more room to make a better looking dvd. Anyway, is a good buy just for the sound & the performance...that's perfect.

Good live show, great DVD features, but singing is flat:
I really like the Cranberries and I picked this DVD up because I wanted to see how they sounded like "live" especially after hearing their greatest hits studio CD. The band here goes through most of their greatest hits (spanning through all 5 of their CDs) "Dreams," "Linger," "Zombie," "Ode to My Family," "Animal Instinct," "You and Me," "Just My Imagination" etc. and they stick closely to the studio versions. Overall, I felt the quality of the band playing (guitar, bass, drums) was up to par and they had really good presence; however, Dolores' singing was often flat, which I found to be pretty disappointing. The worst song was the last one, "Dreams," where Dolores O' Riordan sings way off pitch in the beginning notes, and then she has to make adjustments to get on the right key. If you don't mind the lead singer singing flat, then you would enjoy this live performance. The DVD features however were great. It includes a new documentary "Wake up and smell the Coffee," which traces the development of the band from their beginnings to their latest CD "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee." Also included are some of the music videos from the "Bury the Hatchet" CD. In addition, they included several unplugged performances from 1996 and a rare performance of the song "How." I hope in the future they would select a better live performance to match with the outstanding DVD features.

Easy to summarise in one word.....:
PERFECTION! Everything in this video was perfect - the music, singing, fans, lighting, mixing, venue..... and the DTS track was brilliant... If you are a Cranberries fan, this is a MUST HAVE. If you are a rock/pop fan in general, i highly recommend this DVD. Oh, and as others have said, make sure you get #2.