Steelheart - 'Still Hard' (DVD)
Released in 2007 through Steelheart Records
www.steelheart.com
THE BAND:
Miljenko Matijevic (a.k.a. Michael Matijevic) -
vocals/guitar/piano
Chris Risola - lead guiitar
Frank Di Costanzo - rhythm guitar
John Flower - drums
James Ward - bass
DVD CONTENTS:
Disc I:
Japan Tour '90:
1.) "Love Ain't Easy"
2.) "Like Never Before"
3.) "Gimme Gimme"
4.) "Girl Gone Crazy"
5.) "I'll Never Let You Go"
6.) "Can't Stop Me Lovin' You"
drum/guitar
solo
7.) "Rock n' Roll (I Just Wanna)"
Videos:
1.) "I'll Never Let You Go"
2.) "Can't Stop Me Lovin' You"
3.) "She's Gone"
4.) "Everybody Loves Eileen"
5.) "Stick Side Up"
6.) "Wait"
Acoustic Shows:
1.) "She's Gone"
2.) "Shelia"
3.) "Mama Don't You Cry"
4.) "Electric Chair"
5.) "Shangrila"
Disc II:
Bootleg Concert: Toad's Place '91
1.) Backstage
2.) "Like Never Before"
3.) "Everybody Loves Eileen"
Instrumental Jam
4.) "Shelia"
5.) "I'll Never Let You Go"
6.) "She's Gone"
7.) "Down n' Dirty"
Extras:
1.) "I'll Never Let You Go" (TV appearance)
2.)"She's Gone" (TV appearance)
3.) The making of "Everybody Loves Eileen"
4.) "She's Gone" (alternate version)
5.) Before There Was Steelheart there was Red Alert
6.) Photo Gallery
7.) Interview in London '90
8.) Interview in New Haven '91
9.) Interview in Hollywood '92
10.) The Making of 'Tangled in Reins'
11.) Soundcheck
12.) The accident in Denver
disc I:
The first performance on disc one
was filmed on Steelheart's Japanese tour in 1990 in support of the band's
self-titled freshman release. The entire crowd knows what song the band is
opening the show with just as soon as they hear the distinct familiar Miljenko
vocal scream of ”…Love…Ain’t… Easy…”. From this vocal line up throughout
the rest of the concert, the five members of Steelheart give 2 hundred and ten
percent! On the second song “Like Never Before” there are a few microphone
screeches this is do to engineering error and not Miljenko vocals.
The sound and picture quality are excellent even
for something recorded seventeen years ago. If I am not mistaken, the live
footage shot from three or four different camera angles, which, leads me to
believe this section of the DVD was released on VHS probably in the early
nineties. Miljenko vocal screams are dead on proving why he is the
ultimate vocalist. Steelheart’s set list included a song called “Girl Gone
Crazy” which, is not on the American release of their self-titled debut. This
song was either a b-side (which, in that time was very common) or, a
track that is on the Japanese release. In between the sixth and seventh song of
the band’s set list there is a drum/guitar solo and though they were awesome,
and yes, I am fully aware solo’s were huge during this time I would have much
more preferred a full song. Especially, when the band consists of what could be
argumentatively the greatest lead vocalist of that era! For the last song on
the set list “Rock n’ Roll” Miljenko tries to get a little crowd participation,
but the Japanese crowd seemed very lost. The only reason I could come up with
was the language difference. Cause there is no way they could have been
bored!!!
The video section of ‘Still Hard’, as far as I know, consists of every
video the band has ever done including one new one taken off Steelheart’s ‘Wait’
released in 1996. The videos are subtitled and at first, the jury had been out
on that. I just could not decide if the subtitles helped or hindered the
images. My wife made the decision for me. As she was watching the videos, I
noticed her eyes were flashing back and forth between the words and images. I
then had a premonition were unlike me there are probably a lot of Steelheart
fans out there who may not know every word. The first three acoustic
performances; "She's Gone", Shelia" and "Mama Don't You Cry" were taped in I
believe Hong Kong the show was very similar to American MTV's show 'Unplugged'.
Accompanying Miljenko on piano and guitar these was Steelheart bassist James
Ward. Hearing "She's Gone" acoustically was amazing. Miljenko's vocal scream
at the end of "Shelia" shows why he is the ultimate lead vocalist!!!
My wife stated that during the song "Mama Don't You Cry" Miljenko's vocals had
her mesmerized. The last two songs, "Electric Chair" and "Wait" were taken off
Steelheart's 1996 release titled 'Wait'. This performance was recorded at a
different time with a different guitarist. Because of the vocal style Miljenko
is currently singing in I thought these two songs sounded better acoustically
than the studio versions did.
disc II:
The bootleg concert was recorded at Toad's Place (www.toadsplace.com)
on August 27, 1991 in New Haven, Connecticut. The quality of sound and film was
better than most bootleg concerts. Outside of, "Everybody Loves Eileen",
"Shelia", and "She's Gone" the set list is pretty much the same the band used as
the concert on disc I. Instead of any solo sections there is a small
instrumental jam that includes Chris Risola (guitar), Frank DiCostanzo (guitars),
and Miljenko sharing a bottle of Tequila. The intro section of "Never Let You
Go" sounded like it speeded up and pushed. The sound quality on Miljenko mic
was rough sounding. I would like to add that this was not due to Miljenko or
the band. Miljenko has one of the strongest voices in rock music and in my
opinion, as a former sound engineer myself, the person running the mixing board
should have controlled this a little better. With that being said the live
version of "She's Gone" was awesome and makes up for the engineering problems.
DVD II is packed with several extras that include; live TV performances of "I'll
Never Let You Go" and "She's Gone", the making of the video "Everybody Loves
Eileen", an alternate version of "She's Gone"; from what I can tell the only
difference between the two versions of the video is the alternate video
consisted a female actress. This alternate version blows the version MTV
rotated away!!! Other extras include a rare unreleased track titled, "No
Mercy" when Steelheart was going by the band name Red Alert, three interviews
conducted in; '90, '91, and '92 , The making of 'Tangled In Reins', The Accident
in Denver; This was the last performance the original Steelheart line-up would
ever play.
No one could have anticipated that within sixteen months
after the release of Steelheart’s self-titled debut the music business would
forever change with the release of Nirvana’s – ‘Nevermind’. Due to this along
with ‘The Accident In Denver’ the band never really got the exposure they
deserved. In the studio, the vocal scream accents are very easy to process
because they record the vocals sometimes over a period of days. However,
pulling this off live, well, that is a different story you have one shot, one
take. Miljenko pulls these off with easy showing why he is the greatest
vocalist to come out of the hard rock era! This double DVD is a must have for
all Steelheart or eighties hard rock fans!!!