JACK IN THE GREEN - LIVE IN GERMANY

The idea of this DVD is almost strange, a collection of Jethro Tull's performances in Germany. In practice it does work, but more Like one concert with bonus material than as a complete collection.

What you get is one very good concert from 1982, during the Broadsword era with songs like 'Fallen On Hard Times,' and 'Pussy Willow,' mix it up with classic tracks like 'Heavy Horses,' 'Sweet Dream,' and the ever present concert closing duo of 'Aqualung,' and 'Locomotive Breath,' all performed effortlessly, with a pretty decent audio mix and visuals. This part of the DVD is where you feel you've got your money's worth, a well and recorded concert with enough classic material on it to keep you happy and Ian's voice is still at its best.

Then however, you get another concert which was worse audio, worse visuals and the performance feels a little flatter and less energetic, with Ian's voice not as strong as on the other concert. As a bonus this is fine but it doesn't stand up incredibly well on its own and while its certainly good, it doesn't exactly feel great. The performance of 'Thick as a Brick,' is interesting with some jamming and segments from the second half that the band usually don't play live and the version of 'Too Old To Rock and Roll?' is solid enough.

Then there is a kind of poorly recorded, filmed and mixed version of Hunting Girl that doesn't begin entirely at the beginning, followed by a well shot but very dull TV spot from the early nineties and then an absolutely fantastic 'Benefit,' era live spot where they play a haunting and fantastically recorded version of 'With You There To Help Me,' and a strange version of 'Nothing is Easy,' that's full of mistakes because it looks like Ian's ribs are injured. Then it ends, abruptly.

So, as a collection its rather strange. However, for a Tull fan I look at it as an Excellent concert from the Broadsword tour with an ecclectic collection of bonus material. The aforementioned versions of 'Too Old To Rock and Roll,' and 'With You There To Help Me,' are good enough to make the rest of the DVD feel worthwhile and the 1982 concert would stand up on its own, and you do get a booklet with detailed linear notes from Mr. Anderson as usual so there is a lot of Material here for a Tull fan to enjoy, however I feel it should lose at least one star for the flat sound in the second concert and the poorer moments of the additional material.

In conclusion its not perfect but there's a lot of good stuff for any Tull fan.