Phil Collins Live at Montreux 2004
Phil Collins
Studio: Eagle Vision USA
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Review Date: April 29, 2012

If you’re a huge Phil Collins fan and looking for approximately three and a half hours of concert fun, then do I have a DVD recommendation for you!  I’ve watched this 2-disc concert treat multiple times in the Boomerocity man cave and it’s a lot of fun to watch and listen to.

Phil Collins Live At Montreux 2004 is the must-have DVD collection for Collins fans.  The first disc it the actual 2004 concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and covers pretty much all the huge Collins hits and is book-ended (to use Collins’ own words) by battling drum solos that are worth the price of this collection all by themselves.

However, the hits are what the audiences and purchasers of DVD’s want and the hits are what Collins delivers in this brilliant and memorable performance. The songs are all sung in English. However, with Montreux located in a French canton of Switzerland, Phil’s banter with the audience is done with the most elegant of French – at least that’s what it sounds like to this southern boy.  I don’t know a lick of French (pun intended).

The short list of Boomerocity favorites on the first disc (excluding, of course, the two drum solos) are:

True Colors with its beautiful harmonies, you can feel the camaraderie among Phil and his backup vocalists as they perform this Cindy Lauper hit. I’d have loved to listen in on the rehearsal just on this one song.

Probably one of the most beautiful songs ever written, recorded and performed is Separate Lives.  This performance is no exception. With the added vocals of Amy Keys and Arnold McCuller, the song is off the hook!

The final performance on the Boomerocity short list of favorites is Easy Lover that was such a huge hit as a duet with Philip Bailey.  The performance is both tight and humorous and was worthy of multiple slaps of the repeat button.

The second disc is of a concert held eight years prior on the same stage in Montreux.  The performance is the culmination of Collin’s childhood dream to be in a Big Band with the help of his Swiss record company boss and Montreux Jazz Festival honcho, Claude Nobs.  Putting his head together with Quincy Jones and the late Ahmet Ertegun, Collins gave his songs to some of the best arrangers in the business to come up with Big Band versions of the tunes.  A special treat is the performance of the great Tony Bennett of There’ll Be Some Changes Made.  Wow! That is one for the history books!

Buy Phil Collins Live at Montreux 2004. It brings back lots of memories and is a lot of fun to listen to and watch.