“We were like a heavy metal band with harmonies,” chuckles bassist Tiran Porter in the two-and-a-half-hour documentary Let The Music Play, and footage of the band from their early 70s pomp explains their rapid graduation from biker bars to stadiums following 1972 breakthrough Toulouse Street.
While the two live DVDs only offer glimpses of such pre-Michael McDonald intensity, this no-frills package still has plenty to offer.
Recorded on the last night of 1982’s farewell tour, Live At The Greek Theatre is suitably frazzled, especially when founder member Tom Johnston joins the band for a frantic finale of Listen To The Music.
2004’s Live At Wolf Trap is more sedate but also more consistent, with Johnston, in particular, in fine voice. For diehards, this is Doobie heaven./o:p
