The Doors Soundstage Performances Movie Review

When the music's over, turn out the lights. Fortunately, albums and videos about The Doors keep coming and coming, and this 2002 collection of three soundstage performances (all taped for various TV shows) are more must-have highlights for fans of Morrison and co.

Shot in Toronto in 1967, in Northern Europe in 1968, and back in New York in 1969 (for PBS!), we get to see the band at every stage of its career. From crazy hippies swooning in the audience to a bearded and sunglasses-shrouded Morrison crooning "Alabama Song," this is a tight and interesting retrospective packed into only 75 minutes.

Mostly footage from the soundstages, the DVD also includes current-day interviews with bandmembers Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger as well as manager Danny Sugerman.

It's a nice little collection of rare footage. You won't learn much you didn't already know (and the 1979 interview with some PBS guy after their set is fairly banal -- "What about the shaman?"), but you can safely ignore all that stuff and just focus on the performances.