The 80s offered some of the better pop music in recent decades. Not everyone appreciates the disco years and the 90s were a stomping ground for sampling sounds. The 80s on the other hand, offered a strong base of rock, chick rock, alternative, and plenty of good bands. One of my absolute favorite bands of this period was The Bangles.

The Return to Bangleonia is not like other concert DVDs. In all of the ones that I have watched I have found the majority are more like compilations as opposed to actual concerts. While this makes for a great DVD it perpetuates the idea that a concert looks like what you see on the DVD. Unfortunately, with compilations like that you are given the best performances from various venues and the energy and crowd response that comes with those things. However, The Return to Bangleponia offers over an hour and several amazing songs, and they are all from the same concert!

While The Bangles did split up for a while they ended up back together and began recording again. In 2000, the group went on tour and this DVD was later created from the 2000 performance at the House of Blues in Hollywood, California. The most noticeable difference here is that the all-girl band includes a man. Greg Hilfman appears on the keyboards for this performance along with the staple Bangles including Susanna Hoffs, Debbi Peterson, and Vicki Peterson.

The songs on the disc include such favorites as Hazy Shade of Winter, Manic Monday, Eternal Flame, and Walk Like an Egyptian. Other amazing songs include In Your Room, Going Down to Liverpool, Here Right Now, Between the Two, If She Knew what She Wants, and many other songs.

The extras on the DVD include a photo gallery, commentary from the band, The Story of Bangleonia with interview, and some bonus acoustic performances of songs like Manic Monday and Ride the Ride. While I am not a huge special feature watcher, I found many of these to be excellent editions and worked out well with the theme of the concert DVD.

The sound was excellent in comparison to the other DVDs like this that I have seen. Granted you aren’t looking at studio quality, but this is a concert DVD. The video is decent, as well. It is not perfect but it serves the purpose well and it’s easy enough to see.

If you love 80s music and The Bangles this DVD is going to be perfect for you. It’s a great blast from the past and it’s inexpensive to boot. As a fan, I have to say that I couldn’t be happier. While I was not familiar with all of the songs, I can say that all of the fan favorites were there and the band sounded great.

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