Over the years, delirious? have released many concert recordings.  However, the concert experience does not get any better than this, the band's only Blu-Ray release.  Thanks to the technology of the Blu-Ray disc, the video and audio quality are like they have never been before.  Watching this on your home video system is definitely the closest to feeling like you were there.

The concert presented here is the exact same concert (both the main concert and the Cutting Edge pre-show) as was on the DVD release.  For more details on the concert's video and audio content, I recommend you read both the DVD and CD review.  The only major difference is that the video is in full 1080p High-Definition.  (The audio is also presented in 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo, but I do not have the equipment to test the 5.1 mixes for their quality.)  The visuals of the disc are crisp and clear, even despite the tough lighting conditions that is a dark concert hall with very bright lights.  The Cutting Edge show video, which seemed a bit more compressed on the DVD, looks especially beautiful on this Blu-Ray.  The behind-the-scenes tour video included on the DVD is also included here in standard definition video.

Over the years, delirious? have done a number of live concert videos.  The first, A View From The Terraces, was a VHS-only release in the UK that later appeared on the archive:d DVD release.  It was much later in their career when Now Is The Time was recorded in Chicago and just last year My Soul Sings was released.  These DVDs were great quality, but the songs featured were mostly the band's newest material and the classic favorites were not well-represented.  Thankfully, Farewell Show is a beautiful recording of the band's last show on DVD that includes some of the new as well as plenty of the old.

To kick off the show, the band shows up on stage but behind a large curtain.  Lights from behind the band project silhouettes of them on the curtain and the crowd begins to cheer.  After lead singer Martin Smith sings the chorus of "All This Time", the lights start flashing, guitarist Stu G starts jammin', and the curtain falls.  "Bliss" is a fitting opener to the show and uses the band's impressive stage setup to full effect.  The stage features a video projection screen above the LED video wall that's become standard at today's arena concerts.  The video screen for "Bliss" features a new video retrospective of the band that also shows up on the DVD's intro briefly.  Ohh, and did I mention that there were green lasers fanning out across the stage and over the audience?  Yeah, this show is a visual tour de force.

The five guys from Littlehampton, England known as delirious? have had an amazing career.  From leading worship for a local church movement in 1992 to being a pop radio hit in Germany to playing for hundreds of thousands in Hyderabad, India, these guys have done it all.  Fall 2009 brought their farewell tour of the United Kingdom.  Thankfully, the last show of the tour, at London's iconic Hammersmith Apollo, was recorded for all of us to enjoy.  Even though delirious? have released five other live albums (including another double-disc collection), Farewell Show spans their whole 19-year career like no other.  One of my favorite parts of this release is the second disc, a 35-minute opening set of songs from the very early days of delirious?.

Every week at the end of performance night during 'Idol' season, I take to my cell phone and dial the voting number (which I can recite in my sleep) for my favorite contestant, along with millions of other loyal viewers. Every season I seem to have a favorite that stands above the rest, and season 6 was no different. A contestant by the name of Phil Stacey earned my loyal vote (okay, okay... VOTES) each week.  There was something very genuine and personable about him, not to mention his voice... Wow!  You know those artists you can point out within seconds of hearing a song, even if you have never heard it before?  One of those artists for me, as well as many others, is Phil Stacey.

I was sad to see him go, but he did make it into the top five out of thousands of contestants.  What an accomplishment!  As he sang his farewell song "Blaze of Glory," I knew this was definitely not the last his fans were going to see of him.

Early this morning, a Press Release was issued from delirious? which announced "The End of An Era".  At the end of 2009, the folks in delirious? will discontinue touring and recording as a band.  There is no information given of when or if the band will get back together and continue their journey as one of Christian music's most legendary bands.  The band has officially been in existence since 1996, but released a couple mini-albums of worship music in the three years before their official formation.  delirious?, over the last 12 years, have continued taking the message of Christ all over the world, both in churches and to the unchurched.  The full text of the press release is below:

The Gospel Music Association held their 39th Annual Dove Awards Wednesday night at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn.

Chris Tomlin won for "Male vocalist of the year"

Time was, it seemed almost a given that any act signed to a major Christian label would put out at least one praise and worship album at some point during their tenure. A close cousin, perhaps, to the aforementioned trend which carried the lion’s share of those in the CHR Top 40 along in its wake during the second half of the 1990s, Christian artists in the post-O Brother, Where Art Thou era are lining up to record the songs their parents and grandparents sang on Sunday mornings.

1. Godfrey Birtill - God Help Us

Godfrey is a worship leader from the UK that has really affected my family and our band. There's a raw reality to his worship, and the power of God truly rests upon this man. The songs are direct and crying out for God to change our broken world. It's a live record with moments of lament and grief to times of joy and celebration.

Submitted by Robin Parrish (author and Editor-in-Chief of Infuzemag.com)

1. Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 Original Soundtrack

As a fiction writer, nothing helps me set the mood or helps me enter the right frame of mind like a good soundtrack (the no-words variety). The soundscapes that composer Bear McCreary creates for the new Battlestar Galactica range from hauntingly beautiful to wildly high energy, and he does it by using every tool in the box. His speciality is tribal/world/rhythmic sounds, but he blends it with middle eastern instruments and traditional orchestral sounds to create a truly singular effect. Incredibly original and compelling.