The Funky Meters LIVE AT THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL (Shout Factory)

Anyone going to this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival can begin drooling over the fact that the city’s greatest-ever funk band, the original Meters, are booked to play their home town for the first time in two decades. Meanwhile, this DVD proves that the latter-day line-up — with new guitarist Brian Stoltz and drummer Russell Batiste joining original bassist George Porter Jr. and keyboardist Art Neville — is no slouch either, though it’s a notably different version of the band. The current Funky Meters (who amended their name in 1995) are more rock-influenced and harder-driving, and at home playing for bigger festival audiences. Stoltz’s "Seven Desires" (one of the few new numbers in their repertoire) is a first-class blues-rocker that could be Gov’t Mule hitting the swamp. Batiste pounds the backbeat harder while throwing in the tricky rhythm shifts that his predecessor Zigaboo Modeliste was known for.

Recording this DVD at the 2001 JazzFest proves to be a mixed blessing: the band seem energized by the massive crowd, but their set runs a concise 75 minutes — barely half of what they’d deliver at a typical club gig. The set list also lacks their two usual barnstormers, "Fire on the Bayou" and "Hey Pocky Way," the latter a New Orleans anthem that half the bands on the Fair Grounds seem to play every year. In their place are rarer tracks like "Saturday Night Fish Fry," a Louis Jordan tune done in ’50s R&B style. The DVD gives you some tasty close-ups of the solos, though drum enthusiasts will wish Batiste got more camera time. Most of all, the disc bears out the intuitive connection between Porter and Neville. The extended finale, "It Ain’t No Use," risks trainwreck at a couple of points before the pair make eye contact and the thing roars confidently down the track.

(For information about this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which runs April 22 through May 1, call 800-488-5252, or go to www.nojazzfest.com.)