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Big Brother and the Holding Company —for those who don’t immediately recognize the name— is the group that helped launch Janis Joplin into the stratosphere.

But that was a long time ago.

Forty years, to be precise, during the fabled Summer of Love. No doubt modern music could use a stiff shot of that era’s energy and attitude. Unfortunately, it’s not to be found on this DVD.

This disc covers a recent live performance at a festival in Bert Hertzberg, Germany, on the last night of a European tour. The band’s current make-up includes original members Peter Albin on bass, Sam Andrew on guitar and Dave Getz on drums, as well as Chad Quist on guitar and Sophia Ramos filling some mighty big shoes on vocals.

One would like to take Ramos on her own terms and avoid comparisons to a legend. But it’s kind of hard. Getz laments in a pre-concert interview that Ramos invariably gets compared to Joplin, though she really doesn’t sound anything like her. But Ramos isn’t just covering Janice’s songs, she seems to turn herself inside out trying to channel her voice as well.

It doesn’t work. Ramos’s voice isn’t bad, but it lacks Joplin’s whiskey-and-asphalt resonance. More to the point, Ramos is clearly singing and performing, while Joplin spilled her soul out in a puddle on the stage.

The band still has the chops, but without the conviction that made their music essential when it was new. Despite some excellent guitar play between Andrew and Quist, numbers like Summertime, or Piece of My Heart fall flat. Ramos just doesn’t deliver the soul-punch to make them work. The DVD’s finale, “Me and Bobby McGee,” never even gets out of first gear.

Ramos is more winning on less well-known numbers, like I Need a Man to Love, maybe because she feels less dogged by fabled footsteps, and feels freer to interpret the song as she sees fit, with a soul/R&B/gospel delivery that still never quite gels.

If the comparison chafes, I apologize. But then again, if BB & the HC want to avoid comparisons, I wish they’d write some new stuff that can’t be associated with the single greatest voice of rock & roll.