REVIEWS:
(reviewed by Alex R.)
Concert Info: Recorded live at the sold out Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas in Madrid Spain on the 10th of July 1996 during the Ballbreaker World Tour with the classic Back In Black line up.
Performance: From the second the wrecking ball starts to move into position to wreck down the wall that's placed on stage I knew that I was going to be in for a treat, but then again, it's AC/DC, they are the masters when it comes to the live show. Usually some bands who have been around for 15-20 years don't exactly have the same great stage presence they used to in their glory years, well that's not the case with AC/DC. Angus is still running around, going crazy and banging the shit out of his Gibson SG, Malcolm still provides us with his always flawless rhythm playing, Phil is back always laying the right beat down, Cliff just stands there as he always does just being himself, and last but not least the man who impressed me the most during the entire concert, Mr. Brian Johnson.
And man was I impressed with Brian. In the Live At Donnington video he just did his usual routine by just singing the songs, but in this concert he does some pretty entertaining stuff. Before the intro chords to "Hells Bells", he starts running around the entire stage getting the crowd psyched up, then he jumps and grabs the rope that's tied to the bell and starts hanging upside down and then making all these airplane motions, basically he was just posing for the cameras. Pretty damn good job though. Another thing that impressed me even more was in the beginning of "Ballbreaker", he gets on the big wrecking ball that's suspended god knows how many feet in the air and starts singing the song, and due to that the crowd is having a real good time.
And speaking of the crowd, they make a huge impact to this concert, they're going absolutely crazy during every single song especially during "Thunderstruck" and "Highway To Hell". Whoa! These people really love their AC/DC. To me, crowd participation is very important at a show. If you see an audience going absolutely nuts during every single song (like on this video) it makes the concert much more inspiring and enjoyable. If it's the other way around though, then it's less enjoyable and exciting. Get the idea?? And in case you want to know, the usual stage props are present: The Hell's Bell, The inflatable hooker used in "Whole Lotta Rosie", the cannons for "For Those About To Rock" and the new addition, the big wrecking ball used in the kick-ass "Ballbreaker" song. All the stuff I just mentioned is the reason why this concert cooks.
Song Selection: On this part I was very impressed. Not only did they add four great songs from the Ballbreaker album, they added a couple of lost classics such as "Dog Eat Dog" and "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" to the mix, these songs barely got played in the past and it was a great thrill to see the guys perform them live. The rest of the setlist are the usual songs that made them into icons.
Sound Quality: This is where a point had to be knocked off the overall rating. Mike Fraser didn't do that great of a job mixing this show. The guitars are mixed way too low. On Live At Donnington, the guitar sound kicked ass, on this one it sounds as if Angus and Malcolm are playing through tiny 40 watt Marshall amps. But the good news is that it doesn't bring down the video too much.
Miscellaneous: If you buy this video today, it comes with a nice two sided poster. On one side it has the front cover of the video and on the other side it contains pictures from the Ballbreaker tour. But from what I heard recently, when this video was released, the first couple of thousand copies came with a CD containing a few songs from the show. A collector's item if you ask me.
Overall: An awesome concert and IMO the best out of all AC/DC concert videos. If the guitars weren't mixed too low I would of given it a perfect score, but nonetheless a must for all AC/DC fans and it goes to show that AC/DC are the ones that know how to put on a great show.
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ALICE IN CHAINS-LIVE FACELIFT (1991)
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This is basically a short, kind of rare, 40 minute video that consists of live performances and music videos from their debut Facelift. Like their most recent acoustic performance Unplugged, Live Facelift shows that Alice In Chains in a concert setting isn't anything too spectacular - the versions here are, at best, not really different than their studio counterparts, and are usually inferior. "Love, Hate, Love", for instance, is made even more slower and drowsier than the original, already one of the weaker cuts from the otherwise stunning album, and "Man In The Box" suffers a little from not having a rhythm guitar backing up Jerry Cantrell during his solo section. The live renditions of "Real Thing", "Sea Of Sorrow" and "Bleed The Freak" are capable, but they lack the same brooding and hopeless power that made them so great on the album.
As far as the music videos are concerned, they're the only reason to get this collection, and even those aren't worth the admission price. The video for "We Die Young" takes the concept of the album's back cover photo and runs with it, making for a very striking visual experience. "Man In The Box" is also creative, and its' imagery (featuring a cameo appearance by Death) works well with the song, although chances are you've seen it before. That leaves the clip for "Sea Of Sorrow", by far my favorite AIC cut ever, which is largely disappointing, merely showing the band performing under four different colored lights - and plus, some of the best parts of the song are edited out! Overall, the actual songs here exceptional, but why settle for Live Facelift when you can own the actual album (one of the defining grunge metal albums of all time in my opinion) for probably less than what you'd pay for the video?
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(reviewed by Pat D.)
Concert Info: This section really does not apply because I do not know for sure that the few live cuts on this videodisc are from the same concert. However, all of them feature Joey Beladonna, so apparently this particular show(s) took place a while ago. Also, when the band does "I'm the Man", Scott Ian talks about Iraq, so I'm guessing this must be around the time of the Gulf War. So, the middle, classic 'thrax lineup is intact for the live shows here.
Don't make the same mistake I did and buy this DVD expecting lots of live numbers. Which, when i get to reviewing this aspect later, may be a good thing. There are SEVEN music videos, and not one from the kickass Anthax era. All of the videos are from Sound Of White Noise and beyond. Plus, there are home video clips in between the music tracks.
Performance: This section is going to be difficult. Without a doubt this DVD has some of the worst sounding live performances I've ever heard. And there is no way in hell anybody can clame that I'm nitpicking here. The bass has no weight, and you can barely hear either Scott or Dan's guitars. The only thing that sounds halfway decent is drum god Charlie Benante and his kit. Almost none of the energy of the show or the crowd is audible. Simply awful. Still, it is quite funny when Scott (on mic) gets the crowd to scream "SUCK MY DICK" to Mr. Saddam Hussein during a rendition of "I'm the Man".
The music videos are a mixed bag. A couple I've never heard ("Fueled" and "Nothing", which are on Stomp 442), and both really reek. Although it appears Metallica ripped off the video for "Fuel" from Anthrax, althouh with a far superior song to go along with it. "Nothing" takes place on a cow. Nuff said. The video for "Room for One More" is excellent though---I really liked that one. Ditto for "Inside Out". The other three "Hy Pro Glo", "Black Lodge" and "Only" inspire nothing in me. "Black Lodge" in particular is a great song, but the video just doesn't make any sense.
Song Selection: Another dissapointment. There are only 6 tracks of the pre 1990 Anthrax, which was easily their most interesting period. The rest are from their rather generic 90s output. And there is NOTHING from any of the first three albums, including Spreading The Disease, one of their most consistant. Nothing from "State of Euphoria" either.
Sound Quality: The music videos sound very good. Nice sound quality. Very similar to the albums they came from, so pretty much anything I said about them will apply here. The concert? Sound quality is laughable. I literally could make a better sounding copy with a good camcorder, which it seems like the live stuff was recorded with. Also, there is no 6 channel (5.1) sound to be found. The best you'll get is AC-3 stereo which is still 6 channel, but its just stereo, no surround.
Video Quality: Again, a mixed bag. The videos look good, not quite up to normal DVD standards, but certainly better than the crappy home videos and the concert, which I guess it to be expected. This DVD is done in 4:3, which means the 99% of us with regular TVs will be happy.
Extras: If you consider backstage amateur videos by the band to be entertaining, you'll like this DVD. Honestly, I couldn't care less; I just want the music. There are a couple of funny bits here and there, like Scott singing "Angel Of Death" with a suddenly short-haired Tom Araya of Slayer. Or a Japanese kid singing "604" on a stage with Anthrax. Now thats pretty funny.
Overall: I hate to be harsh on this band, but this is mostly crap. The live performances suck, the sound sucks, only a couple of videos are interesting enough to watch, the track selection sucks, and most of the band's "real life" camcorder videos suck. If I could return this I would. Get an Anthrax music CD instead.
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The live performances are all from Philadelphia in early '91 opening for Iron Maiden. The video is from the venue's "in house" video system. Some arenas, like that one, have screens up for every show and their own cameramen to film. The audio on it is typical for in house video with it's "all highs and mids and no bass". They definitely could have taken it into the studio and remixed the audio to punch some low end into it.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Five Years In A Livetime is an excellent example how a home video for a band should be put together. Drummer Mike Portnoy takes charge of compiling nearly 120 minutes of material from the band's previous five years. It includes performances from the Awake and Falling Into Infinity tours, behind the scenes studio sessions from those albums, footage from the unplugged fan club show in 1998, footage from the 'uncovered' show at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in 1995 (the same performance where the bonus live covers on the Change Of Seasons EP were taken from), and three music videos.
Falling Into Infinity Tour and Behind The Scenes Footage (8.5/10): This is the same 3 hour long Paris show that was sampled on the two disc live affair Once In A Livetime, and the performances range from decent to great. "Burning My Soul" features an unenergetic performance from James Labrie (he sounds totally altered vocally here) and is OK. "Puppies On Acid" (intro to the Awake track "The Mirror") merged with "Just Let Me Breathe" is worthwhile and is of course musically flawless. "Peruvian Skies" is pretty explosive, although perhaps it was a mistake to actually include portions of Pink Floyd's "Welcome To The Machine" and Metallica's "Ender Sandman" in midsection, as it makes the influence of "Peruvian Skies" totally obvious. The actual video closes with a powerful rendition of my personal favorite, "Learning To Live" leading into the final section of "A Change Of Seasons". As far as the Behind the Scenes footage goes, it's highlighted by Derek Sherinian's proclamation that this is gonna be the greatest live album ever made, and John Petrucci countering with, "Tonight's gonna suck… this is gonna be the worst album ever… I'm just not in the fuckin' mood." Hilarious.
Awake Tour and Behind The Scenes Footage (9/10): Although the actual performances are cut short, "6:00", "Voices" and "Metropolis Part I" have an exceptional amount of energy in them, with James Labrie (in my opinion) at the height of his powers here vocally, and Derek Sherinian fitting this material well (he had just replaced Kevin Moore on keys preceding the tour). The Behind The Scenes footage includes a look at the recording of Awake in the studio, with a fascinating look at a portion of the recording of that album's magnum opus, "Space Dye Vest".
The Music Videos (5.5/10): Simply put, Dream Theater doesn't really handle the concept of music videos particularly well. Maybe it's because they don't have much of a say in their creation. Whatever the case, the videos for "Lie" and "Hollow Years" are absolutely flat creatively - the former showing the band (Kevin Moore-less) attempting to act like badasses on camera in the background of the city, with particularly painful camera angles on James Labrie, while the latter seems to have a crappy artsy storyline that makes absolutely no sense. I do think, however, that the clip for "The Silent Man" is memorable, and it relates particularly well to the Awake album art.
The Unplugged Fan Club Show in Rotterdam (10/10): While certainly not the only reason to own this video, the performances here are the real jewels of Five Years In A Livetime, and are what make it an absolute must buy. These aren't exactly inferior acoustic versions of already known album tracks - in fact, "Cover My Eyes", "Speak To Me" and "To Live Forever" are three songs performed here that are unavailable on any of their studio albums, and are all phenomenal gems easily as good as anything on Falling Into Infinity, particularly the towering latter song which contains a life-affirming chorus. The more well known DT songs presented here in this format also work - "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream" benefits from an extended intro, and "Anna Lee" is just as captivating and emotional as the utterly brilliant original.
The Uncovered Show (9.5/10): This is the other major reason to own this video, as it contains previously unavailable performances from the Uncovered show (also shown in portions on A Change Of Seasons). I knocked a half point off for the Metallica cover "Damage, Inc.", due to the crappy vocals of Napalm Death frontman Barney Greenway, but the rest of that song may actually be more tight and expertly performed than the original, with excellent, audible bass work, pounding drums, and even more virtuosic guitar soloing. The Marillion cover "Easter" actually features guest appearances by members of that band, Steve Hogarth (vocals, keys) and Steve Rothery (guitar), and is still gorgeous in a slightly slowed down version. Steve Howe, meanwhile, joins John Petrucci for a phenomenal guitar battle during a short instrumental version of Yes' "Starship Trooper" (Petrucci clearly seems honored to be in the presence of one of his idols).
Final Verdict: This is one video that practically all Dream Theater fans should own, including those with a passing interest in the band, and even those who don't really like live performances that much. Much of this is prime stuff - the only big weakness, the music video portion of our show, is relatively short, and doesn't have much of a negative effect. A solid performance that got me absolutely psyched to see them live for the first time. Oh yeah, and the sound quality is excellent, in case Pat D. was wondering...
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Hey, I don't actually have this video, but i do have an mp3 of DT playing Damage Inc. Thanks for clearing up who 'sang' (notice the quotes!) on that track---at first i thought it was LaBrie, and quite honestly, it SUCKED. I don't really like the Dreamers' rendition of the song; even if you ignore that horrible vocalist, Mike's drums don't sound heavy enough and he deletes part of that cool ass drum fill at the end of every "Blood will Follow Blood" line---just listen to both, you'll see what i mean. Granted, this is live, so i guess that can be forgiven. And while Petrucci does an admirable job trying to imitate Kirk Hammett's few cool solos, it doesn't sound quite right, and Petrucci's solo tone is actually thinner and more warbly than mr warbly and thin himself. Again, this is live, so maybe i'm not being fair, but the Metallica version in my humble opinion is far better. Besides, Petrucci kicked Mr. Page's ass on the Zeppelin tunes, maybe metallica just aint his thing.
[several months later]
Hey, i just realized that i saw that video for Lie---and you're right, it is pretty laughable with James looking like hes working out to the worst excercise video in history with the rest of the band bobbing up and down whimsically to the beat. Nice scenes of New York though, but man, what a overall terribly choreographed video. BTW, for anybody who's interested, you can watch this video (as well as some even more laughable Yngwie Malmsteen videos) on Launch.com, provided you have a broadband (Cable, DSL, T1+) connection.
(reviewed by Pat D.)
Concert info: Remastered video of Bruce Dickinson's last show with the band. Well, uh, sort of, cause the man has now rejoined the Maidens and (thankfully) booted his replacement (and I guess now, predecessor) Blaze Bayley out. Now, honestly I really don't dislike Blaze that much, matter of fact, he did a phenomenal job on certain tracks like the single "Virus" (yeah, the vocals get better after the absolutely laughable beginning) or the incredibly catchy "Futureal", but the man overall, just does not fit metal at all. Most Maiden fans will agree that Bruce Dickinson was by far the best Maiden vocalist, certainly the most defining, if not the greatest metal voice in the history of the genre.
Well, that was all rather pointless but hey I had to start out this review somehow didn't I? Oh, something else you should know. Former second guitarist Adrian Smith is not in the band for this video; he left after the Seventh Son album. Instead we have his replacement Janick Gers. Once again, there is no doubt to me who is the better guitarist on stage, that being the talented Dave Murray. Janick seems OK, but none of the solos he performs inspire much of anything. That may not be entirely fair, cause for a lot of the songs he is playing someone elses material; all I can say is that at no point duirng the show was I remotely impressed by his tone or his playing in general.
Performance: So how's the concert you ask? Its pretty darn good. As usual, I have problems here and there with the mix (it is live after all) but certain tracks like "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Fear Of the Dark" are done so darn near perfectly. Dave as usual shreds the shit out of his guitar, and despite playing live, he and Janick nailed the hamonious guitar parts to a T. Bruce's voice sometimes gets buried behind the guitars, but usually the guy running the sound board fixes that within a few seconds. Overall, the performance was excellent.
Song Selection: This is the only area where I had a problem. "Clairvoyant" is an excellent song---but not live. Secondly, I'm wondering where "Aces High", "The Prisoner", "Killers", or "Phantom of the Opera" are. Those are some extremely classic Maiden tracks. They could have left out "From Here to Eternity", "Heaven Can Wait" or "Sanctuary", all of which suck balls.
Sound Quality: Well, it ain't studio perfect, and at times certain elements disappear, but overall I was pretty happy with the recording. There seems to be a problem with DVDs in general on my player; they seem to have much lower a volume level than a normal CD, and I really have to crank my amp to get good sound. Bear in mind that I have the standard 100 watts per channel and decent speakers, so this is not a receiver power issue. Your mileage may vary; it also seems that my DVD player plays regular DVDs with lesser volume as well.
Video Quality: Yes, it is in normal 4:3 format so if you have a dinky 19" TV like me, you won't have to squint at a letterbox (16:9) format. Video quality was OK, there was a little be of oversaturation of reds and dark colors, but overall picture quality was acceptable.
Extras: Well, there are no DVD extras, but I will comment on the "show" that goes along with the music. Horror Illusionist Simon Drake does little Satanic performances in between Maiden's songs. Personally I felt embarassed to be watching it. If this stuff fascinates you, I guess it's a plus, but most of you will laugh and/or skip right over it. Oh yeah, one more thing, during the last track "Iron Maiden", a huge blue skull comes up behind Nicko's drum kit and sort of bounces around with smoke coming out of it and lights flashing. Words cannot descibe how ridiculously dumb this looks. Thank heaven that the Maidens were such gifted songwriters or they would have been laughed out of existence long ago.
Overall: A good buy. Raising Hell didn't really blow me away, but it sort of captured the energy of the show, and the mix is great. Sounds good, looks good. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe a better track listing.
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(reviewed by Pat D.)
Introduction: As most metal fans know, Megadeth are currently "no more" as their founding and unarguably most important member, Dave Mustaine, injured his wrist while in the midst of pleasuring himself. As kind of a parting gift to the legions of Metallica haters out there that worship this band, Megadeth put together a DVD production of a concert on the World Needs a Hero tour. Thankfully, their are few cuts from that horrible album included here.
Performance: Guitar Hero Marty Friedman left the band shortly after Risk tanked in the sales charts (namely, the week it came out), and he was replaced with former Savatage shredder Al Pitrelli, who turned in a less than distinctive performance on Megadeth's last crappy release The World Needs a Hero. However, despite his weak showing on that "washed up old man metal" album, Pitrelli honestly impressed me with his efforts. I mean, the guy barely got to play ANY of his own solo work on this performance thanks to the lack of tracks from the album he wrote for, and yet does a very credible job of duplicating Marty's awesome solos from Rust. Dave, on the other hand, has problems duplicating his own solos in places, such as his sloppy rendition of the last solo in "Holy Wars" and his sloppy solos in "Hangar 18". His rhythm playing is usually pretty spot on and impressive, although the mix sort of makes it hard to hear at times.
I can't say much about Ellefson's bass playing other than it is solid, if unflashy. Jimmy Degrasso, the drummer who replaced Nick Menza, seems very enthusiastic as he goes about his bashing, and the drum tracking is particularly excellent. The one qualm I had with the overall performance was that it was all too slick, like it was planned as a DVD before the concert was scheduled, and it was choreographed. Give me spontinaety, dammit! (I can't spell)
Song Selection: Hit and miss. Like i mentioned before, the lack of many tracks from Risk and The World Needs a Hero is a definite plus. Neither one of those albums are particularly good or energetic. However, I would have preferred that more of the older stuff was included, such as their cover of "Anarchy in the U.K." or "Rattlehead" or "Five Magics" instead of the abundance of weaker, late era Megadeth like "Train of Consequences" or "A Tout Le Monde" among others. And for sure they could have left off that awful reprise of "Hangar 18" called "Return to Hangar" and NOBODY would have missed it one bit.
Sound Quality: Usually very good for a live show. The drums in particular are clear and powerful, there is a definite presence of thumping bass guitar, and the solos come through loud and clear. However, at times, the rhythm guitars are hard to hear. There is a choice of Dolby Digital Stereo (2.0) and Digital 5.1 in the Audio menu. I listened to the 2.0 mix only.
Video Quality: As with most live DVDs i've seen, there is some graniness and pixelation in the dark scenes, but thankfully that usually only occurs between songs. The video is 4:3 so those of us poor people with regular TVs will be satisfied.
Extras: Interviews with the band including the always amusing Dave Mustaine, plus some footage of the band recording the terrible "The World Needs a Hero" in the studio. Blecch. Why would anybody want to see a bunch of old geezers writing shitty attempts at recapturing their youth?
Overall: A decent DVD of a decent 'deth concert. I would have rated it higher had their been more of the prime era Megadeth (namely 84-90) and less of the Midtempodeth era. In any case, it at least beats the hell out of the crappy Slayer DVD War at the Warfield which I unfortunately picked up the same day. Review forthcoming.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This video is basically composed of bootleg quality live performances that chronicle the 3-1/2 years that bassist Cliff Burton was in the band preceding his death in a tour bus accident. Pat D. would definitely cringe at this, but the sound and video quality is pretty darn subpar, but considering the circumstances under which this stuff was recorded (fans sneaking into the arenas with cameras and Lars Ulrich gathering the highlights from those tapes), it's really not that bad. Plus, most of these songs (at least in their original incarnation) rule - the track selection, for the most part, concentrates on the most top-notch material from Metallica's first three albums Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets spanning 1983 to 1986, the band's earliest shows with Burton to the Puppets tour. The video also contains some laid back, behind the scenes footage with the band goofing around and having a great time too, and it appropriately ends with Cliff's signature song "Orion" playing in the background as the credits roll.
The only other complaint besides the sound quality is that, with 12 songs spanning somewhere close to an hour and a half or so, it tends to drag a bit. Nevertheless, like I said, the performances are mostly very good - the first four songs played at a Puppets show, "Creeping Death", "Am I Evil?", "Damage, Inc." and "Master Of Puppets" as well as "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" are quite blistering, and are all among the band's best. There are even some places where the sound seems more professional (the '85 festival performance of "For Whom The Bell Tolls", my pick for Metallica's best track ever). The earlier performances are less of a treat, particularly the weaker Kill songs "Whiplash", "No Remorse" and "Metal Militia", but I sure can't deny "Fade To Black", "Seek And Destroy", and "The Four Horsemen". A very good buy overall, especially essential for fans.
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Haha, yeah i've seen this one, and was not impressed by the audio or video quality. Maybe they'll remaster it for the DVD, we'll see. I loved the scene in the store with the band though---thats priceless.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This is a basically all the music videos from Automatic For The People and Monster (11 in all) compiled together on one tape, with mostly aimless art school style movie footage in between each one that doesn't have much to do with R.E.M. at all, and they don't really flow into the videos well. The quality of each video is usually hit or miss, as seen below. Here's a rundown:
Drive (6.5/10): This one features Michael Stipe in a mosh pit style setting, with the rest of the band making little more than cameo appearances. Dark, but I don't see how it fits the song too well.
Everybody Hurts (10/10): Not only is the song one of my favorite R.E.M. tracks of all time (and one of their most successful singles), the video is just about as emotionally gripping, focusing on the emotional turmoil of several individual people sitting in their cars caught in a traffic jam on the freeway, and the aftermath of it. A tremendous cinematic performance, and one of the great music videos ever made.
Man On The Moon (9/10): Not quite as visually striking as "Everybody Hurts", but the overall background, tone and images present here fit the exceptional lyrics noticeably well. Another one of the band's best.
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (8/10): A very cool, quirky singalong track with an unexpectedly weird, and kinda trippy video clip. One of the more interesting videos present from either album.
Nightswimming (8.5/10): Following this video is one of the only times where the in between movie actually works, and it presents a literal picture of nightswimming umm… completely stripped down, if you know what I mean.
Find The River (7.5/10): Beautiful closing track, and like the song, this video is very much one with nature. Not entirely captivating, but peaceful nonetheless.
What's The Frequency Kenneth? (4.5/10): I really don't get the appeal of this video at all - it's just the band playing in a garage with flashing lights a song that really seems old and uninspiring after awhile, like most Monster tracks.
Crush With Eyeliner (5.5/10): A more interesting and intriguing video with Asian people replacing each member of the band, but it's too vague of a concept, and it doesn't go anywhere.
Strange Currencies (5.5/10): Another really vague video for a song that's just basically a second rate "Everybody Hurts".
Star 69 (7/10): Live footage of the band in action early in the Monster tour. The fact that it's by far the best on the album and the lyrics are actually in closed caption helps… a lot.
Bang And Blame (4/10): The song is damn catchy, but what's seen on the screen is just bad camera work - a somewhat meaningless and pointless clip… one of the worst suckjobs at video making R.E.M.'s ever done. Don't even get me started on "Tongue" (not featured here, thankfully...)
Overall, this is a pretty decent buy, but really only for fans like me who are (or at least used to be) music video fanatics that want to own every video the band's ever made (plus see the lyrics in closed caption), but there's just too much pointless rambling in the crappy movie and much of the Monster videos to make it worthwhile.
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(reviewed by Cole Bozman)
I had the opportunity to see Rush on the Vapor Trails tour, and damned if they didn't kick some serious ass onstage. Hard to believe they've been at it for nearly three decades. Relevant to this is the fact that for the first time they're breaking the unwritten 4 studio/1 live rule. Instead of a followup to Vapor Trails (what a shame), Rush has blindsided us with another live album, this time with a DVD counterpart.
Those of you that read my site may know this fact, but for the rest of you: I'm not a big fan of live albums. I think 99% of them are either a. bad, b. superfluous, or c. all of the above. Rush, however, are one of the few bands with which I am struck by the completist bug. This creates a bit of an internal conflict, but thankfully they still got it, so it's not that hard on me.
Rush has always been a bunch of top-notch players, so the main question as to the quality of their live albums is: song selection. Aside from the seven millionth rendition of "Closer to the Heart" (I suspect they're trying to put it on every live album they've ever made; scientists are working on a way to travel back in time so they can add it to All the World's a Stage), they've done pretty admirable work in selecting songs that don't, well, suck. They've managed to represent, in one form or another, every studio album (with the exceptions of Caress of Steel and Hold Your Fire), and they have chosen wisely -- even "Cygnus X-1" sounds good this time, and the obligatory drum solo at least ends with a cute tribute to big band jazz. My only problem is they excluded two songs they performed elsewhere on the tour ("Vital Signs" and "Between Sun and Moon") but still included on the CD release.
If you're fond of special features, disc two contains an hour-long documentary about the production that went into Rush's shows in Brazil. Along the way, you get to learn several things about the band, including the facts that Alex is clearly insane and the source of the band's power is soup. And then you can watch "YYZ", "O Baterista" (the drum solo), and "La Villa Strangiato" from certain camera angles. Kinda fun, I guess.
I have but one problem with this DVD: somewhere during production, someone decided that "hey, this is Rush! they rock! let's make it LOUD!", so the thing is mastered about five thousand times louder than any other DVD ever made. Suffice it to say, it can be a little difficult to listen to it for a long time. I'm gonna have to dock it some for that, but otherwise this is an excellent document of latter-day live Rush.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
A quite impressively strong concert document that not only captures the Smashing Pumpkins at the height of their powers in a live setting, but also showcases the sense of humor of the band members in amusing between performance clips (yes, Billy Corgan isn't all depressing and deadly serious all the time... what a revelation) - I even discovered a new band as a result of watching this one (in somewhat of a cheap plug for the cult novelty group The Frogs). I'll leave it up to the viewer to discover the cool surprises this one holds, but I think I'll focus on the live stuff here. Almost all of the material showcased here is from the 1993-94 tour for Siamese Dream, spanning performances in various locations, with one exceptional non-album Gish era track from Japanese TV in 1992, "Slunk", thrown in for good measure. In case you're wondering, the band often doesn't stay true to the original form of the songs here, there's lots and lots of energy and pretty darn good sound quality.
There's a more harder rocking version of the towering ballad "Disarm", a lengthy spoken section inserted in the middle of the much more energetically performed "I Am One", a significantly faster and more powerful "Geek U.S.A." (Jimmy Chamberlin rules on drums), a killer performance of "Silverfuck" with this dark and angsty song "Jackboot" tacked on at the end that reeks of madness, a gorgeous acoustic version of "Mayonnaise" with live footage shown from all over the place in the background, and an interesting acoustic version of "Cherub Rock" performed for MTV Europe. "Quiet", "Today" and "Soma" aren't quite as awesome in concert (especially the latter, which loses the intricate guitar layering of the original), but those are still good too. A must buy for Pumpkins fans.
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COMMENTS
CALLING ALL PUMPKINS FANS! CALLING ALL PUMPKINS FANS! THE TIME HAS COME AT LAST THE SMASHING PUMPKINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IN........... VIEUPHORIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SIDE ONE
1. SINFONY. INTRO.
2.BUGG SUPERSTARR. INTRO 2
3.TODAY. JAMES IS A GIRL! HA HA HA!
4.QUIET. ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!
5. SLUNK. FROM JAPAN TV!
6.DISARM. HARD ROCK VERSION!
7.FRENCH MOVIE THEME. INTRO 3
8. I AM ONE. GIRLS LIKE MY SWEET FRIEND BECKY LOVES MR. CORGAN!
9.WHY I'M SO TIRED.15 MIN. JAM!
10.CHERUB ROCK. ACOUSTIC VERSION
SIDE TWO
11.SOMA. sweet dreamy guitars love love love love love love love love ! until BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GUITARS A'BLASTIN' LIKE CANNONBALLS AND BILLY'S SOLO! IT HAS TOO BE HEARD MOTHERFUCKER! NOT ONLY HE WAS THE BEST FOR ME I SAY HE'S FUCKING COOL!
12.GEEK U.S.A. BLASTINGHYPERSPACESYNTHASIZEORRIDESUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALADOCIUS! SORRY JUST GOT STONED WHILE WRITING!
13.MAYONAISE: ACOUSTIC VERSION: H! NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I FOUND SUCH A LOVELY SOUND I FEEL LIKE DREAMING IN OUTER SPACE.
14.SILVERFUCK/OVER THE RAINBOW: BLASTING OFF IS SILLLLLLLLVERRRRRRFUUUUUCK!
GET THIS SHIT MAN! D'ARC MY BABE! YEAH!
(reviewed by John Sieber)
If you are like myself, one day a friend of yours burnt you a copy of his Tenacious D compact disc, knowing that you would fall in love with the band. If you are even more like myself, one day some asshole jacked the CD wallet containing the D copy made so many moons ago. And if you are eerily like myself, you cried tears of bitter hatred for that theiving cocksucker and tears of painful loss of the D. You tried to download as much D as you could, but nothing could fill that void, could it?
Hold it now - not so fast.
Spring 2004 rolls around, and the Phoenix has risen again. The D follow up their amazing CD with a 2-DVD set containing a full concert from London, ALL of the HBO episodes, a quite disturbing set of oddities, and ALL of their music videos!!! Well, obviously, you would go out and buy a copy as soon as possible, vanquishing all who would dare to stand in your way, right? Wait, you WOULDN'T vanquish anyone who stood in your way? Fucking poser.
Anyway, I will iterate this simple point (and probably will re-iterate it later): If you like the D at all, BUY THIS DVD!! If nothing else, the concert is worth the purchase price, as it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jack Black is a fucking amazing showman and vocalist, and Kyle Gass is the next Steve Howe!! The track listing for the concert includes standard renditions of well-known D tunes "Tribute" and "Wonderboy" (complete with JB "slaying" an inflatable dragon!!), along with fan favorites from their album such as "Kyle Quit the Band", "Explosivo", that one Karate song, etc. But the icing on the cake is the sheer humor of the show. Here, you have two fat guys with guitars picking on each other, causing bits of hilarity such as KG's "Heavy Metal Power Solo" - an acoustic medley of hard rock riffs that you have to see to believe! Moving on, the HBO episodes are a bit hit-and-miss, but "The search for Inspirado" and "Jesus Ranch" are easy classics. Their acting abilities are lacking at this point in their careers (circa 2000), but the humor makes up for it, somewhat.
Now, the second DVD is a bit, um, odd. With episode names such as "JB's BJ" and "Butt Baby", what do you expect? D fans usually posess some affinity for crude humor, and these bits woudl be no exception. Also, watch "Butt Baby" for the Doors movie references!! And, to wrap things up, we have the music videos for "Tribute", "Wonderboy" and "Fuck Her Gently" (titled "FHG" for aesthetic reasons). You may have seen the first two on MTV, but the third didn't really make it to cable for reasons that become obvious when you watch it! Like I said, if you like the D at all, you shouldn't wait another minute to buy this release. I have watched it multiple times and it never gets old!
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(reviewed by Rich Bunnell)
TMBG's videos have been known for being low-budget and downright bizarre, and this cheap videocassette compiles them in reverse chronological order, going from 1998 to their humble beginnings in 1986. The only video that they've released since this compilation has been the glitzy, heavily-produced video for their Malcolm In The Middle quasi-hit "Boss Of Me," but it wouldn't really fit on here anyway so it's no big loss. Now to critique the videos...
Doctor Worm (6.5/10): This song is the bubbly studio teaser single off of their Severe Tire Damage live album, and while the song is as good as anything they've done, the video seems a bit thrown together. It's just the Johns in an apartment playing with the band, with okay animation segments of a worm filling prescriptions (one of the only references to the song itself you'll find in a TMBG video). It's okay, but nothing special.
Snail Shell (5/10): This was the band's first single and video recorded with a full band, and it has better recording quality than most of their other videos but it comes off as a bit dreary and claustophobic. It's set in a TV studio with the band being recorded on a soundstage, and though there are some neat color effects which show the band in full color with the stage in drab black and white, there isn't much to hold the viewer's attention.
The Guitar (8/10): This video was John Flansburgh's directorial debut, and it's fittingly bizarre. Like "Doctor Worm," it's the "band" (TMBG hasn't made very many videos with the full band, so chronologically the video has already regressed to the era where the "band" consisted only of the Johns) playing in an apartment, but it's much more surreal and interesting in this context. Throughout the video, they're annoying a woman living in the apartment who seems ready to kill them at some points (in one shot she's holding a gun while the two Johns are manically playing guitar on both sides of her). At the end of the video the setting randomly changes to a high school auditorium filled with guitar-playing zombies. Interesting and fun.
The Statue Got Me High (9/10): The first "pure TMBG" video to be found in the collection, as most TMBG videos contain only the Johns, with not a single other person in sight for miles. The video is Linnell singing (and prominently displaying his awful-looking teeth -- are those for real??) in a parking lot containing large blocks with the names of the planets on them, while Flansburgh drives around in a convertible and astronauts skateboard around and recline in the sun. Doesn't make sense at all, but very entertaining.
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (4/10): An animated video. It's really boring -- random images are no substitute for actual inspiration. Some funny shots, but nothing to get excited about.
Birdhouse In Your Soul (10/10): TMBG's most clever video by a longshot (which really says something), this video is absolutely perfect in its pure surrealism. It's set entirely in a dark room filled with lamps and lights on an elevated platform, with Linnell commanding an army of synchronized dancing humanoid robots wearing plaid shirts and jeans. I'm not sure where they come up with these concepts, but there isn't an uninteresting moment in the video.
Purple Toupee (7/10): This video is just the Johns playing on a blank white soundstage, the type which was oh-so-popular in '80s videos and Gap commercials, interspersed with stop-motion videos from Coney Island. It's not their most inspired piece of work, but the song is pretty short and the wildly-moving camera work keeps things fun to watch.
They'll Need A Crane (7/10): The Johns play in Central Park with threeold men as their band. It's a one-joke video, but the song and video are taken so deadly seriously it's hard not to laugh.
Ana Ng (10/10): My favorite TMBG song and one of my favorite videos. The video is perfectly shot, in an abandoned fire station meant to symbolize the Johns taking calls inside of their Dial-A-Song machine. During the chorus, the lyrics to the song are shot across the screen in swift white letters to really cool effect, and the video as a whole, like the song, conveys a sense of pure tension which really works towards its benefit.
(She Was A) Hotel Detective (8/10): A bit of a random single choice from the band's first album (the song is a defiantly-uncommercial novelty trash-rocker) but a fun animated video nonetheless. The song switches between images of the Johns playing on a dark soundstage and animated segments of the Johns entering a hotel and being pursued by the shadow of the Hotel Detective. The video's "storyline" doesn't really go anywhere, but it's fun and it ends with an animated crowd holding up their Bics, which is pretty funny.
Don't Let's Start (9/10): This was recently voted one of the top 100 music videos of all time by MTV, and while on the countdown itself only a short clip was played followed by a lame outro by LL Cool J (who probably hasn't even heard of the band), this is one of TMBG's more quickly-paced and eye-catching videos. The video was filmed by having the Johns move normally while lip-syncing to a slowed-down version of the song, so the video itself looks like they're moving incredibly fast while singing the song normally. The video itself is typical TMBG fare; accordians exploding, the Johns wearing rolled-up carpets on their heads, etc, etc.
Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head (6/10): TMBG's first video is also their most obviously low-budget, shot on a grainy camera with almost nothing in the video to indicate that it cost very much. The video is pretty basic, just the Johns in a NYC vacant lot, but it's still okay.
After this song, the two videos for "Istanbul" and "Particle Man" from the cartoon show "Tiny Toon Adventures" are included as bonuses. I won't rate them since that would basically be rating my childhood, but they're funny, if literal, interpretations of the songs. The "Istanbul" video has Plucky Duck (in a Middle Eastern setting) trying to retrieve a stolen statue from Montana Max, and the "Particle Man" video portrays the various "men" in the song as wrestlers who effortlessly beat the crap out of Plucky (who plays Particle Man). The most interesting part of either video is near the end of the "Istanbul" video, when out ofnowhere Plucky and Hamton do a Middle Eastern dance dressed up as Linnell and Flansburgh themselves.
All in all, it's a cheap and fun video collection. Even though the quality of a few of the videos is kind of iffy, it's worth buying for the really great ones, of which there are several.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This is probably a more accurate representation of a rather formulaic Sammy Hagar-era live show than the actually released Live: Right Here, Right Now 7 years later. The set list featured here is fairly unadventurous, covering the then just released 5150 almost in its' entirety (excluding only the bookend songs "Good Enough" and "Inside"), two Hagar solo songs "There's Only One Way To Rock" and the ridiculous "I Can't Drive 55" (WHAT is this doing at a Van Halen concert, especially when they exclude so much David Lee Roth-era material?), and bass, drum and guitar solo excursions from the three instrumentalists, which seriously don't differ that substantially from what they've played over the years (God, Michael Anthony just plain sucks as a bassist, and Alex Van Halen has to be one of the most overrated drummers in the history of rock).
Speaking of Roth-era material, only a couple classics are done here (it would be absolute sacrilege otherwise), butchered of course ("Panama", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", and no "Jump"???). The band closes the show with their half decent rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll" - that's pretty much the story here, everything's just half decent... no real revelations or differences from the originals, and only slightly entertaining than Live: Right Here, Right Now, due to a more energetic performance.
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Haven't seen this one either, but i'd just like to say a hearty "hell yeah" to your assessment of Michael Anthony. ;-)
First off, I would just like to congratulate both of you for doing a terrific job on the site here. Your reviews are pretty much right on the money (except for the AC/DC reviews, but let's forget about that for now) and the Video/DVD section was a great idea! Your site keeps on getting better as the days go on. Keep up the good work!
And regarding the Van Halen video, I agree with you completely. Van Halen live with Sammy Hagar isn't as exciting with David Lee Roth or Gary Cherone. The reason why Sammy had no interest in singing the Dave songs live is because : " I didn't want the band to sound like a cover-band ". What a dumbass!! And on this video you see them do a Led Zep cover. It's like the band acted as if the past was bullshit!
Yeah, so this video is okay, not great though. However, I did enjoy the 5150 album, but playing pretty much the entire album live with a few covers and not playing all the hits from the past does not equal a great concert.
I would personally give this dvd a mighty 15 out of 10, just because there is no david lee roth, that dosnt mean van halen cant make songs just or twice as good. Songs such as 5150 and why cant this be love and dreams.All great songs. Congrats to Eddie on his shining solo as well, its a great solo, a bit short though, but very entertaining especially for a guitarist such as myself. Its a great dvd and you guys are completely insane for criticizing this masterpiece. I HIGHLY recomend this.
(reviewed by John McFerrin)
This here is a DVD that compiles a trio of shows that Yes did in 1996 in San Luis Obispo, CA, that functioned as a sort of "comeback special" for the band or something like that. I've already gone over the actual music on my own page, so I won't go into too much detail about it here. Suffice to say that the performances, while not _stellar_, are still quite wonderful on an overall level. It's definitely my advice, if you want to hear the entire concert, to buy the albums Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2 and then take the live tracks and compile them in order on 2 CD-R's (it'll fit, trust me). The ordering is as follows:
Siberian Khatru
Close to the Edge
I've Seen All Good People
Time and a Word
And You and I
The Revealing Science of God
Going for the One
Turn of the Century
America
Onward
Awaken
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
But you see, I'm not reviewing the music - I'm reviewing the DVD. And the DVD is plain hideous. Some blame can be attributed to the band itself, for sure - the band seems very stiff and cautious in these performances (by their standards), playing everything close to the vest as though they're afraid of what will happen otherwise. This also results in their stage movements being even more restricted than usual - Steve does occasionally show some life, but it's a sad sign when Squire isn't his usual happy-go-lucky self. Plus, Anderson is constipated to an almost hilarious degree - there's little of the goofy looseness that he would become comfortable with in subsequent years.
The main thrust of blame, though, goes to the video editors and choreographers. Simply put, this is one of the most spectacular hackjobs I have EVER seen. The main problem is this - like I said earlier, the performances are taken from three shows. Rather than just including one show's performance for each track, however, the editors decided to try and overlay all three performances into EACH TRACK. For one thing, this results in the video and audio not even being close to synching up more than a few times. There's also the fact that a common trick on the DVD is this - have a "far-off" shot of the band, with a closeup overly on top of it, only from a DIFFERENT NIGHT. This blow is made even worse by the fact that, during the pan-shots of the band, it often appears that the members are the result of poorly done claymation.
Oh, but it gets worse. See, the editors decided they wanted to make this into sort of a modern Yessongs, with "beautiful" graphic overlays and video trickery. Problem is, the effects aren't any good, and they're simply everywhere. It seems that in Siberian Khatru, we are treated to every possible piece of studio wizardry the producers had at their disposal ... and then in the first ten minutes of Close to the Edge we see them all again! There's lame nature-shots, colored overlays (ie the whole screen turns blue or gold or whatever), random space images, whatever. All these are terribly distracting, and add nothing positive to the experience.
In short - save your money. Get Yes at the House of Blues or, better yet,Yessymphonic. I'm as hardcore a Yesfan as there comes, and it's still nearly impossible for me to watch this. I would also surmise that a newbie, were he to watch this, could be turned off to the band for ten years, it's that bad.
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