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Pearl Jam: Touring Band 2000
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
A number of years ago, before I really became more heavily involved in movies, I was a very big fan of going to concerts, nearly every weekend - if possible. An expensive habit, to be sure, but one that I found often incredibly enjoyable. I've seen many of the more popular (and not as popular, but still wonderful bands) that are around today; Primus (who played for nearly three hours), Nirvana, Mudhoney, Fugazi, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Buffalo Tom, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Beastie Boys, Beck, the list goes on. Yes, I threw myself into the mosh pits many a time, but after a while began to move away from going to clubs with mediocre sound systems and packed-in crowds.
For the past few years, I've become almost 100% involved in film, but the often wonderful music DVD releases have brought me back to enjoying music in a strong way. Although there's nothing that can really bring the excitement of watching a talented group of musicians at their best, it's certainly nice to have at least a close representation of this experience watching DVD where you don't have to wait in line to use the restroom and a Coke doesn't cost $2.50.
Anyways, I've never been a hard-core fan of Pearl Jam, but I've liked much of their work and bought a couple of their latest double-disc concert CD releases. The band made news earlier this year as they've released a fairly massive wave of inexpensive concert 2 CD sets that document various shows on their latest tour. The ones that I've heard have been excellent and well worth the money. Putting it all together is this concert film which shows the band at various dates throughout their 2000 tour, playing many of their bigger hits and some of their not as widely known songs. Pearl Jam have been one of the best live acts that I've seen, and that's reflected here as well, as the band goes through the songs with tremendous energy and enthusiasm.
Song List: Long Road, Corduroy, Grievance, Animal, Gods' Dice, Evacuation, Given to Fly, Dissident, Nothing as It Seems, Evenflow, Lukin, Not for You, Daughter (into "It's OK" by Dead Moon), Untitled, MFC, Thin Air, Leatherman, Betterman, Nothingman, Insignificance, I Got S***, RVM, Wishlist, Jeremy, Evolution, Don't Go, Parting Ways, Rocking in the Free World
The DVD
VIDEO: The reason for the delay of this title was reportedly that there were problems with the video quality that were attempting to be cured. If this is the fixed version, then I would hate to see the original effort. It's not that the picture quality is consistently horrible - it's a rather complicated situation. This is a low-fi effort in terms of the production - the group had members of their production crew serve as "documentary filmmakers" and shoot the performances on video, so already, it's rather rough looking visually.
I can understand and even appreciate a rough look, and for a rock band like Pearl Jam, it works. But when you get that rough quality and combine it with occasionally heavy grain and noticable pixelation, things go downhill rather quickly and the image begins to become harsh looking. Sharpness and detail are all over the map - the image goes from satisfyingly sharp to decent to soft sometimes during the same song. Sometimes it looks great, the next minute it doesn't.
Colors were also problematic, looking poorly rendered and sometimes messy. This program probably wasn't the most visually stunning presentation to begin with, but it would have worked far better if it didn't suffer from an apparently rather weak effort on the part of Sony Music on top of it. The past few releases from Sony Music have certainly not been some of their better efforts in terms of image quality, but this is definitely the one most lacking. Thanks to the band's stellar performance I found it watchable, but still it's dissapointing.
SOUND: The sound, on the other hand, is actually very good and is indicative that stronger care was taken on the sound side than the video side. The music was spread out nicely across the front of the room, with instruments remaining clear, crisp and well-defined rather than coming together and becoming an undefined mess. Audio quality was also excellent; the music remained warm and crisp instead of sounding thin or otherwise uncomfortable to listen to.
Surrounds were also put to nice use to envelop the user well, bringing a fair amount of crowd noise and music re-inforcement. They're used appropriately and really add to the proceedings. With all the elements working as well as they do here, I had a good "front row" feeling, as if I was really at the shows. It's too bad that the video quality couldn't be as strong as the sound is.
MENUS:: Menus are non-animated, but have music in the background.
EXTRAS:
Matt Cam: This is a little bonus feature that has a camera just on drummer Matt Cameron for three songs: "Evacuation", "Evenflow" and "In My Tree". This is not a "multi-angle" feature, although it was apparently at one time going to be. It's now just accessible through the special features menu, where you can watch just the drumming for those three songs.
Smile: Outtakes of the shows set to the song "Smile".
Europe Montages: Short clips of the band, the fans and the cities that were all part of the touring experience for the band in 2000.
Videos: Videos for "Evolution" and "Oceans".
Final Thoughts: Although I've always seemed to have the opinion with concert titles that the sound quality is really the biggest consideration, when the video quality becomes as problematic as it does here at times, it becomes a definite concern. Still, the band's performance throughout the shows is excellent, and well-worth seeing. And, at least, the sound quality is great.
A number of years ago, before I really became more heavily involved in movies, I was a very big fan of going to concerts, nearly every weekend - if possible. An expensive habit, to be sure, but one that I found often incredibly enjoyable. I've seen many of the more popular (and not as popular, but still wonderful bands) that are around today; Primus (who played for nearly three hours), Nirvana, Mudhoney, Fugazi, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Buffalo Tom, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Beastie Boys, Beck, the list goes on. Yes, I threw myself into the mosh pits many a time, but after a while began to move away from going to clubs with mediocre sound systems and packed-in crowds.
For the past few years, I've become almost 100% involved in film, but the often wonderful music DVD releases have brought me back to enjoying music in a strong way. Although there's nothing that can really bring the excitement of watching a talented group of musicians at their best, it's certainly nice to have at least a close representation of this experience watching DVD where you don't have to wait in line to use the restroom and a Coke doesn't cost $2.50.
Anyways, I've never been a hard-core fan of Pearl Jam, but I've liked much of their work and bought a couple of their latest double-disc concert CD releases. The band made news earlier this year as they've released a fairly massive wave of inexpensive concert 2 CD sets that document various shows on their latest tour. The ones that I've heard have been excellent and well worth the money. Putting it all together is this concert film which shows the band at various dates throughout their 2000 tour, playing many of their bigger hits and some of their not as widely known songs. Pearl Jam have been one of the best live acts that I've seen, and that's reflected here as well, as the band goes through the songs with tremendous energy and enthusiasm.
Song List: Long Road, Corduroy, Grievance, Animal, Gods' Dice, Evacuation, Given to Fly, Dissident, Nothing as It Seems, Evenflow, Lukin, Not for You, Daughter (into "It's OK" by Dead Moon), Untitled, MFC, Thin Air, Leatherman, Betterman, Nothingman, Insignificance, I Got S***, RVM, Wishlist, Jeremy, Evolution, Don't Go, Parting Ways, Rocking in the Free World
The DVD
VIDEO: The reason for the delay of this title was reportedly that there were problems with the video quality that were attempting to be cured. If this is the fixed version, then I would hate to see the original effort. It's not that the picture quality is consistently horrible - it's a rather complicated situation. This is a low-fi effort in terms of the production - the group had members of their production crew serve as "documentary filmmakers" and shoot the performances on video, so already, it's rather rough looking visually.
I can understand and even appreciate a rough look, and for a rock band like Pearl Jam, it works. But when you get that rough quality and combine it with occasionally heavy grain and noticable pixelation, things go downhill rather quickly and the image begins to become harsh looking. Sharpness and detail are all over the map - the image goes from satisfyingly sharp to decent to soft sometimes during the same song. Sometimes it looks great, the next minute it doesn't.
Colors were also problematic, looking poorly rendered and sometimes messy. This program probably wasn't the most visually stunning presentation to begin with, but it would have worked far better if it didn't suffer from an apparently rather weak effort on the part of Sony Music on top of it. The past few releases from Sony Music have certainly not been some of their better efforts in terms of image quality, but this is definitely the one most lacking. Thanks to the band's stellar performance I found it watchable, but still it's dissapointing.
SOUND: The sound, on the other hand, is actually very good and is indicative that stronger care was taken on the sound side than the video side. The music was spread out nicely across the front of the room, with instruments remaining clear, crisp and well-defined rather than coming together and becoming an undefined mess. Audio quality was also excellent; the music remained warm and crisp instead of sounding thin or otherwise uncomfortable to listen to.
Surrounds were also put to nice use to envelop the user well, bringing a fair amount of crowd noise and music re-inforcement. They're used appropriately and really add to the proceedings. With all the elements working as well as they do here, I had a good "front row" feeling, as if I was really at the shows. It's too bad that the video quality couldn't be as strong as the sound is.
MENUS:: Menus are non-animated, but have music in the background.
EXTRAS:
Matt Cam: This is a little bonus feature that has a camera just on drummer Matt Cameron for three songs: "Evacuation", "Evenflow" and "In My Tree". This is not a "multi-angle" feature, although it was apparently at one time going to be. It's now just accessible through the special features menu, where you can watch just the drumming for those three songs.
Smile: Outtakes of the shows set to the song "Smile".
Europe Montages: Short clips of the band, the fans and the cities that were all part of the touring experience for the band in 2000.
Videos: Videos for "Evolution" and "Oceans".
Final Thoughts: Although I've always seemed to have the opinion with concert titles that the sound quality is really the biggest consideration, when the video quality becomes as problematic as it does here at times, it becomes a definite concern. Still, the band's performance throughout the shows is excellent, and well-worth seeing. And, at least, the sound quality is great.
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