The Presentation
Filmed at Chelsea Piers in New York on February 2001 for the VH1 Storytellers series, Matchbox Twenty provides 63 minutes of songs, commentary and Q&A. Comprised of singer/songwriter Rob Thomas and members Kyle Cook, Paul Doucette, Adam Gaynor and Brian Yale, Rob steals the show doing almost all the narrative. It is a bit strange that the group appeared on this series given the fact, at the time, they only had two albums out. And prior to this airing, we were more used to seeing legends like The Pretenders and David Bowie in this "get close to the crowd" format. But I'm sure that, due in part to, hits like "If You're Gone", "Push" and the collaboration with Santana on "Smooth", executives couldn't resist the potential revenue from dropping the popular band into that slot.

The DVD starts with a short welcome by Rob and then the first song "Bent", a love song. Each song is proceeded by a little history of what they are about to play, with following songs being "Mad Season", the title song off the album, "Black & White People", about the isolation a songwriter experiences, "Push", a song to rebel against the assumption the group tries to push people around to get their way, and "If You're Gone", a letter to Rob's wife-to-be that was getting cold feet about marrying a musician.

Following the first 5 songs of this 10 song set, Rob has a brief question and answer with the audience. Here we learn they prefer being in the studio to the grind of being on the road, why he became a singer, his favorite songs and the influence Tom Petty and Willie Nelson had on him. They go on to do the last 5 songs including "Crutch", about band members relationships, "Lonely Weekend", an old tune when they were with Sun Records, "You Won't Be Mine", "Rest Stop" a weekend fling Rob had at 17, and "3AM", a song with Rob on the piano about his sick mother when he was 13.

Audio
The sound is top notch during song performances and quite acceptable through most of the commentary. There is a point, however during the question and answer period during the use of stage and audience mics where the mixing was a bit slow, leaving the audience mic open and Robs mic down after he started answering the questions. Other than that minor point, the remainder was acceptable.

Menus
Animated with sound.
Song selections.
- the first 5 songs
Sound Setup.
- English (DTS)
- English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Extras.
- Music only mode
- "Push" country music version

Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a good presentation done in a laid back atmosphere. The music is good, Rob is a personable fellow and easy to listen to in his historical musings to the audience, the video good including 4 songs not included in the original broadcast, and what you would expect from VH1 in an unplugged format. It isn't a high energy presentation however nor very long, so I would recommend you rent before deciding to purchase. But I don't see this as a very hard decision for Matchbox Twenty fans.