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Dispatch: Zimbabwe - Live at Madison Square Garden
Concert Hot Spot // Unrated // January 29, 2008
List Price: $29.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
There are some twenty thousand seats at Madison Square Garden, and Dispatch filled every last one of them this past summer. Not only is Dispatch the first independent act to sell out the Garden, but the band did it three nights running. Although Dispatch had disbanded several years earlier, all three of its members had remained active with supporting various charities on their own, and the chaos that's ravaged Zimbabwe in recent years prompted the Afrofunk-inflected folk rockers to reunite for this three night stint in New York.
The band tears through nineteen songs on this two hour Blu-ray disc -- with another four in the extras -- including:
I'll admit to not having heard of Dispatch before giving
this disc a spin in my PS3, and my taste in music leans more towards fast, crunchy slices of power-pop than the sprawling, mid-tempo numbers here. Still, I was pretty impressed with the band. The setlist is eclectic, drawing its influence from genres as diverse as ska, reggae, folk, and rock. "Cut It Ya Match It" even has a couple members of the band strolling through the Garden and rapping over a single acoustic guitar. The three of them repeatedly swap instruments and take turns singing lead, and a slew of guests parade up and down the stage, including a full horn section, a stand-in drummer, the African Children's Choir, and the members of Bongo Love. Even if their three night stint at Madison Square Garden marked one of the very few times Dispatch had played together in years, the band still knows how to put on a hell of a show. The performance shatters the two hour mark, and yet the energy and enthusiasm on display here seems unlimited. The concert blazes along at a steady clip, and even though there are brief black and white interludes scattered throughout the show, they never drag down the pace. For one nostalgic song, the three members push out their old touring van, hop on top of it, and belt out a quick acoustic number.
Even though Dispatch's music is just about a complete 180 from what I generally listen to, I walked away from this disc with a lot of respect for the band, both as an immensely talented group of musicians and as genuinely stand-up guys who'll go to such extreme lengths for a cause they believe in. Dispatch: Zimbabwe documents a tight performance that's crackling with energy, and I'm sure fans of the band will be impressed by how well this Blu-ray disc turned out. The only stumbling block is that the show got a particularly lavish release on DVD, including a half hour of additional material, a ten track CD, and a code to download high bitrate mp3s of the entire show. The Blu-ray disc is a much slimmer package by comparison, and considering that most stores carry it at a $5-$10 premium over the decked out CD/DVD set, fans might find it tough to side with this high-def release.
Video: Like most concert releases, Dispatch: Zimbabwe's AVC-encoded 1080p video is inconsistent, but it's generally a solid effort. The quality can vary from shot to shot; the black and white footage that opens the show and is intercut throughout is really eye-popping, and most of the close-ups are dazzlingly detailed. Even when the camera's closed in tight on the band, the crowd deep in the background still remains clear and distinct. Other shots look kind of lousy by comparison. The camera that slowly swoops around Chad is unusually soft and looks like the contrast is dialed all the way up, for instance, and the underlit shots of the audience tend to be noisy and flat. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with the way Dispatch: Zimbabwe turned out on Blu-ray, and I'm impressed that the compression doesn't once buckle even under challenging visuals like the handful of strobing effects and the extremely swift movements of the drumsticks.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is encoded at a higher bitrate than the DVD release -- 640Kbps here compared to the 448Kbps track in standard-def -- but I couldn't really spot much of a difference between the two. It's an okay mix but not in the same league as the best concerts I've given a
spin on these next-gen formats.
The instrumentation is spread across the front channels fairly well. Depending on who's taking the reins as lead guitarist, for instance, the guitar will be heavily weighted towards either the left or right speaker. The use of surrounds is more uneven, rendered crystal clear in certain songs but sounding awfully muddy and indistinct in quite a few others. Braddigan's drumming is backed by a pretty colossal low-end kick, and the rhythm section overall dominates the mix. There's not a lot of clarity and distinctness to the instrumentation -- even with the separation across channels, it all sounds kind of mashed together -- and the vocals and guitars can take a hit as a result. The vocals get lost in the mix in "Flying Horses", to name one example. This six channel audio is perfectly listenable, but it doesn't roar with the sort of force I'd expect from a newly minted Blu-ray disc.
The lack of lossless audio is kind of a drag, but considering the length of the concert and the capacity of a single layer disc, I guess that wasn't in the cards.
There are no subtitle streams or alternate soundtracks on this Blu-ray disc, which makes the inclusion of an audio submenu kind of a puzzler. The DVD includes a Dolby stereo track that's missing here, for what that's worth.
Extras: This Blu-ray disc includes four additional songs: "Camilo", "Customs", "Carnival", and a cover of Bob Marley's "War". The technical specs are the same as they
are in the concert proper -- a high-definition AVC encode and Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kbps) audio.
The half hour documentary "Tree with No Name" delves into the plight of Zimbabwe, framed around the stop-motion animation of an African children's story. It's a soul-shattering look at how devastated this proud country has become, suffering from starvation, rampant HIV infections, a collapsed economy, and one of the world's lowest life expectancies. "Tree with No Name" is presented in standard definition and anamorphic widescreen.
The Blu-ray disc loses quite a few of the bells and whistles from the DVD release. Between the bonus footage and the vignettes from the live show, nearly half an hour of additional material didn't make it to Blu-ray. The ten track CD and the liner notes/miniposter packaged with the DVD were nixed as well. The DVD also comes with a code to download mp3s of all of the songs from the show, and those didn't make the cut either.
Conclusion: While I'll freely admit that Dispatch isn't so much my type of music, this document of the band's three night stint at Madison Square Garden is overflowing with energy and musicianship, and I can still appreciate that even if I'm not likely to run out and grab an armful of their other CDs. This Blu-ray disc could still be a bit of a hard sell to Dispatch's rabid fanbase just because it loses so many of the extras from the less expensive DVD set, including a ten track CD and a code to download high bitrate mp3s of the performance. Recommended, but fans might want to weigh their options and decide which package is right for them.
The images in this review have been culled from the DVD release and aren't meant to represent the way this concert looks in high-definition.
The band tears through nineteen songs on this two hour Blu-ray disc -- with another four in the extras -- including:
| Here We Go | Passerby | Cut It Ya Match It | ||
| Time Served | Flying Horses | Bats in the Belfry | ||
| Whaddya Wannabe | Past the Falls | Elias | ||
| Open Up | Fallin' | Outloud | ||
| Bulletholes | Lightning | General | ||
| Bang Bang | Steeples | |||
| Ride a Tear | Questioned Apocalypse |
I'll admit to not having heard of Dispatch before giving
this disc a spin in my PS3, and my taste in music leans more towards fast, crunchy slices of power-pop than the sprawling, mid-tempo numbers here. Still, I was pretty impressed with the band. The setlist is eclectic, drawing its influence from genres as diverse as ska, reggae, folk, and rock. "Cut It Ya Match It" even has a couple members of the band strolling through the Garden and rapping over a single acoustic guitar. The three of them repeatedly swap instruments and take turns singing lead, and a slew of guests parade up and down the stage, including a full horn section, a stand-in drummer, the African Children's Choir, and the members of Bongo Love. Even if their three night stint at Madison Square Garden marked one of the very few times Dispatch had played together in years, the band still knows how to put on a hell of a show. The performance shatters the two hour mark, and yet the energy and enthusiasm on display here seems unlimited. The concert blazes along at a steady clip, and even though there are brief black and white interludes scattered throughout the show, they never drag down the pace. For one nostalgic song, the three members push out their old touring van, hop on top of it, and belt out a quick acoustic number. Even though Dispatch's music is just about a complete 180 from what I generally listen to, I walked away from this disc with a lot of respect for the band, both as an immensely talented group of musicians and as genuinely stand-up guys who'll go to such extreme lengths for a cause they believe in. Dispatch: Zimbabwe documents a tight performance that's crackling with energy, and I'm sure fans of the band will be impressed by how well this Blu-ray disc turned out. The only stumbling block is that the show got a particularly lavish release on DVD, including a half hour of additional material, a ten track CD, and a code to download high bitrate mp3s of the entire show. The Blu-ray disc is a much slimmer package by comparison, and considering that most stores carry it at a $5-$10 premium over the decked out CD/DVD set, fans might find it tough to side with this high-def release.
Video: Like most concert releases, Dispatch: Zimbabwe's AVC-encoded 1080p video is inconsistent, but it's generally a solid effort. The quality can vary from shot to shot; the black and white footage that opens the show and is intercut throughout is really eye-popping, and most of the close-ups are dazzlingly detailed. Even when the camera's closed in tight on the band, the crowd deep in the background still remains clear and distinct. Other shots look kind of lousy by comparison. The camera that slowly swoops around Chad is unusually soft and looks like the contrast is dialed all the way up, for instance, and the underlit shots of the audience tend to be noisy and flat. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with the way Dispatch: Zimbabwe turned out on Blu-ray, and I'm impressed that the compression doesn't once buckle even under challenging visuals like the handful of strobing effects and the extremely swift movements of the drumsticks.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is encoded at a higher bitrate than the DVD release -- 640Kbps here compared to the 448Kbps track in standard-def -- but I couldn't really spot much of a difference between the two. It's an okay mix but not in the same league as the best concerts I've given a
spin on these next-gen formats. The instrumentation is spread across the front channels fairly well. Depending on who's taking the reins as lead guitarist, for instance, the guitar will be heavily weighted towards either the left or right speaker. The use of surrounds is more uneven, rendered crystal clear in certain songs but sounding awfully muddy and indistinct in quite a few others. Braddigan's drumming is backed by a pretty colossal low-end kick, and the rhythm section overall dominates the mix. There's not a lot of clarity and distinctness to the instrumentation -- even with the separation across channels, it all sounds kind of mashed together -- and the vocals and guitars can take a hit as a result. The vocals get lost in the mix in "Flying Horses", to name one example. This six channel audio is perfectly listenable, but it doesn't roar with the sort of force I'd expect from a newly minted Blu-ray disc.
The lack of lossless audio is kind of a drag, but considering the length of the concert and the capacity of a single layer disc, I guess that wasn't in the cards.
There are no subtitle streams or alternate soundtracks on this Blu-ray disc, which makes the inclusion of an audio submenu kind of a puzzler. The DVD includes a Dolby stereo track that's missing here, for what that's worth.
Extras: This Blu-ray disc includes four additional songs: "Camilo", "Customs", "Carnival", and a cover of Bob Marley's "War". The technical specs are the same as they
are in the concert proper -- a high-definition AVC encode and Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kbps) audio. The half hour documentary "Tree with No Name" delves into the plight of Zimbabwe, framed around the stop-motion animation of an African children's story. It's a soul-shattering look at how devastated this proud country has become, suffering from starvation, rampant HIV infections, a collapsed economy, and one of the world's lowest life expectancies. "Tree with No Name" is presented in standard definition and anamorphic widescreen.
The Blu-ray disc loses quite a few of the bells and whistles from the DVD release. Between the bonus footage and the vignettes from the live show, nearly half an hour of additional material didn't make it to Blu-ray. The ten track CD and the liner notes/miniposter packaged with the DVD were nixed as well. The DVD also comes with a code to download mp3s of all of the songs from the show, and those didn't make the cut either.
Conclusion: While I'll freely admit that Dispatch isn't so much my type of music, this document of the band's three night stint at Madison Square Garden is overflowing with energy and musicianship, and I can still appreciate that even if I'm not likely to run out and grab an armful of their other CDs. This Blu-ray disc could still be a bit of a hard sell to Dispatch's rabid fanbase just because it loses so many of the extras from the less expensive DVD set, including a ten track CD and a code to download high bitrate mp3s of the performance. Recommended, but fans might want to weigh their options and decide which package is right for them.
The images in this review have been culled from the DVD release and aren't meant to represent the way this concert looks in high-definition.
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