Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm giving this DVD 3 stars when anything that comes from Black Flag should have 5. And those 3 stars are for video alone. Audio only gets one star. I have to agree with the guy from Sweden - the sound is glaringly sub-par and unforgivable. I got my copy at Fry's, and as I was standing there at the rack, looking at the cover and pondering whether I should drop $20 on what I knew was a glorified bootleg, I had only to remember the time I passed up getting it for $20 on video 10 years ago and missing out when I came back for it and it was gone. Any true fan should have this. That being said, here are some obsevations on various elements in the video:
THE LINEUP: This is the "Live '84" band lineup as is the setlist on this DVD performance. The Bill/Kira rhythm section, though not being as fierce and brilliant as the Biscuits/Dukowski/Cadena (see 84 demos bootleg) lineup, is more than adequate, even though when you see bill and kira live, they are not as energetic and animated as henry and greg, but this is really splitting hairs and and i know this.
VIDEO EDITING AND QUALITY: This is the best thing about this DVD. It's obvious that they had about 3 or 4 cameras, at least two or three on the stage and behind the drum riser, and all panning, and zooming in and out, never dwelling on one member too much. The editing was also fabulous from the standpoint that someone took the time to incorporate all the camera angles into a flowing whole complete with fades, cuts, cross fades, etc. I do have a bone to pick with the guy who edited some of the in between song stuff. Not cool. He even edited out the first half of bill and kira's classic intro to slip it in! NOT COOL. As for image quality goes, its about as good as a bootleg gets. The color hues are not really that great, but keep in mind *when* this was done...But the images are crisp and clear and decently lighted, so you can really see what's going on. Anybody who's ever seen a 20th generation bootleg filmed with one camera from the balcony can appreciate the fact that this is higher quality effort.
SOUND: The good news - it's Black Flag, and all BF sounds good. Also, every thing *is* audible if your ears can tell the difference between instruments, and the general volume level is adequate, if not somewhat subdued. The bad news - overall sound sucks. If you listen to this on a 5.1 system, only the front right speaker plays, and when I tried watching it through TV channel 3, it only came through the front center speaker. Also, as many here have mentioned, Henry's volume is jacked way over a everything else in the band. Gregs guitar and Bills drums are quite audible though, but kira's bass needs to be twice as loud, but you *can* hear it. All I can say is that if the producers of this DVD are going to ask the same price for this product as a Pink Floyd concert, they should at least get in there and level things out and get the sound to go through all channels. Come on "Visionary", its the digital age and sound engineering isnt exactly rocket science.
THE VERDICT: All black flag fans should have this. Especially if you havent seem them 5 times like i have. You are not paying for a state of the art DVD. You are paying for an imported English bootleg video that is low on production quality, but a more than adequate document of a legendary band in the midst of a fine performance.
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