Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Before I start being attacked by fans of the band let me just clarify a couple things: I am a big fan of Heroes del Silencio and Enrique Bunbury, I believe the tour from last year is one of the best concerts I've seen in my life... my problem with this DVD set is not the band or the concert themselves but the awful treatment EMI gave to this release.
First of all as many fans know, the tour in Spain was released in three different presentations, a double CD, a double DVD and a boxed set containing both plus extra goodies (the type of goodies fans crave for) In America we only had the first two releases and no boxed set, since they released the 2 CD set last December and the double DVD on January all fans should have them by now, making the release of the boxed set less likely. Their loss as we all were hoping for the more-expensive-box-set to go and buy it. Another thing to note is the abusive price of the double DVD, Amazon is selling it for less than 20 bucks while in Mexico and Mexican online stores (where I purchased it) the average price is $30...
So I ended up paying $30 for what I thought would be an incredible DVD experience, being this one of the major releases EMI had recently I expected a good treatment for the tour from last year. Wrong again. While the concert was definitely one of the best I've ever attended to, this DVD release does no justice at all but ruins the experience of going over it one more time. First thing I noted when playing my DVD for the first time is that the concert has the widescreen black bars at the top and the bottom, but the widescreen is not anamorphic! What does that mean? That if you own a widescreen TV set you will not see only the 2 black bars I mentioned but 4 on the top, bottom, right and left sides of your screen. For you to watch this in full widescreen you'll need to utilize the `zoom' feature of your TV set which will distort the quality of the image. I started watching the concert thinking to myself this was not the first DVD I had to use the zoom feature in, and it all went well until I started to notice the bad editing (usual in all Bunbury DVD releases) in many of the songs, the details were so many that if had to mention them the list would be long, some examples may be in `Opio' there is a moment during the song that a still of the flower appears on screen for a good deal of time, an image that has nothing to do with the rest of the concert and its edit that seems to be placed there to hide something in the recording they did not want to show. That may still be bearable but the major problems can be noted in (and just to mention 2 examples) `Nuestros nombres' and `La chispa adecuada', it can be very annoying to see Bunbury singing the songs and his lips not matching what you're listening... there is no lip-sync at all! And no, I am not being picky, it is that obvious that it is annoying! The credits list three editors were in charge of the concert and no one catched this? No one had a screening prior to the release to note these editing errors?
Annoying as it is I watched the complete concert, I had the opportunity to see their live performance in Monterrey and it was great to watch the show and remember the concert I attended. Recorded in Mexico city, the band plays better than ever (even without Bugoslavsky) and Enrique is at his best moment as an artist; you can see how all of them enjoy being on stage playing their songs, Enrique as usual playing with the masses. In this concert you will see why he is so fond of Mexico being one place he's been always welcome and admired.
The set list goes over all their discography and includes their major hits as well as some b-sides (like for instance `Bendecida' and `Tesoro') Some classic songs were left out in disc one but included separately as bonus tracks on disc 2. The 5.1 sound mix is just incredible.
The extras
The first surprise I got from disc 2 is that when I played it, the menu appears in full widescreen! I thought I was wrong so I played the extra songs and the documentary and everything in disc 2 is in anamorphic widescreen! So, what kind of quality control does EMI have? The full concert is released in 4:3 but the extras deserve an anamorphic widescreen treatment? That is just absurd! Believe me, the quality of the image is way better in disc 2, using the `zoom' feature on a widescreen TV set does make a difference.
The documentary included may be interesting for some and boring for others, it does not offer any interesting facts at all; it is not a making of but a documentary of the video crew following the band on tour, their trips, their backstage moments and the like, it has its moments but is definitely not a big deal, the real jewels of disc 2 are the bonus tracks included.
While disc one recollects the concerts from Mexico DF, disc two includes one song from each of the other shows; so the version of `Agosto' you'll see here was recorded in Guatemala, `Flor Venenosa' in Monterrey, `Despertar' in Valencia, `Bendecida' in LA, `Tumbas de sal' in Sevilla, the incredible `Malas intenciones' in Zaragoza and `Fuente de esperanza' in Buenos Aires.
They treated this in a very interesting way, rather than showing the band playing on stage during the whole song they added stills and scenes from the cities in question, so while the song plays you may see the band as well as people from the audience or places of the city they are in. Seven extra songs and a documentary, I think these could have been added to disc one and were placed separately to justify a higher price for a 2 DVD set.
Bottom-line, for me, as a big fan of the band this was not what I expected and I believe this release deserved a better treatment, all these details may be considered as `minor' by some people but put them all together and the result is just an overpriced low quality product. I just hope someone bring these problems to their attention and they learn their lesson for future releases.
Great band, great tour, great concerts... overpriced low-quality release...
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Tour 2007
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