The Casualties: Can't Stop Us Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Good
Can't Stop Us is more of a documentary than is a concert video. The first half of the DVD focuses on the punk group's tour in Mexico. This section is padded heavily with behind-the-scenes material. In between that you do get some live performances, but most are not presented to completion of the song. It was interesting to see how rabid the fans were for this group. I have never heard of them, but clearly the people of Mexico have. There were two interesting segments that caught my attention.
The first took place in Mexico City. The Casualties were set to play a festival type show with a 2am set time. The set time wasn't the shocking part. The shocking part was when a gang of kids decided that they didn't want to pay to get into the show. All hell broke loose and the show was eventually postponed to the next day. The fear that the band was experiencing was quite genuine. The second incident took place the next day when the show finally went on. A fan was heckling the band when frontman Jorge brought him on stage to find out why.
This guy goes into a rant on how The Casualties are Capitalists for charging $15 dollars for a concert. The guy had a lot of balls, and The casualties showed a lot of restraint. It just goes to show you that everyone doesn't have it as good as the U.S. and other countries. The second half of the DVD highlights a tour through Japan. You can clearly see a difference in culture from the Mexico tour. This portion of the DVD focuses more on the wild and frenzied live performances. It still has its share of interesting tour footage.
The Bad
You can't just go into this blind, you really have to be a fan of the group to enjoy it thoroughly.
The Verdict
It's nice to know that The Casualties are out there keeping the spirit of punk rock alive. On their latest DVD you really do get to see a different side of the music industry. Instead of the typical big production shows you get with concert DVDs, with top-notch lighting, a huge stage, a packed arena, and perfect sound; Can't Stop Us now gives you a taste of old-school, down-and-dirty touring the hard way. I don't think The Casualties would have it any other way.


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This 90-minute movie documents their recent tours of Japan and Mexico. Includes insane live performances (over twenty songs) and all the behind-the-scenes mayhem you'd expect. From riots in Mexico City to DIY stitches and multiple emergency room visits, "Can't Stop Us" captures all the action. A must own for the band's rabid fan base.

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Black Flag: Live (1984) Review

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(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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B Side Oblivion Review

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(More customer reviews)A lot of powerpop bands come off tinny. Not this one. A thick slab of sound issues from Three Hour Tour's three releases (of which B-Side is the most recent) and much of the music quickly acquires an agreeable density. (Think of bands like Myracle Brah in its prime and Fuzzbubble.) Some of the 11 songs here bear that weight well. "I Wanted You Around," "A Lady Named Caroline," the title cut and crunching closer "What Made You Change" all carry a nice punch and I've played them over and over again ... but individually.
Why individually? Well, this big-sound approach has limits. It makes the songs seem longer than they are and a bit too much alike. Taken as a whole, I was kind of tired of the CD by the time it ended. But in smaller chunks, it's good hard-pop (as is Valentine's Day on 1969 and Home Again on Remix). Give it a test drive and I think you'll agree.


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B Side Oblivion by Three Hour Tour
This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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