Customer Reviews

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- Live

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DVDs: 4 stars; CD: 3 stars; Economic Value: 5 stars

As a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club fan from the early days on, I've been looking forward to an official live release of this band for a long time, because, let's admit it, the live show of BRMC is where it's at, more so that their studio albums (which aren't bad, of course). One of the reasons that I remain such a huge fan of the band is that, even though their critical perception and appreciation has been on the rise for many years, they continue to play mostly small-to-meduim sized clubs and venues, but for the occasional festival or opening for a much bigger band.

"Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Live" consists of 2 DVDs and 1 CD. On DVD 1 (127 min.) we get 22 songs pulled from the band's "Baby 81" European tour, specifically from shows in Glasgow, Dublin and Berlin. Obviously there are a bunch of "Baby 81" tracks on here, including opener "Berlin", "Took Out A Loan", "Weapon of Choice" and others, but let me point out the mammoth version of "American X" as the best of the bunch. The 3 other studio albums are well represented too, albeit a bit light on "Howl" songs. If you've been to a BRMC show, you know that lighting is pretty much optional, and dim at best, and this DVD reflects that. Not surprisingly, the footage is in black and white. The editing is too jumpy for me, frankly. The audio quality is great, though, especially if you have a home-entertainment theatre-style set up, which I happen to have. This concert film is not bad, but could've been brilliant with more subdued editing (do we really need to get a different camera angel every 2 seconds or so?).

DVD2 (90 min.) contains a bunch of extra materials, starting with 4 more songs (including Need Some Air; Stop; Head Up High) from the concert footage featured on DVD1 but for whatver reason not included there. There's a lot of different stuff, such as a short (1 song) impromptu acoustic performance at the 2007 T in the Park festical near what I think is the entrance of the park. Perhaps the most enjoyable item in here is the 13 min. "BBC Radio Sessions Birmingham", where Peter and Robert perform acoustically, and, get this: the camera simply catches them playing, no silly changes in camera angle every second, just beautiful. I also enjoyed the "American X" 10 min. short film quite a bit. The "Howl" studios sessions video is very low-fi, but quite fascinating as well.

The CD (14 tracks; 65 min.) brings a selection of the songs featured on the concert DVD, and the intent is good, as I can take this and put it in my car CD player or whatever. Why the full 80 min. capacity of the CD is not used, I don't know. Why the songs are in a different order from heo they appear on the concert DVD, I don't know either. Why "American X" is missing, that I don't know either. But still, I'll take it and I'm glad they threw that in.

The set comes with a lavish 44 page booklet, mostly with great photos from the shows. Beware: the booklet does NOT contain any information on the DVD and CD contents, so you had better keep the cardboard package in which this set comes. On the next to past page of the booklet, it says "BRMC is Peter Hayes, Robert Been, Nick Jago", which is somewhat ironic since that may have been the case on the "Baby 81" tour, but Jago was kicked out of the band afterwards and a new drummer was brought in last year (I saw the new line-up for the first time in the summer of 2008--a new studio album is expected in 2010). In all, there is a lot of great stuff on here, and if you are a true BRMC fan, you'll want this for sure. And I applaud the band for releasing this at a very fan-friendly purchase price.

I'm a BRMC fan, so I'm predisposed to like this 2 DVD/1 CD combo package, which, btw, is an excellent value at ~$18. The Live DVD is absolutely excellent, and so is the bonus DVD. I usually don't find bonus material on DVDs that worthwhile, so this is saying something. The only minor complaint I have, and the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars, is that the sound quality on the CD doesn't seem nearly as good as on the DVDs. I would definitely buy this package, though--you won't be disappointed.

It's hard to believe that only 3 guys can make such an amazing sound. It's hard to believe that they could be even better on live performance than at studio. But they are. The only negative point is that most of the show is black and white, but if you know BRMC, you also know why they've chosen this format.

i agree with what another reviewer wrote about the editing. those prone to seizures or people with attention-spans longer than 1/2 second, will find the choppy, flashing white/black/white/black images pretty distracting & tiring halfway through the first song. BRMC is a great band with great tunes and sound excellent live, so there's no need to turn this into an editor's "art show". i recommend it for its affordable price, extras, and the live CD. complaints aside, overall its a good value for the BRMC fan.

seen clips, but decided its a waste if its that retarted headache inducing ADD editing, iots too bad , they are a great band, but that type of editing ruins everything, after all this is VISUAL