Customer Reviews

Collective Soul: Home

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This DVD is a great production. The sound is amazing and the visuals are nicely done. It's also nice to have a concert DVD where the director hasn't gone crazy with rapid-fire camera changes and effects. Collective Soul are a great band that have a big catalogue of songs. This DVD showcases all their hits accompanied by an orchestra. The orchestra fits in very nicely with the band without overpowering any of the tunes so that what you get is a real Collective Soul concert plus strings. This is essential viewing for Collective Soul fans and definitely worth checking out for fans of good music.

A little context... I have been a fan of Collective Soul since I first heard Shine years ago. At one point I had all of their CD's. I enjoyed all their radio hits and didn't qualify any of their stuff as throw away. Their instrumentation is frequently lush and beautiful. Their lyrics are often touching and meaningful. There is certainly a depth to most of their music that other bands lack. They also have a great rock vibe. That being said, however, I never played their CD's a lot. When I heard them, I enjoyed them, but they never ruled my stereo. Their greatest hits compilation was obviously enjoyable, but I was let down because their earlier stuff was not remastered to the quality of their newer stuff. I had very limited exposure to the band performing live. I was impressed with their Higher Places recording for MTV and I had only seen them perform live one other time. I believe it was on Letterman or some other television program. I thought Ed Roland (lead vocalist) was a bit awkward in his movement but the performance was tight.

With that background, I was excited to see they had released a live DVD but remained hesitant to purchase it because I was nervous about what I would see. I finally decided to take the plunge and I am extremely pleased I did.

The band does a phenomenal job. The lead and backing vocals are extremely tight. Musically the band is in top form. The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra is just wonderful. What a talented group of students! There is probably no rock band that is better suited to perform with an orchestra. Collective Soul has such a lush, symphonic sound anyway. The songs are fully realized in this setting. It is just a powerful and beautiful experience. Seeing Ed display emotion in dedicating "Crown" to his late father or in experiencing his own creations being transformed by the orchestra was very special. The songs are so beautiful when played sparingly; they are almost heavenly when delivered in this manner. It is like you are hearing them the way they were meant to be experienced. The band and the orchestra truly mesh (or "gel" if you will) brilliantly. Seeing the orchestra jump up and down and clap along in "Better Now" was a lot of fun.

If there is anything to comment negatively on, it is very little. I was a bit shocked by a cheesy graphic where various still frames roll out to fill the screen. It is like the only graphic during the entire DVD concert performance. It is a bit hokey and out of place. The concert hall itself is a bit odd. The venue's stage seems almost as large as the "seating". To accommodate an orchestra it naturally had to be this way, but it still takes some getting used to. The lighting is also a bit strange for a concert, but given their requirements, I think they did a good job. The crowd also did not seem like the most exuberant. Thankfully the editing did not feature much of the audience. I still find Ed's stage presence a bit awkward, but it has a real endearing quality as well. Only so much can be done with a mic stand, but he seems to be having fun with it!

The bottom line, I fell in love with the band all over again. This is a tremendous concert DVD. I am now considering purchasing the corresponding CD. It features most of their greatest hits delivered in a truly special way and mastered for the best sound. It will have that advantage over their greatest hits CD, anyway. Collective Soul is truly a great live rock band.

A very emotional performance. A joy to watch and listen to, the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra was wonderful. When you pop the DVD into your player, you must fight the urge to watch the concert right away. Instead watch the extra feature "behind the scenes" first. It takes you back stage for interviews with some of the kids in the orchestra, and sets up the concert for you. This way you get to feel the building anticipation before the big moment. I loved it! You will too.

I was in the front row of this concert. This DVD captures the sound quality literally AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET without actually being there. The TV runs don't do this justice - you HAVE to get the DVD to experience the whole thing appropriately! Direct TV and VH1 have each run partials of the concert. VH1 cut out half of it, to their discredit -- and of course the half they cut out was, in my opinion, the best orchestral arrangments of the whole show.

My picks for the show? My personal favorite was CROWN. If you are familiar with Collective Soul's CD arrangement, this is so far above and beyond better - and I loved the CD cut. You can't imagine how moving this tribute to Ed's father is, with orchestra. In my opinion, Ed's best vocal of the concert. It's the most poignant moment of the show - the next, being YOUTH, with just Ed (vocal and guitar) and a cello.

TIED with first, is the orchestral arrangement of PRETTY DONNA. (I cried during this at the show - although I hate to admit that ;) Simply breathtaking.

Second pick for orchestral arrangement was NEEDS. This is my all-time 2nd favorite Collective Soul song and favorite video (check it out on LaunchCast!). I don't feel this was Ed's best vocal performance, but the arrangement was beyond excellent and everything I expected it would be (and I had HIGH expectations, mind you).

Third pick was THE WORLD I KNOW. SUPERB arrangement and superbly done by all involved.

Of course, you gotta love SHINE. There's just no two ways about it.

This concert takes you through most of the "big hits" you'll recognize as Collective Soul (even if you don't know who did the songs originally or can't remember) and you'll hear them like you never have before -- and you'll hear new songs from their CD, Youth (I also reviewed this - check out my review).

These kids in the Atlanta Symphony Youth ORchestra were amazing.

OH that's another thing - you've GOT to watch the "BEHIND THE SCENES". In my opinion that's the best part. Will (bass player) is EXCELLENT and you can tell all the guys are really having a great time and it's a great moment in their history. They are excellent with the kids and the kids are really excited. Every one of these kids is a master of their instrument.

Granted you will find some arrangements that orchestra doesn't really mesh with -- HEAVY (in my opinion, but it was cool to see how they pulled it off) being one -- but even on that one, the stage show was enough to keep you on your toes.

ALL IN ALL, I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS ENOUGH. It's a pity they did not have this out BEFORE Christmas. BUY THE companion CD also.

I am a professional musician and this is hands down the BEST concert I have had the pleasure of experiencing. I have seen rock concerts, I have seen symphonies - now I have seen both at once, and this is the best thing I have seen in YEARS. I would GLADLY pay the money I did to go again, ANY DAY.

I also had the chance to watch some (about 7 songs) of this concert on DirectTV and it was excellent! I wanted to purchase the DVD immediately, but I knew it would be a while before being released for sale.

I must admit that, when I learned a few weeks ago that this DVD was going to be released, I was somewhat skeptical about the symphony accompanying the band. I guess it was because I really disliked the Metallica-with-symphony concert. But I tell you, Collective Soul with the symphony was brilliant! I get goose bumps from just thinking about it. And it makes it much cooler to see that the members of the symphony are kids!

I can't wait!

I stumbled onto this DirecTV "Freeview" performance. I don't have anything by Collective Soul. I'm not too familiar with their music. I know from radio play they've had a few or so hits. I've had no reason to find interest in them. They seemed like a typical metal rock band. Territory treked by others.
All those preconceptions changed (vanished) when I saw this pairing of orchestra and rock band. I've seen it before with other band attempts. Sometimes it pleasantly works.
But this one scores MAGIC on my "satisfactory" scale. Don't be misled by the "Youth Symphony" label, this orchestra fuses so well with CS's Rock I can't imagine its participation separate from the band's music. Both the band and orchestra blend without either attempting to out do the other. It's impressively scored. The quieter songs especially show the symphony's effectiveness. But the gist of Rock Music is not compromised. CS's play is solid rock. This symphony is not window dressing. It's a full band member and helps raise the concert beyond simply memorable. It aims to captivate the soul of Rock within whoever catches this performance. Probably not what CS intended. But that's how it affected me. In my humble opinion, a grand and preeminent accomplishment. My congratulations to Collective Soul.

I'm a middle aged African American female who is into mostly Gospel Music and some R&B. One day back in December I happened upon the Collective Soul Atlanta concert on Direct TV as I was flipping through the channels. I was sooo.. captured by the music and the youth orchestra just blew me away! I have never been to a rock concert, never have been interested, but I was singing and hollering just as if I was there. Wishing all along that I had been there. I'm about to buy this DVD now and I highly recommend it!! I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

Despite being a dedicated collective soul fan since the days of shine, I was a bit skeptical about collective soul deciding to do a concert with an orchestra. This type of thing had been done before (Metallica, Scorpions, Evanescence, etc.), but what set this performance apart from the rest was the seamless integration of the orchestra into all of collective soul's songs, as though it belonged there the whole time.

This should really come as no surprise, given that string accompaniments are found frequently in collective soul's discography. "The World I Know", "Compliment", "Needs", "She Said", and "Run" are all examples of songs that just crave to be accompanied by an orchestra. Not to mention, "Pretty Donna" which is an orchestral piece in itself.

From the beginning of the show, the band put out a lot of positive energy, and you could easily tell how much they enjoyed themselves. The same could be said about the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. The conductor even seemed to be getting into the rock music a lot, which was funny to watch at times.

The special features on the dvd include a short behind-the-scenes making-of the "Better Now" music video, and a lot of Bassist Will Turpin talking to the Youth in the symphony. There is even a backstage performance with lead man Ed Roland of an unreleased song, played on nothing but an acoustic guitar.

The sound and picture is incredible. With the 5.1 surround sound it's very easy to feel like you part of the audience. The editing and camera angles were very good too.

For completeness, here is the setlist. Almost all of their greatest hits are covered, and quite a few songs from their 2004 studio release Youth are here too. Even the song "Youth" appears, which was previously only released on an EP in 2005:

01. Counting The Days
02. Listen
03. December
04. Compliment
05. Precious Declaration
06. Needs
07. Heavy
08. Run
09. The World I Know
10. Pretty Donna
11. Youth
12. Crown
13. Under Heaven's Skies
14. She Said
15. Home
16. Gel
17. How Do You Love
18. Better Now
19. Satellite
20. Shine

This is the best concert DVD I've ever experienced.

I love this concert. The video looks great but the sound definitely should have been better. I've watched the DVD enough to notice it immediately on the bluray. Very sloppy, but glad it's on bluray.

I also caught the Direct TV showing before the DVD/CD was released. I had the honor of meeting Ed and Dean recently. You could not meet two nicer guys who are extremely talently and create such wonderful and thought provoking music. The CD is a must have for all who have enjoyed CS over the past years. The addition of the Atlanta Youth Symphony just made the live show all the more memorable. Such energy was created! I have watched the DVD several times and just bought the CD. My heart sings and I get chills everytime I listen to this. My only regret is that I wasn't at the show itself.