Customer Reviews

Live from Austin, TX

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Wow...can't believe there aren't any other reviews here yet! I have been waiting for a DVD of these guys live and finally we have it...and released at the same time as The Flaming Lips live DVD...someone upstairs must really be liking me!! Anyway, I have seen the Spree live and I must say it is an event that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime...and now they can. This is a great DVD and one that captures the true essence of a Spree show. You will find it hard not to smile and will be fighting the urge to get up and dance or jump around as these guys do constantly. They are such a class act and Tim is a fantastic musician and the consumate front man and the rest of the Spree offer equal entertainment value. Spine tingling moments amongst beautiful melodic noise fests. Not one dud moment here...One Man Show is stunning...Two Thousand Places is brilliant...and the closure of When the Fool Becomes the King is uplifting.

They are all having a ball..a party on stage and we're all invited!!

Essential..buy this now.(Only gripe is the omission of a few tracks such as Soldier Girl and Suitcase Calling however this is always the way).

Oh, and buy The Fragile Army too...absolute GOLD!!

I have been a fan of Polyphonic Spree ever since I saw them open for David Bowie in early 2004. I am fortunate enough to have the DVD of their Japanese performance that was included with Together We're Heavy. This one from Austin only adds to my memories, but nothing can top my memory from The Fragile Army tour. Catch them soon on tour!!!

As usual, their music makes one want to leap up out of their chair and dance with happy tears in their eyes. The Austin show is no exception. However, Austin was at the top of my list for possible relocation until viewing this mostly stodgy audience on this DVD. Are most of them dead? Were they expecting country music and no one told them? Only a few fans in the front show any emotion! What is the matter with the rest of the fans? How on earth can Austin call itself the live music capital of the world?

Actually, this all inspires me. If someone appears to have just died, don't call the coroner! Just play some Polyphonic Spree for them and hopefully their eyes will flutter just before a big smile appears on their face. If not, then they are truly dead!

The polyphonic spree has a positive energy that is hard to ignore. I have seen them live a couple of times and was glad to be able to purchase this DVD so I can watch them at home and share the experience with my friends. The cult-ish nature of the rainbow robes is overpowered by the heart and energy each performer brings to the group through a combination of singing, dancing and playing a variety of instruments.

From a 2004 tour promoting Together We're Heavy, the DVD of the legendary Austin City Limits TV broadcast. The Spree were clearly in unstoppable mode and quite determined that no amount of studio-bound audience snoozing was going to stop them 'going for it'.

And, following a lovely extended harp intro, go for it they do - all 24 of them - right from the opening 'Long Day Continues/We Sound Amazed' (I'm skipping the section numbers) off the LP and, pausing long enough for a hypnotic acapella outro, explode into 'It's The Sun' and by now they're already hitting heights most bands can barely dream of.

And then - they actually take it up! 'Hold Me Now' a jet-propelled C21 nursery rhyme, 'Hanging Around' a whirl of united voices, 'Two Thousand Places' takes the already 'up' LP version and sends it stratospheric. Heck, even the deliberately-barbed arty bits in the middle of 'One Man Show' don't detract from the song's pastoral beauty. And then it's the gigantic closer 'Everything Starts.../When The Fool...' and it glistens and builds and builds and then drops to a whisper and then glistens again and then builds and builds one more time until it can't take it anymore and we're flinging our arms up to The Sun and you're now an emotionally drained heap...

Make no mistake, this is musical ecstasy on a truly grand scale. In the quietest moments it can be achingly tender, but these merely heighten the peaks of every (Sun)burst crescendo that follows. Majestic, life affirming and yet deeply personal, borrowing from the lush orchestrations of 60s pop and (gulp) biblical showtunes of early Rice/Lloyd Webber, and yet so obviously steeped in the key members' punk heritage - and I don't mean they play speeded up heavy metal, I mean that thing that got me into punk all those years ago: great pop music, great energy. There the similarities end though: Tim Delaughter's fragile voice is perfectly framed by his many and varied polyphonic pals: piano played Wilson-style underpins the whole set, drums crash, horns blast, woodwinds warble, strings rise, theramins wail, voices soar... The Spree make the biggest noise in pop, and never more so than here.

I've not been lucky enough to see them live - young family ! - and that's a situation that one day I absolutely must put right. For now, I have this disc and I really cannot remember being more fired up by a piece of music television. And not since REM's Life's Rich Pageant has another band so totally turned me around - I really was starting to think music held no further surprises for me. And to think, it wasn't that long ago when all I knew was 'Soldier Girl'! (itself a fantastic Pixie thing, but nothing quite prepares you).

I love the albums and the live clips on the bonus DVDs - but, the 'We Crawl' video aside, this DVD looks and sounds for all the world like the quintessential Spree Experience. Or, at the very least, a fantastic document of it. And, for those lucky seasoned gig goers to whose experiences I'm happy to bow, a glimpse of what must be just about the best night out in your whole life.

So I've only discovered this DVD recently and I'm now on a mission (or, rather, crusade) - my children, my friends, relatives, that strange bloke down the pub, 3 people I've never met before but were unlucky enough to bump into me in the street last week... By the third number and literally everybody I've played this to are grinning like idiots and dancing around the room!

This is music at its purest and (quite literally) least adulterated. Music to excite, enthrall - and cleanse. Forget any pre-conceived ideas of Choirs and Orchestras, and everything you think you thought about 'new age', (secular) spirituality, and robes (in this version, technicolor). Surrender all your 'grown up' prejudices, and dare to embrace some unashamed positivity. I guarantee it will make even the hardest cynic smile - and almost anybody else literally laugh and cry out loud with sheer ecstatic joy. It is that stunning.

Great sound, loads of cameras, and a fine song selection. Buy this, then go out and make everybody you know buy it and then all their albums. And then spend the rest of your lives making yourselves and each other endlessly, deliriously happy.

And make Tim rich - he and all of the Polyphonic Spree put so much of themselves into everything they do, I can't think of any other band that deserves it more.

Looking for an intro into the World of the Spree? Or just something/ anything you know you can depend upon time after time to lighten your load, force a smile, make your day? Then look no further.

You think I'm over the top..? Watch this DVD.

Why aren't they Huge ??!

We caught this show when it aired on PBS, let's just say it's a show you'll never forget. This is a great show to show others who have never heard or seen of "The Spree". Most people get up saying "what the %$#@ was that?" And yet, they'll tell others, "you gotta check this DVD out so and so has"!

Buy it, a truly bizarre, enjoyable work of art!