Customer Reviews

Meet the Flower Kings - Live Recording

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent double-live DVD! Great picture quality and production, excellent audio quality and mix. The audio is LPCM 48KHz/16bit, not Dolby Digital, but it sounds really good. Good set list and performances. Doesn't really have much a live feel though because it was recorded in a huge studio in front of a small audience. I wasn't much of a Froberg fan but his vocal performance is very strong on this disc set.

Overall I would recommend this to any TFK fan.

The negatives:
- The Flower Kings are rather boring to watch. They basically just play their instruments -- there is basically no shownmanship in this band (none that works anyway) -- not a big deal because the music is great.
- Has some really silly performance art pieces spliced in periodically (e.g. ballet dancers, clowns, etc.) -- seems totally random and completely out of place. I could do without that footage. It just doesn't fit.
- Hans Froberg's "rock-star" on-stage antics and posing seem silly and out of place. He loves to whip his long hair around and do rock-star guitar poses and it just plain looks silly. Funny thing is that he is the only one in the band who actually looks like he is having a blast.
- Hasse Bruniusson and Daniel Gildenlow -- What purpose do they serve in this band? Hasse is a percussionist who is mixed down so low that you can't really hear anything he is doing. Crazy antics as well -- reminds me of Crimson's Jamie Muir. Daniel Gildenlow (singer from Pain of Salvation) plays guitar and percussion but again you can't hear anything he does throughout the show. I don't see what value these extra two folks provided other than serving as a distraction.

The music, performances, and sound quality are superb on this DVD. I agree with another viewer in that the 'behind the scenes' pales in comparison to the music and doesn't quite work in with the DVD. The live performances have been studio enhanced, so the quality is outstanding, but not exactly live.

In my opinion I was dissapointed with the song selections and DVD layout. The DVD features some of the bands epic pieces (Garden of Dreams, The Truth Will Set You Free, Stardust We are)devoting most of the time to these pieces. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would rather they removed the 'behind the scenes' stuff and added other cuts. What about 'Serious Dreamers', 'Last Minute on Earth', 'I Am the Sun', 'Church of Your Heart', etc.???? This is a 2 disc DVD and only 6 songs!!!

I agree with a previous viewer in that the Flower Kings are somewhat unanimated on stage

Despite the weaknesses, the music is awesome......which is really most important, even on a DVD. The performance of 'Stardust We Are' is amazing!!!!

= Fairly Decent Recording - but not really "Live"
Reviewer: K B from Canada
Hmmmm....don't know what to make of it really. It isn't a live recording, really. It is obvious that heavy overdubbing has been done. Some of this is understanble as apparently Hasse Froberg (guitarist and secondary lead singer) was sick, and sounded pretty bad. The whole recording sounds like a studio performance - there is no ambience and no crowd participation or crowd noise. So really, if you are looking for truly "live" flower kings, this is not the place to look. The official bootlegs are properly better, if not in sound quality then in live value.
Moreoever, the extra footage in between each song (some studio, some from the band visiting tourist areas) is a waste of space. It has no educational value - no interviews or anything - and if you don't understand swedish, it is hard to understand what is going on. There is at least on hour's worth of this footage on the DVDs, it seems to me, and the only portion of it worth watching is the live single cam stuff that is put in a few spots. They really should have either used the space for more songs or for interviews and documentary footage of the band that isn't pointless or boring.

Having said that, the music on the DVD set is great. The arrangments sound fuller than the album versions, especially on Stardust We Are which, in comparison to what is here, sounds really poorly paced and weakly arranged. The same goes for Humanizzimo. The Garden of Dreams sounds great, especially as the band have jazzed it up quite a bit. In certain spots, they are practically performing different pieces to what is on the original. The setlist is questionable in some ways. The band should have other pieces in place of Silent Inferno and Circus Brimstone - which is so boring I haven't even watched it all. I am the Sun would have done nicely as it is surely a major Flower Kings Epic.

Visually, the concert looks very nice. It is in a professional studio so it looks a lot more made up then the clubs and small theatres TFK play usually. And it is nice to *see* them play as opposed to just hearing them. The artsy footage sometimes intermingled with the "concert" footage is rather dull, bizarre and out of place really. You would think that after the disasters that were Led Zeppelin "The Song Remains the Same" and Genesis' "In Concert '76" films people would learn - especially the Flower Kings who were influenced by these groups. But apparently not.

Overall, one should probably just buy the two CDs. The music is what the Flower Kings are known for and what they should stick to really. And on this DVD the music sounds great.

Bought this DVD a week ago and watched it since then on a daily basis. First the (minor) negative: the in between stuff is only worth while watching if you understand swedish, which I do not and could maybe have been used for more songs or maybe some older recordings. But then again you don't have to sit through it, just fast forward to the music.
But this is just about the only problem I could find. The performance is just fantastic. Musicianship is awesome. Extremely talented guys playing great compositions. Ok, the guys don't move much, but I'm mainly interested in watching them play and not jump around like kids on caffeine. This music simply is not suited for stage acrobatics.
I love to see close-ups of fingers running up and down fretboards or over keyboards. I also did not mind the incorporations of ballet dancers etc. as I didn't feel that it distracted from the music much. Bottom line is that this is an awesome DVD for lovers of great music and if it's that what you are after, do yourself a favour and get it.

Firstly, The Flower Kings are just amazing, miraculous, moving, charming, wonderful! I can't ever stop listening to them, both the brilliance of Roine Stolt's writing and the performances of all the performers.

Now, as much as I love their studio work -- and in general, I almost always prefer studio work of a band over live performances, given the difficulty in producing live all of the intricacies of their music -- but with the CD (and the DVD of this performance as well), the live version actually blows away their studio work. Hard to believe, but they do.

I was completely mesmerized by their performances. The details, the quality of sound, the tightness of the band, the sharing of leads by all the different musicians make this a fabulous adventure to watch and listen to. And when you consider that three of them had the flu during this performance, it makes this even more spectacular.

If you are at all a fan of Yes, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, (old) Genesis, Marillion, or Transatlantic, I GUARANTEE that you will LOVE this band and especially LOVE this 2-disc set!!! Unreal!

This DVD, recorded in front of a studio audience, offers a decent crossection of the Flower Kings more epic compositions. The bonus here is that the songs are performed by the current and best lineup of the band. "The Garden of Dreams" especially receives a definitive performance on the DVD which is miles beyond the lackluster original recording. My only complaint regards the choice of camera shots which seem to short-change keyboardist Tomas Bodin even during his solos. Recommended particularly for fans who have not had the pleasure of seeing them perform live.

I often find the Flower Kings studio work a trifle flat due to the prodution style of Roine Stoldt, but live the Kings are always more dynamic. This double DVD set - 6 songs - but it's 2 hours and 10 minutes of music - is a good place for people new to the Kings to get a real feel for the type of jazz meets prog meets zappa style of playing they deliver. The only downside is that a large part of their normal stage performance is improv and there is some of that here, but not the full 20 minute jams that they've been known for. It's brand new stuff, it's old stuff and a classic track with immaculate sound and visuals. For those who may complain of some studio trickery...all the live material from this band and the tangent bands of his Transatlantic mates have all been touched up in the studio and they never lie or decieve anyone on that. They talk about it openly and honestly in most interviews that I've read from them - particularly Roine and Neal Morse.

The interspersed material works only in that it gives you a breather before you go full on into the next long piece and some of the stuff is interesting to those who like backstage and "on the road" stuff. The guys aren't exactly Anthrax went it comes to movement on stage, but then have you tried to play this material AND jump around at the same time? No? Give it a try. If you can be Frank Bello and play this stuff...please release a DVD now. Anyone who has seen Pat Metheny with Charlie McBride knows that still and intense musicians can craft wondrous music. Though, I didn't find them boring or bored. The more I watched (as a musician myself) I was really drawn into the depth of the music they were creating. As for Daniel, he adds tremendously to the vocal depth and to the depth of arrangements. If you really want to see him shine in a big prog setting, check out Transatlantic's Live in Europe DVD...great stuff as he even sings the Beatles "Golden Slumbers".

The only real "disappointment" as a DVD buyer is the fact that there is a lot of "unused" room on those DVD's that could have been used to show some unedited bootleg style video of other shows in their entirety just as a "gift" to the fans. I have the same grievance with the Transatlantic DVD's for the same reason...especially when all of them complain in the "documentary" that they didn't capture several bits that they really had fun with later in that tour - even though they had recorded many shows from the back of the clubs with a still video camera, that captured reasonable enough sound and picture to have included one of these later shows in it's entirety as DVD extra.

If you expect a big rock show prog band, check out Transatlantic live instead, Roine is great there. If you want to watch an ensemble of great musicians go through some jazz, rock and prog hoops, then sit down for a solid 2 hours plus of great music. I would say, though, that the DVD holds more interest to me as I can see them playing and that the CD could be found by some to be not as dynamic an experience.

A double DVD set with nothing short of stunning live music! Virtuosic playing, as always when it comes to the kings, throughout the set.

Basically I couldn't agree more with reviewer Kevin Delgadillo except for some of his negatives pointed out:

1. "Has some really silly performance art pieces spliced in periodically (e.g. ballet dancers, clowns, etc.) -- seems totally random and completely out of place. I could do without that footage. It just doesn't fit."

I don't see them as silly. And I don't think they're out of place. In fact I think they're quite beautiful, especially the dancing acts, and since they are placed into tone downed passages in the music I think they're pretty much right in place.

2. "Hans Froberg's "rock-star" on-stage antics and posing seem silly and out of place. He loves to whip his long hair around and do rock-star guitar poses and it just plain looks silly. Funny thing is that he is the only one in the band who actually looks like he is having a blast."

I don't think it looks silly and even if it did I wouldn't mind at all. I wouldn't mind if he was ugly either... It's a music DVD.

3. "Hasse Bruniusson and Daniel Gildenlow -- What purpose do they serve in this band? Hasse is a percussionist who is mixed down so low that you can't really hear anything he is doing. Crazy antics as well -- reminds me of Crimson's Jamie Muir. Daniel Gildenlow (singer from Pain of Salvation) plays guitar and percussion but again you can't hear anything he does throughout the show. I don't see what value these extra two folks provided other than serving as a distraction."

I think that statement is completely wrong. You can clearly hear Bruniusson's percussion playing and I do think it adds depth to the music. [Also his whistles are so right!] The same goes for Gidenlöws guitar and percussion playing and he also contributes with some excellent backing vocals which really improves some vocal parts.

Well, well... If I have to come up with a negative thing It would be the behind-the-scenes footage of the band that comes in in between the songs and sort of interrupts the music. These are good to watch a couple of times but they would maybe have been better off as separate extra features on the DVD. I for one seldomly watch a music DVD from the beginning to the end anyway, so It don't bother me too much.

This DVD is a must have! Get it now!

First, the music, very impressive, should have been recorded in 5.1 or DTS
The choice of songs is very good, almost all I want to be on this DVD is there, The Thruth will set you free, Garden of Dream part I and II, Stardust we are. There is just one bad choice and it is Circus Brimestone.
I give five stars for performance, and 4 stars for sound.
Now, the bad part of the review, it is a bit boring to watch.
What the hell is this guy on the percussion , Hasse Bruniusson, he just make the band look like a joke, get him out of there please.
I love Hanse Froberg, but I agree with some of the reviewers, Hanse, you're not in a heavy metal band, you don't have to play each chords as if it was the ultimate one. Be a bit more prog look alike guitar player.
The extra features are totally "amateur" and are not interesting at all, poor quality and not a bit of interest, I am sure they could have film some interviews with members of the band, that would have been better. Since the music is the most important feature, I give it a four star rating. Get rid of Hasse Brunission and Hanse, take example on Tomas, look cool and don't make to much on stage. :)

I would like to say that I have many, many performance dvd's-some are are good, some so-so and very few are simply spellbinding- I would consider Roger Waters, Jimi Hendrix and this performance in that category. How could anyone write a review about this fabulous mind altering performance without being moved completely? I have all the recordings which went into the making of this concert and as great as they are in their "straight" versions, they are simply amazing in their live format. Also, this dvd has the best sound I have ever heard on a dvd. Smart progressive rock lover's will search out the dual cd/dvd version. Totally essential.