Customer Reviews

Secret Recipe

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Simply put, I bought this, brought it home, and spent the wee hours of the night smiling on the couch as the one and only Buckethead filled my living room with his unique brand of guitar-shred-funk-fusion-dementia. This dvd is a trip, from the wacked out menus to the oodles of content that cover his whole career so far...videos (Praxis!), discography (you think you have it all, but I assure you, you don't), and a bonus dvd with 2 live shows (it doesn't hurt that I can see myself in the Boston one, laughing like a goon as he hands out toys). There's just tons of bucketgoodies hiding in here. This dude is just the whole package-Eddie Van Halen and Eddie Hazel all in one, mixed with Leatherface and The Shape. So rad. This dvd definitely had a lot of time and creativity put into it, so to anyone who doesn't enjoy this for the perfect representation of the Bucketman that it is, you simply be missin' the point. Might I suggest you stick to your Dream Theater/Satriani/G3 dvd's, you 5.1 Surround sound obsessed prog-metal nerds...you don't like chickens, get out the coop!

If you bought this DVD, well, you must have knew what to expect. BH is one strange mofo, and this DVD fits the bill. Your not getting a Oscar nominee DVD folks, its a collection of home videos, raw concert footage, and some interesting music. Its well produced considering what you see and hear. The extras are funny to us BH fans, yet the format to see everything on the DVD is weird, many extras you have to seek to get to. Maybe that's what BH wanted, his fan-base is smart. If you like BH or play an instrument, doesn't have to be guitar, get this DVD. If you expected a Star Wars production , don't. BH loves old Giant Robot, and this DVD is put together like an old Japanese Sci Fi show. Even has sub-titles at moments with foreign footage.

In the end, this is quite possibly the first DVD I ever saw, enjoyed, and when over, shook my head wondering what the hell I just saw

That's the beauty of it

With all the polarized reviews floating around, I feel the need to weigh in as a long-time Buckethead fanatic. In a sense, it's as simple as this: If you're a super fan who likes Buckethead even when he's weird and lo-fi playing fast guitar along with cheesy drum machines and Texas Chainsaw Massacre samples, you'll love this DVD. If you're expecting a slick concert DVD in the style of the major pop acts of today, you're out of luck. But then again, isn't that why you like Buckethead in the first place? Because he's so different?

This is not a concert DVD. There is concert footage, but like most Buckethead albums, it's not overly produced. It's more like a scrap book filled with lots of junvenalia and camcorder footage of Buckethead and his crew being silly and weird. There are some truly surprising bits such as Buckethead as a guest in John Zorn's Painkiller project (the concert footage is almost unwatchable, but you get the effect) or Buckethead pretending to have an injured hand while waiting for his suit case at baggage claim or a bizarre spot on Japanese TV. Mostly, it's just cool to see Buckethead hanging out instead of shredding.

Now, that's not to say there aren't some awesome concert clips. To my knowledge, Buckethead has never had a concert professionally recorded, so don't get your hopes up. Some of the stuff must have come from fans or his crew. Who knows - it's low quality, but you get the effect. Are you really expecting to see amazing video quality of the Deli Creeps in the early 90s? I'm surprised the videos even exist.

For all the people complaining that this DVD is crap, seriously - do you want Buckethead to go commercial and put out a regular concert DVD like everyone else, or do you want his unique aesthetic to penetrate every aspect of the DVD experience? The menus may be slightly annoying, but deal with it - he's being creative here. Not everything Buckethead has ever done is top quality anyway. Some of the "grab bag" stuff is obviously just Buckethead messing around on guitar, but it's still fun and it's still cool!

Since Buckethead is so reclusive, this DVD is an awesome window into what makes him so special. Buy and enjoy it. If you're not expecting a major studio-quality release, I am sure you'll enjoy this. On the other hand, if you want clear video, great angles, and excellent sound, this is not for you.

I love everything about this dvd. Though at first its true that you can't find your way around the menus, i like how he set it up so you have to go through everything to get the full effect of the twisted views of this very weird guitarist. And you learn that he doesnt just play guitar, there's a hilarious piano excerpt in this collection. Don't get me wrong, there's enough guitar playing to make you ears bleed honey, cause his playing is so sweet. if you get a chance to pick this one up, i honestly dont see how you can be dissappointed, i mean come on, it shows you 13 years of clips, how can u go wrong with the Bucket. This dvd is actually what made me start to love this guitarist even more than i did before. i loved it, i hope everyone else will if they get it, its funny yet amazing which is what Buckethead is while playing.

I just learned of Buckethead recently after seeing his name in a list of top 100 guitar players. I went to YouTube and saw several clips of him shredding the guitar and was so impressed I ordered two CD's, Colma and Electric Tears(?) which I haven't received yet. Today I was at the mall and stopped by the music store where I decided to pick up this DVD. I must say I am very disappointed. I can understand that this guy is on a different wavelength altogether (and I consider myself a little "out there") but this DVD has more home movie type stuff than footage of him playing. When he does play he rarely seems to stick to the song at hand and drifts off into never, never land. On YouTube I saw several songs I was hoping to catch on here. Jordan, Nottingham Lace, Padmasana and others (not sure if I got those names right). Anyway, none of those are on here, the best footage is of a Boston gig and as previously mentioned he seems to be all over the place. I'm hoping the albums will be much better. I certainly liked the samples I heard of each. The dude's got mega talent, I'm just not seeing it on this DVD.

After becoming more familiar with Buckets' music and watching more of this video I wanted to append my review. As I mentioned BHeads' music is all over the place and that is apparently by design. Now that I've gotten use to it, I like it that way. I would say though that the Boston concert is not as good as some of the free video I've gotten online by fans. There is also a concert in New York on this DVD that is "hidden" and takes a bit of searching to find. It's quality though is even less than the Boston gig. All in all it's kind of fun to watch although the home movies with Bucket and Friends are not something I would think you would be going back to again and again. Like I've said before, if you are a Buckethead fan then this belongs in your collection.

I'm back to append my review yet another time, this time with a whole 'nother perspetive. First of all, I was completely wrong, Nottingham Lace IS on this DVD and I must say it is a spectacular performance. You can find it on YouTube. I am now up to 32 BucketHead albums and anxiously awaiting more. Funny how things change, but I am now convinced that this dude is the premiere "rock guitar" genius of the last decade. Some of his stuff just leaves me scratching my head saying "Huh", but when he gets it right he is in a league of his own. If the radio is where you find yourself when you need a sonic fix, then Bucket will likely not be for you. But for the adventurous he is without peer.

Section A) Do NOT buy this DVD if:
1) You are demanding 5 - 20 big-budget MTV videos.

Section B) DO buy this DVD if:
1) You enjoy a mix of professional and amatuer films of live performance footage
and totally off-the-wall scenes with Buckethead+friends in someone's apartment.
2) You are an electric guitar player that wants lots of visual content focused on
one of the most unique guitarists while he is playing.
3) You enjoy a thorough archive of one artist's career -when he was young and not signed to a record label, footage of cultishly famous performances.
4) You buy a lot of Buckethead CD's anyway. If this is the case, then you will
be overjoyed at the amount of music you will get for less than $20.

I am a Buckethead fan, and this DVD is getting plenty of playtime on my computer.

One CON: The navigation is intentionally a quirky puzzle, so be prepared to work your way through the thing.
One PRO: Thank you whoever made this, I feel I got a lot more than $15 worth of DVD.

Besides the difficult menus, once you navigate them there are good pieces of the dvd. Be patient is all I can say

A unique but tedious dvd, filled with bizzare lo-fi home movies (tons of em') and bootleg concert footage spanning the years 1989-2005. I must have for die-hard fans... however this will be confusing and stupid for non fans.
There are some gems found within, including some very funny footage of Bucket getting off an airplane, and waiting at the baggage check. This also includes the recently added footage of the making of the "we are one" video with serj from system of a down.
Be prepaired to wait through hours of home videos (some ok...most are just plain awful) Also don;t let your friends catch you watching this...they might think you're crazy.

I always give Bucket at least 4 stars on everything he does (except maybe the Over the Chicken Coop thing). I was so excited to finally get a Bucket DVD. I craved it from the time I heard it was coming out. I'm a big fan despite some of his quirkier and more disjointed efforts. So... when this DVD fell into my hands I threw it in and started trying to find footage of one of my favorite guitarists in action. Wow! What a disappointment! The two DVDs in this package are so full of crap that its hardly worth putting them in the machine. Sure, there is concert footage that sorta blows you away, but it looks my brother jamming in the garage. The concerts are bootleg quality at best. The rest of the footage on this DVDs is worse. The sound quality is terrible. I also had a major beef with the actual navigation on the DVDs. There are no titles so you just hit things at random and hope it doesn't take you to some retarded little video clip. I do understand this is all an effort on Bucket's part to inspire confusion, insanity, etc, but let's be honest, it sucks. The music and what little good footage and songs there are get 5 stars from me. The rest of this mammoth pile of pathetic-ness, get a 1. Since the bad outweighs the good, I give it 2 stars. I'm always a fan of Buckethead, but this is an insult.

To begin with, I'll quote the song Machete Mirage and one of the pages about the history of Bucketheadland;
"Most theme parks have maps. Not Bucketheadland. Here people like to get lost and not find their way out. Sometimes you pay for a day and get to stay a whole month! When you come stumbling out, dirty and disoriented, you won't quite realize what a great deal you just got."
Because it fits so perfectly.
I bought this DVD over half a year ago and suddenly felt like writing a review about it (or "them", since it's actually two). This deserves all the five-star-ratings it can get! The shipping, by the way, was great too. I live in Sweden and expected to get in two months or so but got it within one!
As I mentioned, there are two wedges (some prefer to call them cd's).
The first one contains musicvideos, pictures, unreleased songs, old homevideos, bootlegs and other extra material. For example you might take a look inside the bucket, see what happens if you try to remove the mask or pull the string of the Buckethead-doll which is like... the main "theme" of the DVD.
It's like a mini-Bucketheadland on your screen and personally I could spend hours in front of it. To see a young Buckethead play in his room, hanging out with Maximum Bob or playing with the Deli Creeps is priceless and entertaining. It all has a feeling of Big B delivering it straight to the fans. It aint 1080 p and HD. It makes you feel very dedicated. Like... you actually are there, digging up Giant Robot from the yard.
The second wedge contains a full length bootleg from a show in Boston 2004, and four mp3's: Brazos, Soowee, John Merrick Lectures and Count Scapula.
This is a "must-have" for hardcore Bucketbots, and it'll give you many hours of true abusement-park joy.