Customer Reviews

Steve Morse - Sects Dregs & Rock N Roll

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a long time fan, I can't imagine ever saying a critical word, but I am VERY disappointed with this DVD. VERY.

The Dregs part of the DVD is poorly mixed. Steve is often buried (especially his chordal work), Jerry is too loud and the overall mix lacks integration, feel and musicality. It really does Steve and the band a disservice and if I were managing the band, I'd pull it and remix it. (Hello, Frank are you reading?)

The film editing isn't great either. For example, times when the camera shows the band and not the soloist, or long sequences of T's back, just like the bad old days when "In Concert" first started. UGH!

If the mix was good, you could live with the bad visuals, but together... I find the experience kind of... dare I say unmoving, at times boring but often frustrating. You can't comfortably watch it as a film or even listen as just a soundtrack.

It's impossible to feel that way when seeing the Dregs or Steve's band live. The film direction, camera work and audio mix actually ruin the performances. The director didn't miss a single filming "no no!"

The duet portion of Steve and Dave (live in NY) I found even more frustrating than the Dregs footage. The director and film crew should be shot. Too many unwarranted camera moves and edits. The insensitivity to the music, the performance and most importantly the viewer (how the viewer experiences live music) is stupefying. Here's a sample:

1) Close ups of the center of Steve's guitar neck with his hands barely visible at the outer edges of the TV screen.

2) Way too long close ups of Steve's face when the action was Steve's and Dave's hands.

3) The refusal to simply hold the camera still for a single musical passage

4) Constant pull backs to the back of the room reducing Steve and Dave to postage stamps.

5) Amateur blurred close ups of the lights with pull backs to Steve and Dave. PA-LEASE!

We don't need the camera or edits competing to be the performance at the expense of missing "THE PERFORMANCE" and genius that was happening right under the director/film crew's noses. There were actually moments where I found myself screaming... STOP!

Sadly, the result is a very distracting and frustrating experience. A lot of the time you just can't get into the mood of what artists are playing and for the moments you can, those moods are broken by an inappropriate edit or camera move.

The best part of the DVD is Steve's interview where for better or worse (bad lighting, no interviewer), at least you could focus on what Steve was doing, whether talking or playing without being disrupted or distracted by the camera or edits. But, it's still a great "Up Close and Personal" with Steve with info about his roots and influences and equipment. Cool.

Overall: as much of genius as Steve Morse and the Dregs are, the DVD couldn't be more rank amateur and off point. Like I said... it's stupefying. In the year 2003 there is absolutely no excuse for such bad work. A real shame because the performances are there, but the director completely missed it, lost it, didn't get it... Not at all. As a future archival film, it is sad to think that this will be what future generations of fans will get. Hopefully there will be another DVD and a good director will be hired for the project. In the meantime, this DVD is almost unwatchable. What a waste.

Steven

The coments about the need for high quality equipment is, I am afraid, total rubbish ... the sound on this DVD IS very poor.

I would LOVE to blame my equipment, my copy of the DVD ... anything but have to try to explain why Steve Morse, or those about him, put out such a poor product.

As others have said, the "semi unplugged" section is 'night and day' compared to the Dregs. For the first two numbers of that concert, I can hardly hear Steve at all, and for the rest of the concert, Jerry scratching away dominates everything. Alan ( no relation ) must have had a case on in ER, but I really wish he hadn't !

I have meddled with my set-up in every way possible, because it CAN'T be Steve putting out a poor product ... it just CAN'T !!

I have come to the conclusion, with a sad heart, that it is ... I have never seen him ( Not a great "Purple" fan ) and boy was I looking forward to this release, so it is even more painful because of that. The best bit is the interview with Steve ... if you need ANY reassurance of what a great bloke he is, that section was all it took.

I saw Steve give a seminar here in town in the late 80's. Although I'd never seen him perform live, I did go into the building fully aware of his talent. A new, first-hand impression that I left with was his almost hyper-sensitivity to quality and details. At one point, I remember him showing a slight degree of agitation, in front of us, towards the local sound guy's lack of knowledge regarding his set up and what should have been done before his talk with us - things that to me, as an amateur, seemed completely foreign. He stayed cool nonetheless. That's how he is, and we all know that. But a respectable, higher degree of professionalism and expectation than I'd not really seen before from another musician. He very clearly knew what he wanted.

I sat through this seminar, almost entirely in awe. I've heard all of the music. I've read all of the interviews and the clinics in the magazines. I know something of his biography, and ultimately consider myself a big fan.

Why Steve would put his name on this product and let it be put on the market is curious, to say the least. In a nutshell, for me anyway, it comes down to the sound on the Dregs portion of the DVD. In fact, it was sort of hard to get past that. The camera work and all of the other things that are mentioned in these reviews are valid points, but the sound in that one portion made me consider sending it back for a refund. And then there is that blurb in the back that sort of forewarns you that the weak quality on the Dregs sound is meant to give you that sense of a true live show. Ridiculous! Whoever determined what the "desired effect" should be certainly fell short. I actually think it serves as a rationalization for the weak result more than anything else. And if we need the better DVD equipment that the other reviewer mentions, they should forewarn us of that as well. Everyone should have access to his work, regardless of the equipment they own. What you hear are drums and bass. You'd be wise to have a good understanding of what these songs sound like before you see it, because you are going to need to use your imagination to fill in all of that dead space you come across in order to complete the picture for yourself.

In the end, I say three stars simply because it's Steve. If there were zero volume on this thing, and only footage of Jerry playing the fiddle, I'd probably still buy it simply because it's all about Steve. I also feel like I need to support the brother whenever I can because of the way he's stuck to his principles all of these years (with only a couple rare exceptions, like this one, for example). I'm eagerly looking forward to something better in the future.

I picked up this eagerly-awaited DVD up at a recent Dixie Dregs show. I'm a huge Steve Morse fan and I've been drooling at the prospect of getting this DVD since it was announced last fall. The DVD contains nearly 4 hours of material, including a full Dregs concert, A Steve Morse solo show, and a 65-minute interview with Steve as he explains everything from his earliest influences, his guitar set-up, techniques, and more. This DVD is a treasure for anyone who's remotely interested in Steve Morse/Dregs music or just plain fabulous musicianship. However, the production in parts is not quite up to par with many other concert DVDs that are being released today.

A previous reviewer commented only on the Dregs portion of the disc. It is a very good show, but unfortunately it was not shot by a very professional crew, which makes the experience less satisfying than it could be. Some of the camera operators have no idea how to properly frame a shot, and the video editing leaves much to be desired. There are times when you should be focused on someone doing a blistering solo, and the shot cuts away to someone else doing nothing particularly interesting and stays there way too long. Regarding the sound mix, overall it is a pretty good DD 5.1 mix (not "appalling"). The only real problem is that the delay/reverb channel of the guitar rig is mixed too loud, so that when Steve kicks it in, it is obvious and distracting. Overall though, it's great show and not to be dismissed for it's few technical flaws.

The Steve Morse solo show on the other hand was shot professionally for Japanese TV, and it is excellent. He is joined later in the show by Dave LaRue and T Lavitz. The focus is more on acoustic music, but Steve still does a good amount of electric playing as well, and the playing is of course phenomenal. This show alone is worth the price of the DVD!

The disc is rounded out with various interviews with Steve and Deep Purple members, a clip of Steve's solo spot from the Australia 1999 Deep Purple show, the aforementioned 65 minute interview/clinic (very interesting and informative) , a video for "Cruise Missile", and numerous photo galleries.

I HEARTILY recommend any fan of Steve Morse or just incredible musicianship to purchase this DVD without hesitation! The few flaws are far outweighed by the plethora of incredible content presented here. Worth every cent!

The Dregs portion of the show looks like it was shot on a old camcorder and the stereo sound is horrific. All Jerry Goodman NO MORSE!!!! Would you like to buy an Eric Clapton DVD and hear everything BUT guitar? I didn't think so and this is the same thing. One guy claims it sounds great if you have a state-of-the-art 5.1 surround sound. I just have a Bose stereo system and it sounds like dirt. Every other DVD I own sounds like butter so explain this to me. Huge dissappointment on my part. Sorry, b/c I LOVE Steve Morse but I can't watch this disgrace.

The mix on this one is unbelievably bad. I have DVDs from the 1960s that have a MUCH better audio mix. WHY did Steve release this with such poor audio??? Is this how he wants the Dregs to be preserved on their only DVD? Are there any older videos in the vaults somewhere?

I was greatly looking forward to this DVD release, being a recent fan of both Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs. I was very disappointed with the Dregs concert on this disc. It looks like it was shot by 3 amateurs with camcorders. For instance, there are some shots of Steve where he is moving while playing the guitar, and he'll move completely out of the picture, and the camera doesn't move! Also the picture itself is of lower quality compared to some recent video releases, like Satriani's live one, where the video quality is spectacular.

The venue has something to do with this, Todd's Place in New Haven is not exactly the greatest place to film a concert. But still, it all boils down to the filming, which is simply not good (jeez, the zeppelin concert DVD from 1970 has a far better picture). The sound mix was a little harsh, but acceptable. I can't understand why Steve would release this, the Dregs are great but the film is sub-par.

The good news is that the Morse solo concert on this disc is tremendous. It is filmed professionally, and the intimate performance is wonderful. Well worth watching again and again. Good job including this performance; its a real treat.

Also, the interviews with Steve and Deep Purple are worthwhile and enjoyable.

All in all, while Steve and the Dregs are great, this release could have been so much better, the film quality of the Dregs show is actually annoying at times. But, oh, the solo show is so good!!

I almost did not buy this because of the few negative reviews. I'm so glad I bought it anyway. The sound on the Dixie Dregs show is great! the first song or 2 has the bad mix, after that it's just superb. I have a 5.1 DD setup & I had it cranked, the louder I went the better it sounded. Overall I think it just great sound. Nice tight low end, absolutley great drum sound, what a solo! I'm not sure if the Steve Morse part is 5.1, for some reason my DVD players multi-channel light goes out during this part. It still sounds great though. The last few songs don't sound a good as the first ones for some reason. I thought the camera work was great for both shows, excellent shots of the band. Picture quality is just ok for DVD but good enough. It's not crystal clear like the Joe Satriani "Live in San Fransisco" DVD but I am very happy with the picture. It's the music that counts, the Dregs concert is great! just like when I saw the a few months ago. Highly recommended. I wonder if the new one with DTS is going to sound better? I prefer DTS sound.

This brings back memories. The Dixie Dregs is one of the all time greatest artist to come out of the south. And Steve Morse sounds a good as ever. I'll have to admit the Video and audio could be improved on, but if your a Dregs fan the thrill will out way the imperfections. The band doesn't miss a lick. I remember seeing the Dregs perform these tune when they were first released and its like being there all over again. Sure Allen Sloan, and Andy West are not part of the band for this DVD. But Jerry Goodman and Dave LaRue fill in those shoes nicely. If you were a Dixie Dregs fan in the past or a Steve Morse fan now. You can't pass this up. It is awesome, as you would expect.

I just got this DVD, and I have to say I'm amazed! I hear new things everytime I listen to Steve and his different bands. I have to take issue with the person who claimed he can't hear Steve's mix during the dregs concert, its a rear channel heavy mix to be sure, but if you have a quality setup it sounds great. He must have one of those Bose Setups with tiny tinny rear speakers, because through My M&K sats Steve sounds great throughout the concert! I almost let this persons review talk me out of buying this DVD, I'm glad I ignored it. Every part of this DVD shows Steve's creative fire buring on full blue flames.
If you are a fan of Steve Morse you owe it to yourself to get this DVD NOW! Even if you never heard of him, this a music lovers dream on silver spinning clouds!