Customer Reviews

Underworld Live - Everything Everything

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ok... I've seen Underworld, live, three times.
Each time was different and out of this world.
I've been trying to describe the experience of seeing
Underworld to a good friend of mine... when I discovered
this DVD. I slapped this DVD in, pumped up the volume, and
danced like no one was watching. At the end, my friend was
red in the face, I was sweating bullets, and we both felt like
we just left the best club on Earth. Spiritual.

One thing I truly love about Underworld is it's ability to be hugely popular in the dance scene yet at the same time never compromising their sound and commercialize themselves in an effort to "go pop" (*--see Moby, The Chemical Brothers, and to a certain extent, Fatboy Slim). When you hear an Underworld album, you hear sounds that you wouldn't really expect from a techno band. Sometimes slow, sometimes moody, sometimes upbeat, the albums offer something good to listen to no matter what you are doing. When you see a live performance you'll hear those familiar tunes performed, yes PERFORMED not just a go-through-the-motions copy of the album, you'll feel an energy that definitely grabs hold of you.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the DVD because Tomato and the rest of the creative team behind the scenes are extremely creative in how the present the lighting and visuals that complement the music onstage. Add that with Karl Hyde, the bottled-lightning vocalist who arguably has more bounce and energy than the bunny from the Energizer commerical, and you have a live performance that can't be compared with your typical concert taping. FYI, the footage on the DVD was taken from about (off the top of my head) 7 or 8 performances from festivals from around the world.

Lastly, other than your typical DVD with limited bonus material or special features, there are enough things on "Everything, Everything" that supplement the feature presentation, including 2 audio tracks ("Kittens" and "Rowla") you can listen to that didn't go into the concert performance part of the show.

For a dance music fan, "Everything, Everything" is perfect. Period.

I have had the pleasure of watching this DVD prior to its release and I can only say that I fully intend to own a copy... and I don't even own a DVD player. The sound is spectacular, giving you the option of regular audio or a special latest technology home theatre system mix. The tracks can be mixed at your leisure to create your own playlist. The extras (accessible only on a DVD ROM drive) look like a lot of fun. Now, lets talk about the visuals. If you know Underworld then you're probably familiar with the artistic collective that is Tomato. This is a Tomato production and it shows. Taken from footage shot at four (possibly five, can't remember) different stadium and festival gigs in Japan, England, Germany etc, the pictures flow between concert footage and the footage displayed on the huge screens behind the band. I sat down in front of the screen and didn't blink until the disk had finished. The mesmerising flood of video and audio is matched only by the vibe of excitement and energy you feel coming out of the crowd. I truly hope that Underworld decide to tour down here at some stage because if this is what they are like live then the experience is one not to be missed. Until then, I'll happily buy the DVD when it's released (and save up for the player).

This is absolutely the best music DVD i've ever seen. I wish i possessed the verbal prowess to put into words how good this thing is. Most live DVDs are entertaining just to sit there and watch. This one will at the very least have you sitting up and bobbing/shifting around to the music, if not have you up dancing around the room (as happens with me when watching King of Snake in particular). You can tell Underworld really put a lot of work into this to make it a great product. It is put together and edited so well, the way it interlays the backscreen graphics over the bands performance at times...the crowd shots...and just the general eclecticness, if you will, of the footage makes it a very enjoyable view everytime you put it on. But again, it is the way this is edited that makes it so great. You'll have to see it for yourself to know just what i'm talking about.
I cannot speak highly enough of this DVD. I sincerely believe anyone who enjoys high-energy music will really like, if not love, this DVD. Of course, any Underworld fan would be crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy not to have it already!! A gem.

Underworld has gone through their entire career by doing things their way. They brought on JBO (Junior Boys Own) instead of letting a record company boss them around. They don't do the typically accepted 4-minutes-and-done tracks. They helped found Tomato, the London based design company that does the visuals for their shows (and this DVD). They just love doing things their way, which is really refreshing since it seems a lot of music artists out there are handicapped by management that tries to point them down a certain path rather than let the art come out in its purest form.

So Underworld set on the task of creating this experience, smack dab in the middle of touring for an album they had just released (Beaucoup Fish). It's amazing how well they captured the concert experience (in addition to enhancing it with visuals and effects melded on top of the concert footage), and the angles were worked well to provide the viewer with better than front row perception...footage was taken from the front, the back, the sides, from the depths of the crazed crowd, from the stage, and so forth, so the viewer can experience not only what the show was like, but the venue and the crowd as well to better serve the experience as a whole.

The songs themselves are pretty much a collection of greatest hits, minus an odd one here and there such as "Darktrain." Whereas Rick Smith is basically 99% of the studio work, vocalist Karl Hyde is the focal point for the audience for the live shows, and Hyde puts out the most incredible energy at every show (as though it were to be his first and last performance). the music itself shouldn't be cheapened by pigeonholing it into a certain category, be it techno, trance...whatever. The beats are for dancing and the vocals are for thinking. Deciphering Underworld lyrics, which have intentionally never been fully published, is like trying to figure out a rubix cube, but what's wonderful about them is they are very thought suggestive in the regard that following them may trigger images or past experiences that YOU'VE had, rather than hear tales of what happened to the singer or the band.

This DVD can be played showing concert + visual footage combined, or just the visuals + music, along with 2 extra tracks "Kittens" and "Rowla" which don't have the benefit of having liv concert footage to go along with them. There is also an out-takes session, where some of the clips that made it onto the DVD and some that weren't being pieced together along with audio clips from the performances being heard in the echo-ey fashion that you'd hear if you were actually towards the back of the performance itself.

There are also features for your computer, provided you have a DVD drive, that sadly I haven't seen because I don't own the necessary equipment to view them.

The visuals themselves are real images that are given distortion here and there, and are pieced together to coincide with the song being performed, rather than the cookie-cutter style of playing random visuals to go along with whatever is going on with the music. The visuals even, although obviously for the eye candy factor, are good at provoking thought and images and memories of things you may have encountered in your life, which makes the Underworld experience all the more personal.

If you've never heard of Underworld (chances are you've heard a track or two in your time if you're in the dance scene), then this might be worth checking out for you. If you know and appreciate Underworld's music, then you should have NO EXCUSE for not having this DVD! :)

I had the privilege of seeing Underworld about a year and a half ago at House of Blues in Las Vegas. I have to say they are the best electronic live act I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). Not only did the video bring back great memories of that show, I found the extras to be almost worth the price of admission. You can watch the live video, set up the DVD to play just the visuals (done very well by Tomato, by the way), and you can even program the DVD to play the songs in whatever order you want! If you have only a passing interest in the band, this vid will make you a fan

Any fan of electronica knows who Underworld is and has heard the group's songs on numerous compilations. I have always been a fan of their sound, especially Darren Emerson's DJ skills and the wicked vocals they incorporate in the electronic sound. But I wasn't too convinced of their ability or status as pioneers in this genre until I saw or, I should say, was blown away by this performance. The songs are basically their greatest hits like "Jumbo" and "Born Slippy", but they throw many curveballs in these live performances that make the songs seem like remixes or even new songs.

However, the best part of this DVD is the pure energy of it all. And it is not just the ambiance and the acid-trip like graphics that incessantly flash in front of the screen. Underworld is truly genius in their live performances. Try to watch five minutes of this one without rocking, nodding your head, or stomping your feet like the thousands of people in the audience. This DVD makes me wish I was at these performances, but this is the next best thing to being there.

I'd always been a huge underworld fan but I had never seen them live so I figured this was the next best thing. A great DVD overall. Great shots of the group performing, their setups, how they make the music they do and, of course, the grooving fans. Great features too like the Tomato Art collective video art. The whole DVD is different songs performed live at different places and some might find the whole live format kind of tiresome. It would have been nice to see things such as music videos from the guys but hey that's why its called Underworld LIVE right? If you're an Underworld fan and you don't have this DVD I've got two words for you. Why not?

WARNING: This DVD will create FEELINGS. If you don't want to get excited or get up and dance, don't watch it! I saw this DVD a month before I went to the Underworld concert, and I couldn't believe how great it was. I've never seen a DVD so vivid; it's like you are right there live with Underworld. Everything was perfect: the music, Karl Hyde's amazing dancing, the unreal lighting and the perfect editing. This DVD is extremely well made, and I told myself I would be happy if the real concert itself was even HALF as good as the DVD (well very fortunate for me, the concert itself ended up to be even better than the DVD!). I highly recommend Everything-Everything!

Hmmmm. This DVD is fantastic. But Actually, I have not even seen the concert portion. I bought it for the graphic art portion that is also included. I was lucky enough to see Underworld in Brussels, Belgium at the height of their last CD. It was a small venue and thus, I had a great view. The music was excellent but what really intrigued me and just plain left my mouth open was the video screens during the concert. I thought the graphics were incredible and if you ever have a chance to see Underworld, you should do what you can to see them. Anyway, when I heard that Underworld was releasing a DVD I had hoped that they included the art portion. Sure enough it is here. It is created by an agancy called TOMATO and I beleive it was founded by one of the members of Underworld. The video art is as chaotic and energetic as the music. The audio portion of the concert is played with the video art. I use the video art as a backdrop for parties. People rave about it all the time. Like I mentioned, I have never seen the concert portion probably because I saw them live and that was great enough. If you are a fanatic about graphic art, I don't think you will be disappointed.