I second the 360 request. My PC cannot reproduce BR and I was mildly disappointed with the picture quality of the DVD (but it's not the DVD's fault, it's just that over the years I had gotten used to watching movies and TV series in HD quality, and going back to the standard wasn't easy - first world problems).
Nitpicking:
- The intro of Metropolis was waaay too hushed. I get that it was an intro tape, but why wasn't it equalized to the rest of the song as it has always been?
- The Jam in Metropolis sounded exceptionally weird to me. But again, this is just my fault. As some of you know, I downloaded the audience video of Metropolis before it was pulled down, and pretty much wathced that little improvisation section for one whole year. The audio quality wasn't the best, and looks like I filled a few audio wholes the wrong way, which is why the actual version sounded strange.
- I too would have enjoyed the crowd mixed louder, and the keyboard a bit more upfront. But as PC said somewhere, I could probably attain a sound closer to my wishes tweaking the equalizer
Pro:
- MIKE MANGINI DRUM SOLO. I've always been a sort of hater of drum solos, the classic guy who would always gain the men's room during them, metaphorically. But this one left me stunned and absolutely glued to the screen for all the 5-6 minutes it lasted. What an amazing performance, vastly superior to any other drum solo I have ever heard him play, including the one I witnessed in person. GREAT JOB.
- JAMES. Gosh, James, you own this one. Bravissimo.
- The Setlist. It's no surprise, but the Aug 19 performance showcased the best setlist of the tour, something that can't be said of the two previous live DVDs (neither Score nor Budokan featured the best selection of songs that were on rotation, that's a fairly accepted statement).
- The Photography: really well done and cinematic. Maybe on a few spots they could have stayed on a band member a little longer, but they managed to deliver a very dynamic shooting without making me carsick and without missing any of the key moments. Great job!
- The minor adjustments: it's no secred that DT has tweaked the sound of pretty much all past live releases, with the only exception of OIALT (for sure), and Budokan (probably). Not that this is a bad thing, in fact, I'm all for it! If I want to enjoy the rawness and the little mistakes I just grab one of the bootlegs everyone can get on the net. This release makes no exception: a few details were clearly altered for the better or little mistakes concealed thanks to the clever choice of filming both nights. One example: the first night James's voice faltered on the climatic note of TSCO, while no trace of it can be found on the DVD. Clearly they must have used the corresponding sound stream from the second night, which was perfectly fine. Also, I feel that a bit more consistency was given to James vocals on a few selected critical spots, especially towards the end of the set, again basing myself on the audience shots that I've been able to see. Of course I'm not positive about this for the obvious reason that an audience recording (let's say it, a phone video), doesn't sound good enough to make perfect sense of all the nuances in James's performance. Still, it doesn't matter to me, I'm okay with whatever was done to optimize the already excellent performance.
- Yes, EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE. The strong point of the release. The band is tight, faithful to the studio version of the album but carefully including all the extra bits that had been developing since the start of the tour. An example: the new ending of TROAE wasn't omitted (thank Bosk) and instead played in its definitive shape (you can trace its growth from the original idea to what appeared on the DVD watching a few videos on youtube). The same can be said about the solos. PC said somewhere that he felt the Guitar Solo to be a little disconnected. He's right, but that's because the three distinct sections were introduced in the three 2012 legs leading up to Luna Park, European, Asian and American. The Luna Park performance added up the three of them, too bad John didn't bring over the cowboy hat he used to wear on the solo on previous shows!
To sum up this point, the band played effectively, focused and loose at the same time. You can see 5 people concentrated in order to play at their best, but at the same time enjoying their time on stage as every artist should. Example? The funny JLB-JP sketch in Surrounded, or the cool JP-JM-MM interplay throughout the night, or again the JR extravaganza on TDEN.
So, I have written too much already. Nothing of this post was planned, I just threw a few things on paper as they came to me.
Overall, on my first watch I can say I really enjoyed this release a lot. I still have to watch the documentary as well as the extras, but I wanted to write something about the main performance only, as I've seen too many post about the satellites and too few about the planet.
I still have to get used to the sound, to watch it in Blu Ray quality and to familiarize with the performances. As of now, I can say that I like this live release above all the others because of all the strenghts I listed and despite the minor complaints I opened my post with. Of this I am very happy and grateful.
"Sorry for the short
set post" [cit.]
Topic: DREAM THEATER RELEASES TRAILER FOR NEW DVD, BLU-RAY, CD (Read 279304 times)
