Oh the days were truly golden...
I so completely agree, young Jeremy. I was rather disappointed in both the
live record and live video, soundwise and picturewise. As far as the picture,
just how many times do we actually get to see any of the band playing their
instruments? The camera men seem to favor teeny-bop headshots instead of full
body shots. I mean, even Rolling Stones and Third Eye Blind videos get full
body shots, and is any of their playing really important to see? And then
there are William's grand side-shots, where the angle is very good, but at
least 75% of the time they only go to that shot if Jeremy is not singing,
kind of saying that Jeremy's the main camera attraction, and if he's not
doing anything important (playing he music isn't important in teeny bot
facial shots) then they might as well go to William for a few seconds, which
means they miss out on some great drum madness. I was surprised they actually
cut to him during his crazy parts of Rodeo Jones. I was a happy bunny then.
And then the sound. Especially during 'Song About An Angel.' The picture and
sound are just too noticeably off kilter with each other to keep calm about.
Then let's talk about the fact that as far as the video viewer is concerned,
Dan's microphone may as well not even have been plugged in. Where's Dan's
voice? It seems as though on both recordings, the vocals and snare drum are
in forefront, and not only is every else not as loud, but it seems to be all
the way in the background unless it's a quiet part of the song. For instance,
on 'The Prophet' and the beginning of 'Song About An Angel.' But as for the
rest of the show, where are the guitars, bass and drums? It seems with a band
notorious for such insanely polished recordings, this sort of thing should
not be happening.
This is not all to say that I don't enjoy some aspects of the recordings,
because I do. The vocals on 'Song About An Angel' are wonderful, like the
humming part before th chorus. William's deviance from certain notes on the
record, as well as the different guitar harmonies on 'Every Shining Time You
Arrive' all make for a nice listen, too (if a hard one). And of course, it's
just cool to see them on film, because it's so hard to get it all in when you
are actually at a show. You either watch the guitars, or the drums or the
bass, and in that process have to miss out on SOMETHING. But with the video
you can watch it as many times as you want. It's just too bad they chose
angles that don't even shed light upon the fact that they actually have
guitars in their hands. It may be the club's layout, or other distracting
factors, but you can't ignore the irresposibility of the editing. Certains
key parts of songs are ignored so that the camera can focus on Jeremy's face?
I've actually seen better bootlegs, I think. Oh, bother. I liked the sparse
little white poster that came with it, though.
Oh, for the life and hoppings of a bunny called Benji Rabbit...
