I wrote this post in late January 2008, but it was lost in my archive of saved posts that were once started but never finished. I had some extra time recently and finished the review.

I recently picked up the new album from The Mars Volta called “The Bedlam in Goliath.” After grabbing it from the shelf at my local Best Buy, I was delighted to find that the album came with a Bonus DVD with 20 minutes of concert footage. I have always wanted to shoot a show for The Mars Volta, so maybe this little DVD would fill that void.

Performance

If you haven’t seen The Mars Volta live, let me just say that their performances usually last over 90 minutes, at least half of which will be improved. The 20-minute clip on this DVD consists of about 8 minutes of a “real song” (Cygnus….Vismund Cygnus) and the other 12 are a combination of seemingly random noise and guitar solo. Then again, if you’re a progressive rock fan, or have seen The Mars Volta live before, this is all nothing new.

Video Quality

The video portion captures angles of the band from all over the auditorium. While this is normally one of the safest ways to shoot a concert, the varying quality in the cameras angles makes for a sub-par viewing experience. The bleeding colors and chroma blocking come across as amateur instead of “artistic expression,” and instead make it look like a bad home movie.

The video looks as if it were transferred from a second generation VHS, and made more obvious through the poor-quality encoding of the video. Fitting 20 minutes of video onto a DVD at maximum quality is a trivial task for a seasoned DVD professional. Rather, whoever authored this DVD encoded the video at about half quality.

The quality of the video is not something you would expect from a retail release, and even more so from such a popular band as The Mars Volta. I can’t speak to the conditions surrounding the who or why this video was released, but I come across a better quality show.

Audio Quality

The audio feed with this video is straight from the soundboard. While this is normally a good thing, this feed is in mono. Mono audio is really only good for delivering things like spoken voice and AM radio, where the spatial separation of instruments does not matter. Considering The Mars Volta has many more instruments at any given time than most classic 4-piece rock bands, the mono audio was more disappointing.

While a concert audio recordist will often record a microphone source from somewhere in the room to later mix with the soundboard, this audio mix does not. We are instead left with a lifeless flat-sounding recording.

Overall

While you won’t pay any extra for the DVD packaged with this release, you won’t help but feel unsatisfied by the extra offering. Watching this video is like getting a free ice cream cone while marching across a desert, only to have it melt all over your hand before sitting down to eat it.

Maybe I hold too high of expectations considering the field we’re in. Whatever the case, I would expect higher production value from such a highly acclaimed band.

Categories: Concert Films, Screening Room