Collective Soul - Music In High Places
Performance 
Production
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Collective Soul - Music In High Places
Performance |
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The other day I was browsing through my vast CD collection looking for something I hadn't heard in a while, and I happened to stop on Collective Soul's self-titled second album from 1995. I popped it into my stereo while I handled the cooking chores for that night, and was pleasantly reminded of how much I still enjoy listening to these guy's melodic, guitar-driven songs. When most new rock bands couldn't write a memorable hook or melody to save their lives, Collective Soul have been a virtual hook-factory over the course of six albums, which have produced no-less-than eight number one singles. Listening to that album also reminded me of the band's Music In High Places DVD that I have been neglecting since I first picked it up a few years ago. I had only really skimmed through the main feature once or twice, but since the band is back in the spotlight this year with a new album and tour, I figured now was an appropriate time to give this DVD its long overdue Roy's review. Music In High Places is a series that takes some of the worlds top music artists and places them in various exotic locales around the world, armed with only acoustic instruments and a serious sense of adventure. In 2001, Collective Soul signed on for a four-day adventure in the North African country of Morocco. This made it especially intriguing to me because I had visited Morocco during the mid-90's, while being stationed along the southern tip of Spain, only a 90 minute ferry ride to Tangier. As this video brilliantly illustrates, Morocco is one hell of a fascinating expedition. When it comes to performing acoustically - especially a bunch of re-arranged, hard-driving, rock songs - some bands can, and some bands can't pull it off. During the interviews with the band, they explained how they never write or rehearse with acoustic guitars, and, until this journey to Morocco, had never even performed an acoustic set. That is pretty amazing, because their acoustic, three-guitar, bass, and percussion arrangements sounded fantastic, and their performances, amongst the bewildered Moroccan people, were captivating. It made me think of what a great MTV Unplugged show Collective Soul would make. This video is filmed in a documentary style and follows the band as they travel to various intriguing places around the Moroccan countryside. The song performances are recorded in various unexpected locations, such as in and around the Marrakech souqs and bazaars, inside and among the ruins of a 12th century casbah, and sitting around a campfire all night in the middle of the Sahara desert. Most of the song performances are interspersed with interviews and other behind the scenes footage, so you almost never get a complete version, but, praise Allah, these brilliant producers also included a "Just The Music" option in the special features section, which provides all of the complete song performances that were not seen in the main feature. Why can't they all be this smart? The most disappointing thing about this video is the song selection. Of the twelve songs performed, five were from their new album, at the time, Blender, which is probably the band's weakest offering to date. Disciplined Breakdown gets completely ignored, and Dosage only gets a single representation with "Heavy". I fully expected the great ballads "December", "The World I Know", and "Heaven’s Already Here" to sound good in this new environment, and they did, but I was surprised at how good the more rockin' numbers like "Gel" and "Heavy" sounded with their acoustic makeovers. Some overlooked songs that I would have preferred to see instead of some of the weaker Blender tracks, like "Over Tokyo" and "After All", were "Reach" and "Burning Bridges" from the first album, and "Listen" from Disciplined Breakdown, just to name a few. The production quality of this DVD is very impressive. The video is presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen picture that is as clear and sharp as you are ever going to see. The beautiful palette of colors that the Moroccan landscape and sky presented simply looked amazing. The camera crew did a brilliant job making you feel like you right there with the band, as if you were part of the crew. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track was outstanding, providing excellent instrument separation and clarity. The surrounds were used mainly for ambience, but added significant depth to the overall presentation. It is amazing that the recording quality was this good considering the conditions. Almost everything had to be done on battery power. The bonus features were quit extensive on this DVD, adding about 65 minutes of extra material. Two in-depth interviews were included with the band members, featuring lead singer Ed Roland and guitarist Ross Childress together in one, and guitarist Dean Roland, bassist Will Turpin, and drummer Shane Evans together in the other. The most interesting stuff was Ed Roland explaining the reason why he freaked out when a monkey jumped on his back during the filming. It turns out that he had recently read the book The Hot Zone, which details how the nightmarish Ebola Virus was spread via African monkeys. They all also blabbed endlessly about how fascinating and "misunderstood" the religion of Islam was, which I found a little hard to stomach after the first few minutes. Also included were three behind-the-scenes featurettes, the promo spots they recorded for the series, and a band biography. You don't have to be a big fan of Collective Soul to enjoy this fascinating edition of Music In High Places. According to the band's website, they will be releasing a CD and DVD, this fall, of their recent live performances with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. I can't wait. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - April 2005 |
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Running Time: 52 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - September 2001
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