Godsmack - Changes
Performance
Production
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Godsmack - Changes
Performance
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Godsmack - band of the short haircuts and long sideburns, tattoo aficionados, and those wicked Boston accents. I was never a really huge fan of these guys, although I always liked most of their songs that I heard on the radio. I was just never motivated to go out and buy any of their albums. When I saw the Changes DVD on sale in Best Buy one afternoon, and noticed that it featured all of their best known songs, live in concert, shot in High Definition widescreen, with a DTS 5.1 surround mix, to boot, I figured now was as good a time as any to properly introduce myself to the band. I'm glad I did! Changes is not simply a concert DVD, but is "a film by Daniel E. Catullo III and Andrew MacNaughtan", who happen to be the award-winning team behind the awesome Rush In Rio DVD, among others. It is essentially a documentary of Godsmack's 2003-2004 Faceless tour, and includes loads of great behind the scenes footage along with thirteen potent song performances. I bow my head in praise of these fine producers who give you three different ways to watch this DVD. The "Play Movie" option gives you the entire film the way it was intended to be watched, with each live performance interspersed with behind the scenes footage. The "Scene Selection" option includes both the songs and the behind the scenes stuff, but allows you to select each scene individually. The "Individual Songs" option contains only the live concert performances and will run them in order without stopping after each song. It is amazing how many producers do not include this last option when they have created a documentary style concert DVD, which usually makes me want to take the disk out of my player and stick it right in my shredder! - and my shredder is only for paper damn it! Thankfully, these guys did it right. Godsmack are one of the more enthusiastic and committed bands I have seen, when it comes to giving their fans the best concert experience possible. They easily have one of the best stage shows going, right now, and it reminded me of all the great 1980's rock concerts that I attended in my youth, when bigger, louder, and brighter was the plan of attack. Sully Erna talked of how he grew up on all of the "big rock shows" of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and the like, with all of the pyro, lights, and lasers, and how the whole grunge movement almost killed it, when four guys in flannel shirts and a few stage lights, talking about how miserable life is, was the best thing going. I hear you Sully. Changes is basically a greatest hits live DVD. With four albums now under their belt, including the surprisingly good, new, acoustic album, The Other Side, Godsmack have achieved great commercial success, including 11 top-ten singles, and a number one album with 2003's Faceless . This means that most of the songs will probably be familiar to most of you, even if, like me, you do not happen to own any of their albums. The song selection is split evenly between their first album Godsmack and their third album Faceless. "Awake" was the only song they performed from their less commercial sophomore album Awake. The absolute highlight of the show was the performance of "Batalla De Los Tambores" - drum battle indeed my friends! Thinking it was going to be your standard, boring drum solo, as Shannon Larkin's drum riser moved out to the front of the stage, and the camera zoomed in on him, suddenly another full drum kit, with Sully behind it, moves in from stage-left, and takes its place besides Larkin's. At first Sully is convincingly pounding away with his hands on various congas and percussion, in perfect rhythm with Larkin, then, after a few minutes, he turns to play the rest of his drum kit as both drum risers spin to face each other. They then just jam ferociously, with the accompaniment of some Tony Rombola power chords, as Sully shows that he could easily replace most drummers in today's young rock bands. The song ends gloriously with a tribute to a few of their rock and roll heroes, as they pound out the famous drum fills from "YYZ", "Walk This Way", "Moby Dick", and "Tom Sawyer". The concert footage was recorded at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes Barre, PA, in July 2003. The show was shot with 14 High Definition cameras, which provided a crisp and bright picture, with deep blacks and excellent representation of the immense stage lighting. The camera work was outstanding, showing plenty of long shots of the entire stage, so you could soak in the dazzling visual show, as well as some perfectly timed close-ups, so us musicians could learn a few guitar licks and drum fills. The audio was equally impressive. Not only do you get a dynamic DTS surround mix, but you also get Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, PCM stereo, and SRS Circle Surround options as well. I stuck mostly with the excellent DTS mix and only sampled the others, but they all presented excellent instrument separation and clarity. The behind the scenes footage effectively shows the effort and sacrifice (and fun) that takes place with a famous rock band on tour. The band comes across as four down to earth guys, who are deeply committed to their band, families, and fans. This is certainly one of the better hard rock, DVD concert videos you will find this year. Godsmack have definitely made a fan out of me. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - November 2004 |
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Running Times: 59 minutes (songs only) |
DVD Release Date - July 2004 |