„This is more than just a rock show!”
Brad Corrigan, 14th of July 2007, Madison Square Garden
Before we start, the author of this review is a big Dispatch fan and went to New York this summer to see all of the three concerts and spreading out the word by handing out a lot of flyers for the Elias Foundation, so it’s written in perspective of passion and addiction to this big event.
 Danny Clinch seems to be a famous music photographer and director – well, I’ve never heard about him, but after watching this DVD I agree with that. He worked for guys and bands like Metallica, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen and the legend Johnny Cash, but never for a nearly unknown band that sold out the Madison Square Garden, three nights in just a couple of hours. So how do you film, cut and introduce a band you don’t know? Mister Clinch has done it great! He not just spread out the footage; he did a great 8 minute long intro where you can see Brad, Chad and Pete explaining their expectations and intention of their Dispatch Zimbabwe show. So, if you don’t know the band, you will learn everything you need before it starts with the band playing “Elias” with the African Children’s Choir backstage. They explain the background about the song and the band.
It starts with “Here We Go” and “Time Served”. It also shows some rarities: There was never an audio live record of “Whaddya Wannabe”, and of course no video record; but now you can watch those guys, playing that song in front of thousands of people in this huge arena with three great horn players.
The playlist of this DVD is great, but some Dispatch Fans will be disappointed, because you will miss some great songs like “Two Coins”, “Prince Of Spades”, “Cover This” and of course “Mission”. But maybe that would go beyond the scope of such a Music-DVD and certainly, there are enough audio and video recordings of those songs. And some of us also watched the MySpace Stream of the whole Saturday show, so, never mind Danny Clinch!
 After seeing the first seven songs, you will see a great production of “Passerby”, when the three guys are on stage together and playing great solos. Then “Flying Horses” with Bongo Love which is awesome. “Past The Falls”, “Fallin’” and before they go on top of Whimpy, you’ll see a beautiful record of “Lightning” mixed into blue light, with a terrific solo by Pete – it’ll gives you the heebie-jeebies!
Before they move on Whimpy, you’ll see Pete, explaining the name of their van (it became from their mechanic, who was named “Whimpy”) – such short little vignettes are shown in black-white and sometimes becoming into colour while showing just one tracking shot; good work Clinch! He shows you Brad and Pete in the empty garden, listening to the records of the last night – funny! Even Dispatch Fans are going to learn new stuff.
 Seeing those guys, playing their very first Song “Steeples” was amazing on the 15th of July 2007, but now seeing it in great quality on a DVD with great sound is a beautiful present for every Dispatch Fan. You will miss “Two Coins”, because they played it on the Saturday and Sunday show on top of Whimpy – but you will forget about it quite fast, because that record of “Questioned Apocalypse” is also terrific. Before you’ll see the band running thru the arena and playing “Cut It Ya Match It” in the middle of hundreds of fans, you can watch the guys running backstage while the Zimbabwe vignettes are shown.
Before playing “Bats In The Belfry” you’ll see some interviews with the staff of the Madison Square Garden: they’re talking about what kind of good guys the Dispatch members are and that they’ve never heard about the band and how astonished they’re about an independent band, selling out the Garden “…without a record label”. It’s quite interesting for every fan and also for every Dispatch-unknown-music-fan. But as one who was there, I have to say: I’m missing the stuff, the guys address to the audience.
 The record of “Elias” is put into a very romantic scene and it’s a little different mix then the one on the Dispatch-MySpace site. Then you’ll see the “Outloud”-record of the 15th of July with the African Children’s Choir and also another short interview with some guys on the street: “Do you know about Dispatch?” – “No.” That’s the answer of nearly everybody. One girl is telling you “…but I have seen Backstreet Boys in the Garden.” You are going to smile benignly!
The big final (like on every Dispatch DVD) is “General”. A great pan is showing Chad, playing the intro. It’s the record of the last night: the stage is completely full with the horn players, Bongo Love, the whole Choir, some of the production crew and a couple of friends of Chad, Pete and Brad. It’s a lovely shot and after taking a bow, you can see those guys, going backstage and going like “Whoooo, such a long dream…” Quite funny!
 
Well, when you’ve finished the nearly 130 minutes long concert footage, you’ll get back to the menu and clicking on “Extras”. There are 16 Bonus Features (over 70 minutes)!!! You’ll see 4 Bonus Tracks (“War” Bob Marley Cover, “Camilo” New Song by Chad, “Carnival” New Song by Pete and “Customs” New Song by Brad) and a 30 minutes long documentary “Tree With No Name”. It’s produced by the Dispatch Foundation and it gives you an intensive access to the present and the past story of Zimbabwe. It’ll give you impulse to think about the problems in that country and hopefully push you to act.
 Other Bonus Footage are about the Choir, the Dispatch Foundation, the beachball incident (on the first night, Chad kicked Pete with a ball), another interview with Dispatch before and after the concert, Brad seeing skating through the garden and some funny outtakes while the interview for Fuse. But that’s not all: they’ve put in all of the five vignettes about Zimbabwe, which were shown on the three nights and also a funny video of Jonathan Olinger teaching Elias how to hypnotize a Chicken and everybody of us, who lives in a world full of consumption will think “Wow! He’s quite poor, but his charisma is so overwhelming.” Like Brad said “… the people who have nearly nothing are teaching you the most.” He’s right!
 On the Saturday Show, Brad spoke to the audience after a Zimbabwe vignette. He said, that he likes to have everybody listen to the story that is giving through the videos and that “…this is more than a rock show.” – This DVD is more than just a Concert-DVD. It’ll teach you about a country that’s dying and that the power of music can move things. For all of you, who don’t know Dispatch: you’ll learn about a beautiful weekend full of hope, love and magic and as a Dispatch fan, you will get more than you expect.
 Last word about the technical stuff: The DVD has great sound (much better, then the Snocap recordings, so maybe you should save the audio track of the DVD) and good colours. Some of the records, which were taken in the middle of the audience, are brightened, but that’s okay. The menu is done very well and because of the good pictures, that were taken I’m very excited about seeing the HD DVD release this January. By the way, this is about the Collector’s Edition, which you can order on www.dispatchmsg.com. It includes a photo book with great background information but one mistake on the top of it, Dispatch is written “Disptach”. Never mind!
 For all Non-US Fans: the DVD has no regional settings, so it’s no problem for your German, Italian, English or whatever DVD Player (instead, you’re player isn’t able to play NTSC, but I don’t know about a player, which isn’t able to do that).
Tracklist:
Here We Go, Time Served, Whaddya Wannabe, Open Up, Bulletholes, Bang Bang, Ride A Tear, Passerby, Flying Horses, Past The Falls, Fallin’, Lightning, Steeples, Questioned Apocalypse, Cut It Ya Match It, Bats In The Belfry, Elias, Outloud, General, Camilo, Carnival, Customs, War
205 minutes, 2 audio tracks (Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0), NTSC
This is written by Christian Scholz for www.patchmusic.info - All pictures are from the DVD, Copyright Bomber Records.
(written by Christian Scholz, PatchMusic) |
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