Sound: It's amazing. Queensryche is such a great band, and perhaps because of the limited budget this DVD kinda sucks. Tate's vocals are way too processed, it seems they turned on the 70's 'Dolby noise reduction' button and every single word he sings sounds squashed (too much compression maybe) and without dinamics. The drums sound amazing thouugh and I believe Rockenfield's Paiste Cymbals raise the bar even more with that wonderful crisp ride cymbal sound. The guitar playing is also very weak on the newer stuff. The new guy isn't a bad guitar player, but I have a feeling a lot of the artistry of this band left with DeGarmo. I'd be interested to see what he's playing these days. On the older material, the presence and clarity isn't bad, but it ain't what it used to be. This band used to be so tight. Even since their first album, they were reknown for their progressive edge to melody, harmony, lyrics, and arrangement. This tour is either a mistaken artistic path or a sleezy grab for the bucks. We can probably blame the record execs or something, maybe they nixed all the prog tunes in favor of the tracks they thought would sell. I'm not completely writing them off, but if the next album sounds like this one, I will for sure. // 6
Content: The only saving grace of the disc is the song selection. While QR certainly have stronger material than that found on "Tribe," it is nice to see them playing their newer material. Personally, though I'm a huge Dream Theater fan, I'm not really interested in seeing them do cover versions, same goes for QR, so I really wasn't too impressed by the DVDs closers where the bands collaborate on "Comfortably Numb" and "Won't Get Fooled Again." The extras on this disc isn't that good, a couple crummy, disorganized interviews with Geoff Tate that lack any substance. // 8
Production Quality: The show itself (in black and white - lame!) is good, I enjoyed it, but if only production would have been more careful this DVD would be a hit. Come on guys, enough with the slow-mo cameras and the matte finish! This is 2004. Picture quality is a nasty brown sepia-tone complete with artifacts that make it look like an old battle-scarred film print. Not a happy viewing experience particularly for the dvd format. The whole DVD is filmed in the same fade in and out sepia shade, like old vintage film footage. I am listening to the DVD in the background because it is almost unwatchable to me. I don't want to watch Queensryche as if they were filmed by Time/Life video. I find it interesting that such a versatile band would resort to 1 trick wonder video to bring down the excellent music on the DVD. // 4
Impression: The discrepancy between the old and new tunes on this DVD is hillarious. When playing the old tunes, the band comes alive, playing and singing better than on the new stuff. The stage presence is better (more energy, less "esse-ness") and the arrangements are also better than the newer tunes, though much less dense than they were on the Mindcrime tour. This concert is not without a few shining moments, but overall... it's definitely a sad day for fans of prog rock. // 6
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