Supersuckers - Mid-Fi
Field Recordings Vol. 3: From the Audio/Video Dept., Live in Anaheim (DVD-Video/CD set)
Picture: C-
Sound: B Extras: C- Main Program: B-
The concert video must work on two levels. The first is creating the feeling while
you’re watching it that you’re there, watching this band or artists from the
third row with a bunch of other fans who are going crazy. The other is that it should represent one
show as a whole; a night in the life of this band or artist.
On both levels, The Supersuckers’ first foray into this
territory fails.
Mid-Fi Field Recordings Vol. 3: From the Audio/Video
Dept., Live in Anaheim is a collection of clips gleamed from a couple
shows the band played in Anaheim, CA. Some of the selections are straight up
rock tracks, like “Rock and Roll Records (Ain’t Selling This Year),”
“Bad Bad Bad” and “Creepy Jackalope Eye.” Others, like “Barricade” and “Mudhead,”
are more country in nature.
This split in which genre the band’s tracks fall into also
separates where the clips were filmed.
The rock tracks were filmed in a mid-sized concert space with a decent
sized stage and a fair amount of fans.
The other venue represented on the disc is a smaller club setting where
fans in cowboy hats are as plentiful as the devil horns at the rock show.
This is a primary failing of the disc. The rock tracks are much more interesting
and are much better to listen to. That
show, filmed at The House of Blues, should be the only one represented here,
rather than being broken up in favor of highlighting the band’s country
abilities recorded at the Casbah. And
this point is made all the more striking when you consider that the DVD is
bundled with a live Supersuckers disc of their country tunes, recorded in San
Diego. That audio-only disc should have
been where the country stayed. Not only
would it made the DVD a better watch, but it would have offered the complete
Supersuckers package — one disc of rock, another of country and both together
show the band’s abilities as musicians.
This isn’t the disc’s only problem. Instead, it’s marred by a crowd at the rock
show that is barely alive. At points,
they’re downright dead. The songs the Supersuckers have chosen to highlight at
this concert and on this disc are anything but snoozers. The tracks are loud, heavy and
in-your-face. Those in the crowd should
have been more receptive.
That’s not to say there is absolutely no crowd
participation. There are some people at
the front of the stage who do their share of moshing and throwing the devil
horns at Eddie Spaghetti and the boys in the band. But look back a few rows and see only slight head nodding and arm
flailing. C’mon, this is a concert! Get into it!
And because those people at the show are so blah, the
viewer can’t help but feel the same sort of apathy. The concert is great to listen to. It’s guitars and bass are deep and rich with a solid drum track
to complete the rich, full sound of both the rock and country concerts. Close your eyes and the sound quality of the
disc matches the best concert audio discs you can purchase. (The disc offers
viewers the ability to listen to the concert in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and
5.1 surround, so it in fact sounds better than your typical audio-only disc.) But why watch it? The people that were there weren’t into it, so how can I? Better yet, why should I?
But if you happen to look at the video, you’ll be thrown
for a loop. Whoever filmed the concerts
seemed more enamored with the digital effects option of their Sony HandyCam
than they were in capturing the essential Supersuckers concert experience.
Grainy greens, grays and sepias are favored at the expense
of a clean capture. And when those
effects aren’t being utilized, the video looks it was put through a digital
effects machine to make it look like a washed out, scratched up film print of
some rock show from 1983. On top of all
that are the jumpy frame effects used here and there throughout the rock
concert to compliment the negative digital effect that is used way too often.
This might not have been that much of a problem on its
own. After all, there are plenty of
bands that try to get too clever with their products and use every trick they
can to make their concert seem totally cool.
But, when going through the extras on the disc, you’ll find what is
called “The Hidden Track,” The Supersuckers’ cover of Outkast’s “Hey
Ya.”
The track itself is decent enough. The crowd seems totally lost during the
clip, though, not knowing what to make of these rockers covering a hip-hop tune
— even if it’s the most popular hip-hop song since, dare I say, the heyday of
Prince. But the video is
immaculate. It’s clean, bright and
lively. It captures the concert better
than anything else you can find on the disc.
So why wasn’t the whole concert filmed that way? It would have gone a long way to redeeming
the video found on the disc. And, being
a concert DVD, the video is arguably the most important aspect of the effort.
And even though the concert footage is marred by poor
edits, lackluster video and an awful crowd, that doesn’t mean their first DVD
is a total loss.
The music is really good, and is worth picking up if only
for that. And that’s not really a
surprise. The Supersuckers have been
around for more than a decade, so their music must have hit a chord — no pun
intended — with audiences. Whether it’s
the rock tracks or the country ones, the music is very good and very
listenable.
But when you pick this DVD up, don’t do so looking for a
plethora of extras. In addition to the
hidden track, there are only two other extras to speak of. The first is an interview Supersuckers bass
player and frontman Eddie Spaghetti conducts with his bandmates. It focuses on whether they would like the
ability to fly or the power of invisibility.
It’s the usual band-chat stuff, but you can’t help but watch and think
Eddie is trying to channel a little bit of the Jack Black persona. (“How about the power of flight? That do
anything for ya?,” Black asks on Tenacious D’s first hit, “Wonder Boy.”)
The other extra is a couple of clips of Eddie playing an
acoustic solo set. It doesn’t really
contribute anything to the overall Supersuckers experience — fans of the band
and Eddie in particular might enjoy it. But because of the two-camera approach
to the clips, and, again, the anything-but-vivacious crowd, this is a bit of a
throwaway extra.
Ultimately, this disc is a mixed bag. On one hand, the music’s great. On the other, the video is a nightmare. And it seems as though the band could have
picked a better concert to have captured and released on this DVD. That said, Mid-Fi Field Recordings Vol.
3: From the Audio/Video Dept., Live in Anaheim is anything but a throwaway
concert video. It might not be on par
with the classic concerts that Eddie mentions in the disc’s liner notes (Thin
Lizzy’s “Live and Dangerous,” AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock”
and The Ramones’ “It’s Alive”), but it should satisfy and
Supersucker fan out there.
If you pick it up, pop the disc in your DVD player but
keep the TV off. If you just listen to
it, you’ll have a much more pleasant experience with this disc.
- Dante A.
Ciampaglia
