Alice Donut – London, There’s A Curious Lump In My Sack
(Concert)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Concert: C+
I had never heard of Alice Donut, and no matter how many
times I played back their DVD-Video concert from July 5th, 2004,
nothing stuck with me. London,
There’s A Curious Lump In My Sack is loaded with songs and noisy ones at
that, but they never add to as much as expected. The titles include:
1) New
Jersey Exit
2) Mrs.
Hayes
3) Tingler
4) Bottom
Of The Chain
5) She
Tells Me Things
6) Helsinki
7) My Best
Friend’s Wife
8) Hang The
Dog
9) Son Of A
Disgruntled X-Postal Worker…
10) Everyone Is On Sale
11) Chicken Door
12) Egg
13) Waiting Room
14) Moon Pie
15) Bucket, Forks, Pock
16) Kiss Me
17) Mother Of Christ
18) Freaks In Love
19) Nadine
The titles that are supposed to be shocking or intriguing
are usually more interesting than the resulting song. The three-chord approach is limited and we have seen and heard
much better in the hard rockin’ Punk cycle, even of late. They are good at yelling together in unison
and points for having a female member, who is as good as the rest, but the band
lacks chemistry and so does this DVD. I
will give it points for being loud and anti-candy music by default.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X1 image is far from
digital High Definition perfection, likely shot on an NTSC-affiliated digital
format with far less definition. Things
are so dark and hazy that even a better recording format would not have helped,
but that’s a Punk thing, I guess. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix plays like Pro Logic with some bass kick, but is far from
the articulate 5.1 experience we are used to, even with Dolby. I doubt DTS would have helped here. Extras include three Music Video clips,
including the animated, bold and subversive Cost, the somewhat animated Helsinki,
and She Tells Me Things, which mixes up taped images. These clips make the band look and sound
much better than the concert, which is not for the main program at all. An interview (18:37 that goes on too long)
and two fan-shot concert clips from CBGB is also included. For fans and the curious only, but either
might want to start with the supplements in this case.
- Nicholas Sheffo
