Soleilmoon
Soleilmoon's new DVD release of 1998's Live at La Luna
VHS adds absolutely nothing to the original release, sharing the same
set list and running time, and boasting absolutely zero extras. Most
disappointingly, the DVD does not even have chapter stops, making it
impossible to cue forward or back at anything more than double speed.
Would it have killed Soleilmoon to put some chapter stops between
songs? It certainly would have made this DVD a slightly more attractive
premise, especially for those who didn't spring for the VHS the first
time around. Live at La Luna documents a 1997 performance at La
Luna in Portland, Oregon: one of many stops on the Pink Dots' North
American tour behind the Hallway of the Gods album. Hallway
represents one of the most accessible, straight-ahead psych-rock albums
the band ever recorded, and as the set list is drawn mostly from that
album, these shows must have seemed pretty alienating to the average
esoteric music fan, or even to the many shapes and sizes of goths that
always seem to find their way to Dots shows. For diehard fans of the
band, the Dots throw in a few choice selections from the back catalog:
"Love in a Plain Brown Envelope" from Faces in the Fire, "City of Needles" from Shadow Weaver, and the ubiquitous "Hellsville" from the band's unequalled masterpiece Crushed Velvet Apocalypse.
Over the 15 or so Pink Dots concerts I've seen over the years, this
particular show does not strike me as particularly remarkable in any
sense. Rather, it seems fairly workmanlike, the Dots churning out an
accomplished, if predictable set of Hallway-era jazzy prog-rock
numbers to a mostly sedate audience wondering what happened to all the
scary shit. It's nice to see ex-Dot Ryan Moore on bass and drums, but
I'm wondering why Soleilmoon couldn't have included his ace opening set
as Twilight Circus Dub Sound System on the DVD, which I remember
clearly from this tour. Slightly more youthful versions of Niels van
Hoorn, Edward Ka-Spel and Silverman are in fine form, with the
short-lived Atwyn on guitar. The concert was captured with three
cameras, which are edited and cross-faded together in a mostly
unobtrusive manner which should please most Pink Dots fans who can't
wait until the next bi-monthly tour of the Pink Dots to get their live
fix. Although at only 60 minutes, it does seem that there are much
better concerts with long encores that would have made a preferable
live document. In fact, the end of the DVD appears to cut off the
encore, with the crowd still clapping and cheering as the Dots exit the
stage, presumably to return. Why don't we get to see their encore? What
exactly is the point of this DVD, other than another way to cash in on
the compulsions of obsessive Dots collectors? I anxiously await proper
documentation of the Dots on stage, because Live at La Luna ain't it.
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS LIVE AT LA LUNA
- Written by: Jonathan Dean
- Parent Category: Reviews
- Category: Home Theater
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