Live at La Launa video (Legendary Pink Dots)

Antron S. Meister

Recorded in Portland, Oregon during their 1997 US tour, Live at La Luna is
the first professional concert recording the band has issued in their
eighteen year career. Drawn largely form the most recent studio album
Hallway of the Gods the opening songs build the atmosphere slowly, showing
the Dots' as the veterans of live performance that they are. Edward
Ka-Spel's stage presence is as rivetting as ever, delivering the lyrics with
assurance in his accustomed part-edgy, part-conversational manner. Equally,
the brief antics of bassist Ryan Moore raise a chuckle in the closing
shenanigans of "On High", wiggling off behind the drum kit as Ka-Spel and
The Silverman (ensconced in fairy-lit synth zone) exchange keyboard
discordances.

After building the tempo through an impsaaioned "Spike", with the
double-saxophone exertions of Nils van Hoornblower making their first
appearance of the night, the band stretch an old favourite "Love in a Plain
Brown Envelope" into unusual shapes, with guitarist Atwyn adding a space
rock feel, which also results in a rather unnecessarily long and soaring
guitar solo. Hoornblower shows his virtuosity with wind instruments by
switching to flute for "Destined to Repeat," looking all the while like a
bizarre mix of both Sun Ra and Phillip Larkin. A sedately mellow "Harvest
Babies" segues through a keyboard duet into "Velvet Resurrection", an the
real fun starts as the sample loops kick in, backed up by the energetic
drumming and psychedelic electronics. Drawing as much ennui out of the
song's bitter longing for equable teleological certainty as he can, Ka-Spel
begins his slow but sure expansion into a worryingly deranged, wholly
captivating performance.

Ka-Spel has the unnerving charisma of a cult leader, an attribute which he
brings with gusto to the live Dots experience. By turns reasonable and
demented, he acts out stories, prophecies, passion plays and goes through an
emotional wringer as the band provide the appropriately mind-expanding
musical backdrop. As with the best theatrical shows, the Dots live are an
entrancing proposition, and despite the plain camerawork and editing, Live
at La Luna captures something of the surge of energy they release on stage.
When the lights go red and the samples of laughter almost unbearable as
"Hellsville" emerges from the sonic residue, even the noticable reduction in
the sound quality is forgotten in the sheer rush of recognition of one of
the band's most powerful pieces. Bells clatter demonically, the laughter
fades in and out of a swirling backdrop and the increasingly messianic
figure of Ka-Spel mesmerises with his almost palpable immersion in a journey
through personal hell. When the finale of "City of Needles" emerges,
complete with new lyrics from the perspective of a too-reasonably suicidal
Heavens' Gate member, the near-insanity summoned is terrific, almost
overwhelming in its conviction.

Whatever the merits of this particular performance, the lack of several
favourite tracks apparently cut from the video, the mediocre (and mono)
sound quality, editing and production values, this is a tremendous record of
the Dots at a particular time. For an almost metaphysical sense of the
imaginiative impact of the coming Millenium - and possible accompanying
apocalypse - there is nothing like this band, in concert or on record. Those
lucky enough to have witnessed one of the truly great live bands on the
planet will recognise the sensation of absorbing, engrossing connection,
while those who have yet to experience the full force of a truly psychedelic
group will at least have had a taste of what is yet to come.

- Antron S. Meister -

Anomalous Records <anomaly@zipcon.com>

The Legendary Pink Dots show at La Luna was one of the best shows I have
seen by them. It was a powerful and loud performance with a lot of energy.
I have been very much looking forward to seeing the document left behind by
this wonderful experience. "Live at La Luna" does deliver in such way
though. Overall, the sound is awful and nowhere near as good as was in the
actual venue. Some how in the process of Peter Drake's recording, the
sound has been 'remixed'. Where at the shows, Edward and Phil's keyboards
were overpowering, they are barely audible through most of the video.
Edward's voice is clear, but Niels and Ryan dominate the sound rather than
equally contribute to it through most. And the sound is rather muddy as
well. The video portion overall doesn't seem the best representation
either. For most of the program, we see shots of Edward singing while
resting his hand on the microphone stand, and it rarely captures his
expressive gesticulations which make the live show such a pleasure. There
is also quite little of the antics of Phil (barely seen overall) and Ryan.
Having gone through some of these transformations, some of the songs don't
seem as strong in performance (which is not the experience I had at the
event, and no I wasn't drink or doing anything else like that at the show).
However, the video does start to come to together towards the end as
"Hellsville" starts, finally the keyboards can be heard over the other
instruments (instead of having to strain to notice them at all) and the
visual become more active. The song really gets going and capture more of
the atmosphere I remember. Furthermore into "City of Needles" in the which
the sound seems adequate, Edward manic performance is quite well captured
and they are really in full gear. Not to mention the fact that this
version differs greatly from the original on "Shadow Weaver" with
completely different lyrics. However, for once where it would be nice to
here Niels being over powering he's lower in the mix and unfortunately here
Edward's mouth doesn't synch up with his voice. It's a really wonderful
piece all around and makes the video worthwhile for me in the end. And
over time no doubt I'll appreciate the whole package a little more, but it
is disappointing that the sound is so power and so little of their
performance is left out, such as Niels characteristic walk through the
audience (during which a camera was following himŠ). A little
disappointing in some ways as this was the Dots in fine form, not captured
the best, but being them it is still essentially quite enjoyable.

oh, one last thing to note, they was some interview footage shot that
night, but of course none of it turned up hereŠ I wonder if that was even
for this project?
Eric Lanzillotta

Anomalous Records
P.O. Box 22195, Seattle, WA 98122-0195, USA
telephone: (206) 328-9339 fax: (206) 328-9408
<anomaly@zipcon.com>
<http://www.zipcon.com/~anomaly/>

zom <zom@txdirect.net>

Folks, I am viewing this as I write.....being a videographer by trade, I
can tell you three things:

The people who did the shooting of this concert don't know very much about
what they are doing when it comes to live performances. The camera work is
VERY clumsy, ill framed and the compositions are very childish and
inexperienced. Sorry boys, but a chimpanzee with a home video unit could
have done a better job. Was this supposed to be a soundboard recording?
Sure doesnt sound like it----sounds like someone had a shotgun mike trained
on the stage while the cameras rolled.

The people who edited this program together don't have the slightest idea
how to edit a concert together. The montage style this thing was put
together in was big in the late 70s and 80's....not anymore.

The people who did this seem to have no idea of what the Dots are, insofar
as who's parts are "important" at various times during the set, When
Hoornblower is playing two saxes at once, we need to SEE it, up front, and
close up. When Silverman is playing a keyboard interlude, we need to see
THAT, not what some dolt editor mistakenly thinks is Ka-Spel playing the
interlude. We DON'T need to see a lot of uneccesary zooms and crossfades.
We want to have the show represented as accuratley as possible, and that
includes close ups of the performers who are playing highlights of the
songs as they are happening....not these
after-the-fact-whoops-we-missed-it-boys crap.

in many ways it looked like someone was operating a video switcher at the
show, basically doing the shoot on the cheap so there would be a minimum of
editing to be done afterwards. Sorry boys, but you didn't fool anyone. If
this atrocity was ALL edited together later, you must have gone down to the
old-timer's home for blind and deaf production directors and gotten a
couple of DOOZIES.

I am going to foward all of that, and the following to Soleilmoon:

It's a shame that you got ripped off by the people who produced your LPD
Live At La Luna video. I would be more than happy to take your masters and
produce a one hour video that would smoke this abortion right out of the
water, and I would do it for the satisfaction of a job well done. Whoever
you hired to do this did it without any thought to how it was going to be
received by the fans of the group....they treated this shoot like it was
the bastard production no one could be bothered to put any effort into. The
videography is a sad thing to behold, for starters. My work as a
videographer has taught me many things, but the first and foremost is
committment to the scenario at hand, and these people did it like a
paint-by-numbers job. Out of focus shots, shaky, wretched pans and needless
angles that showed us nothing....I am REALLY sorry you guys got ripped off
here. I am serious about the masters and the one hour show's re-production.
I would be happy to do it.

I'm not criticising SOLIELMOON for this release...have to dance with who
brung you as the saying goes...but I would love to offer something more
than simple acceptance of this video since it's the only one.....anyway,
thanks for listening to me bitch.

zom
Click here-- http://www.txdirect.net/users/zom/

lysergic maximus <lyserg19@IDT.NET>

hello all...

i've just finished watching the new video having just received it in the
mail... i must admit, i was a bit disappointed... perhaps i had hoped for
too much but the video certainly didn't come close to capturing the
exquisite perfectness of the live shows... i was priveleged enough to see
them three times in four days (austin, houston and dallas) and each show,
while subtly different was remarkable. there is no real way to explain or
cature it on video, nothing compares to actually being there... but that
aside, my more worldly criticisms of the video are as follows:

I thought the edits and overlaying of different camera angles were a
bit much and far overused... it seemed someone was trying to make the show
'more interesting' or something. i was especially appalled by the
cheesiness of the sideways bandshots overlayed atop the normal bandshots...

i also thought the audience was particularly sedate. while LPD
audiences in my minute experience are definitely less active than say the
audience at a Butthole Surfers show, these people captured on the video
seemed particularly lifeless, as if they were told to just hang out because
the show was being filmed... maybe thats just a misperception on my part, i
wasn't there so who's to say... the presence of the barricade between the
stage and audience while understandable seemed silly with a dots
performance... during hellsville, edward is practically screaming into the
faces of the front row but it still seemed to get no real reaction... just
seemed odd to me...

Perhaps my biggest complaint about the video and the one that can't
really be overlook from a nostalgia point of view was the ommission of so
many songs... all three shows i saw included the following songs in
wonderous full form but were sadly left off the video (my apologies if i
misremember a track or so, it has been about a year and i'm working from
memory)

poppy day
the green gang
just a lifetime
the death of jack the ripper
andromeda suite
citadel

(more?) thats all i remember... however, the performance of 'clockwise'
during the soundcheck in Austin was outstanding as well... so many pleasant
memories... i can't wait for this fall to roll around!

on the positive side, the video does capture the electrifying performance
of 'city of needles (version sirius)' which is not to be missed... i must
admit that when i heard it live the first night i didn't catch the 'sirius'
reference and thought he was saying 'serious' and talking about stepping
across from the portal of youthful enthusiasms to the mundane 'dead' world
of being serious. didn't make as much sense but seemed really poetic...
the second show i finally caught on...

so don't get me wrong, its not a wretched video or anything of the sort, it
just is no substitute for seeing them live... if you missed them last year,
your twice a fool to consider not catching them this year... i'm sure to go
to every show within 4 hours of san antonio so i'm sure i'll see some of you
there...

thanks to soleilmoon for giving us any morsel, however incomplete IMHO...

lysergic

Erik Gibbels <egibbels@gironet.nl>

Hello fellow deviants,

Having seen the video a few times now, I can understand and even agree
with some of the critics on the production.
My biggest disappointment is that highlights like 'Andromeda' and 'the
Saucers' are not on it. Instead a lot of the more softer songs like 'On
high' and 'Destined to repeat' are on it. When they show the overview of
the band from the camera in the back, three quarter of the screen is
black. In the uppercorner you see the band. When a band member plays a
solo, this is not always seen. Edward is most in the picture, Edwin and
Ryan can hardly be seen (although with most concerts they are in the
back). Looking to Edward from the back he really looks like Quasi Modo.
I don't mind about his look, but for a video production they could have
done better. Also the sound is not always good. When at some point in
'Hellsville' Edward is banging on his synth, you can hardly hear it
which makes it look rather silly, even embarrassing.
It is very difficult to make a good live video, and I think the team did
thir best. The stage is rather small and fully occupied by the musicians
and their equipment. The camera men could only move around the stage.

To sum up, if I have people who don't know the Legendary Pink Dots I
will not show them the video because it doesn't show them at their best.
But still I'm very happy with it because every time I see it I can feel
the experience again from my memory, having experienced them various
times myself.

Erik.