Another thing to note in this initial part of the review is that the concert
and the 'live tomato video art' each contain plenty of strobe lighting, for
those who suffer epilepsy.
Their singles chart history to date (October 2000) is as follows :
Dec 93 No.63 Spikee / Dogman Go
Jun 94 No.57 Dark and Long
May 95 No.52 Born Slippy
May 96 No.24 Pearl's Girl
Jul 96 No. 2 Born Slippy (re-mix)
Nov 96 No.22 Pearl's Girl (re-issue)
Dec 96 No.74 Born Slippy (re-entry of re-mix)
Mar 99 No.12 Push Upstairs
Jun 99 No.21 Jumbo
Aug 99 No.17 King of Snake
An anamorphic 16:9 widescreen ratio - something I wasn't expecting, but it's
a boon to see it so well-used for a concert DVD, with no artifacts and clean,
bold, strong colours appearing throughout.
Not quite sure about the average bitrate. The maximum it can be is 10Mb/s.
Few DVDs reach that but this one has sent the bitrate off the scale claiming
an average reading of 10.1Mb/s. Hmmm...
Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Stereo flavours for all, the former providing
a much more impressive performance, as your neighbours will discover. On the
day I'm writing this review it's approaching midnight, so it's safe to say
my amplifier is NOT on full power, but jeez, just think what could be achieved
if it was!
Chapters :
The chaptering is rather odd. There's 12 for the whole concert, but just 9
tracks. This leaves two at the start spread over the first minute which
serve no purpose, plus one at the end for the closing credits.
The track listing as is follows :
1. Juanita/Kiteless
2. Cups
3. Push Upstairs
4. Pearl's Girl
5. Jumbo
6. Shudder/King of Snake
7. Born Slippy Nuxx
8. Rez/Cowgirl
9. Moaner
Subtitles :
There are no subtitles as such, but three languages for the menu options
(English, Welsh and Japanese) and your choice is also used during the credits.
This is rather an odd choice, but then they're not the most conventional band
around.
Extras :
I've already described the Live Tomato Video Art. There are four
minutes (not five, if I want to be pedantic) of Out-takes or rather
concert and soundcheck clips and some very weird stuff indeed.
The Program your own Gig section works very simply but also as
effectively. Basically, each track from the concert, including the accompanying
"Live Tomato Video Art", has been allocated its own title. The selected titles
are then played in the order as programmed. This requires the entire gig to
be on the disc twice, or at least just the music tracks, but it's worth it.
Two bonus tracks, with their own weird occasionally-changing visuals,
Kittens (9 mins) and Rowla (8 mins) are included.
The DVD-ROM material takes up at least 300Mb of hard disc space
and as well as active weblinks, the Keyboard Driven Vision Mixer
(known on as a 'wongizer') and the Dogboy section will make you feel
like you're on some kind of narcotics. A few other items are available in
this section too including audio streams and seemingly a video stream (didn't
work for me though).
Note that when it came to installing the DVD-ROM material, it first tries
to dump the content on your C: drive. I didn't have enough space and thankfully
it allowed me to select another destination, since I thought it was going to
wipe out the remaining 300Mb of space I had left.
Of course, where you want the actually "Everything Everything" program to
go afterwards is something you can specify and be assured it will delete
the original setup program from your hard drive, thus releasing any
previously-hogged space.
Menu :
Subtle coloured-block animation with the sound of wind blowing in the
background. Work that one out. Looks damn cool though.
For £19.99, this DVD actually represents better value than going to
the concert itself. I've tried watching this concert and the accompanying
weird imagery in the dark, but even if I've damaged my eyesight at all it
will have been worth it.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
