Review of Pearl Jam: Touring Band 2000

Introduction

There`s not much I can say in this introduction really, other than that Pearl Jam are an American rock band, who were amazingly successful in the 90s, outselling most other bands, and gaining a huge following.

I hadn`t had much experience of their music until this DVD dropped through my letterbox for me to review, but I`ve a wide taste in music that includes rock and heavy metal, so I looked forward to seeing the band in action.

Video

The video is presented in full-frame and really isn`t very impressive.

The picture is very grainy and suffers badly from being shot under the very bright lights on stage as members of the band have a "glow" around them. This concert footage is best described as only being marginally better than VHS tape.

The supplementary material is better, and is also full-frame apart from one of the two music videos which comes in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen.

As far as visuals go, this is a rock band, on stage, playing songs in front of an adoring audience. There`s no big fancy stage show, just the band standing there, singing and playing etc.

Audio

The sound comes in a choice Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital Stereo.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is pretty good and the music blasts from all the speakers, filling the room nicely. There is plenty of range and power in the soundtrack (which incidentally is a little louder than most other DVDs, so be prepared for a surprise if you`ve got your amp turned up when you play this disc…) and the music and lyrics are well reproduced.

The bonus footage and music videos feature Dolby Digital Stereo sound.

Features

Extras include various video montages from the tour, a "Matt Cam" which is a camera fixed on the drummer through three songs and two music videos – "Do The Evolution" and "Oceans" - all of which is accessed through static menus.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains a four page leaflet detailing the track listing.

Conclusion

Overall, not being familiar with Pearl Jam`s other work, I can’t judge whether this is a good or bad performance by their standards, but the music certainly sounded very good to me. Music releases are hard to rate, as everyone has a different taste, but as someone who likes rock music, I quite liked Pearl Jam and will now be on the lookout for some CDs to listen to as well.

The video quality is poor, but the sound quality is good and there are a few extras on offer to complete the package.