Queensryche-Live Evolution (2001) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Behind The Scenes Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo Web Links DVD Credits Interviews-Cast Easter Egg-Multi-angle video of Queen Of The Reich
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	97:44
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (69:06)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Michael Drumm
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Geoff Tate Michael Wilton Scott Rockfield Eddie Jackson Kelly Gray Pamela Moore
Case	Click
RPI	$39.95	Music	Queensryche

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

"Your eyes all night with flame as the picture burns. I hear the screams from long ago.
They cry remember, blood-red streaks on velvet throats at night."

    Queensryche (pronounced queens-rike) are a five-piece progressive rock band from Seattle. They were formed in 1982 by opera-trained vocalist Geoff Tate, guitarists Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo, together with Eddie Jackson on bass and Scott Rockenfield on drums. Their current line-up is missing keynote guitarist Chris DeGarmo, who was briefly replaced by producer Kelly Gray who featured on this Live Evolution DVD. Additional backing string orchestration is provided by Michael Kamen and the track Suite Sister Mary features reprise vocals from the luscious Pamela Moore.

    The band converged on the Moore Theatre, Seattle in July 2001 for a split set spread over 2 nights, featuring key songs from the previous 20 years. The set was broken down into 4 'suites' with songs from the Operation:Mindcrime album taking pride of place. The music could best be described as dark, dealing with the desolate, the unhappy and the unfulfilled - there's no catchy tunes here or optimistic outlook. The style of music has evolved from 'metal' to more progressive rock, whilst Geoff Tate's vocals have moderated in range and intensity with the passage of time. The more metallic influences of Rush or Iron Maiden have also been moderated with some of the intricacies and art-rock of Pink Floyd. There are many undertones to the music and I'm sure that the band represent many things to many people. Although denying any fascist link by changing their Queen of the Reich (kingdom) derived name to Queensryche, there is no doubting their appeal to the white supremacist lobby - there was much black garb on stage, adorned with shiny silver and the occasional Maltese cross but not a black face to be seen in the crowd - I guess the music is antithesis to rap culture! I don't know what the overall message is (there probably isn't one), but I found it interesting to view the absence of grey, the quasi-religious, ritualistic overtures and the absence of hope - too much time on the Dark side of the Force methinks!

    Onto the subject of this review - the Moore Theatre doesn't look a large venue and apparently only held 1300 people on this occasion but it is a superb showcase for this production. Quite simply this is one of the most professionally produced shows I have seen - the lighting, symmetry and sound mix are, for me, just about as good as it gets. The band played a superb and polished set but lacked, I feel, a real passion for the performance - maybe there was too much anxiety about playing some of the old and unfamiliar material, maybe too much rehearsal or maybe they were feeling the loss of synastry with long time guitarist Chris DeGarmo. For whatever reason, the show took a while to warm up and didn't really sizzle until the appearance of Pamela Moore - I haven't found out much about this girl but she's got a hell of a voice and it really melds well with Tate's. Overall, I found the set to drag a little (too much of the same), and whilst Tate's vocals and the guitarists were impressive, somehow they lacked the brilliance and glittering chrome of the resplendent light show.

Video

    The video is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The superb clarity and sharpness of the transfer suggested digital video camera work but I am unable to confirm this. The blacks were rich and sumptuous, shadow detail was excellent and there was no level noise.

    The imaginative and varied lightshow was very well rendered by the transfer. Colours were rich and clean and there was no chroma noise.

    Only an eagle-eyed fan or an obsessive reviewer would have any adverse comment about the encoding process but for the anally retentive there is an absolute minimum of aliasing on microphone pop shields and strings. There is also moderate pixelization in some of the distant shots of the drum kit at 92:36 in the 'Queen..' encore and inconspicuous macro-blocking can be seen in some of the frame borders (eg 37:39). The feature was video-derived, hence there were no film artefacts, but there was a frame pause/dropout at 40:20.

    There were no subtitles - a huge drawback as there are no lyric sheets included and the songs are not easily decipherable.

    The disc is RSDL formatted with an unobtrusive layer change occurring just before Suite Sister Mary at 69:06.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are 2 audio tracks, the default Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps) and a Dolby Digital 5.1 offering at 384 kbps. The quality of the Dolby Digital tracks was good with satisfactory rendition of the electric instrumentation. The 2.0 track was barely adequate and lost out on some of the resolution and clarity of the other track.

    The recording quality of vocals was good but, as is normal with this genre of music, clarity of diction is lost in the impassioned singing - suffice it to say that I could understand more of Rammstein's German lyrics than I could from this recording.

    There were no problems noted with the audio synchronisation

    The surround channels were used effectively and entirely appropriately to recreate the ambience of the live set with no gimmicky blasts from the rear.

    The subwoofer was also used entirely appropriately throughout the performance to augment the surround sound without drawing attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Biography

    7 pages of notes on the band's history by Paul Gargano.

Interviews

Photo Gallery

    21 stills of low to medium quality of band members.

Credits

    4 pages worth.

Behind The Scenes

    3:21 of the usual backstage and setting up stuff.

Easter Egg

    Although there are reputed to be 4 'Hidden Features', I could find just the one, a multi-angle rendered 5:43 duration clip of 'Queen of The Reich' with Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. This is accessed from the main menu - press left arrow from 'Special Features' which highlights the green orb in the Tri-Reich, and then press 'Play' or 'Enter'.

    The video quality is excellent, though loses it for some reason during the encores, which prevents it from reaching reference status.

    The audio quality is very good, the Dolby Digital 5.1 rendition being the clear winner on quality.

    The extras are very worthwhile, although we could have usefully benefited from some lyrics either onscreen or in a booklet.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall