Go-Betweens, The-That Striped Sunlight Sound (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Booklet CD-Live At The Tivoli, 6.8.05 Featurette-Q + A - Brisbane, August 6th 2005
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	148:44 (Case: 145)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Taiyo Films EMI Music	Starring	Robert Forster Grant McLennan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    They have a song featured in the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) 2001 list of the 30 greatest Australian songs of all time, yet few in their home country have even heard of them. In what is a damning indictment on mainstream media and its infatuation with pre-packaged pop rubbish and their habit of placing celebrity over quality, how we treat some of our professional musicians, singers and songwriters in this country is appalling. I did a quick straw poll around the office where I work, asking those who A) had heard of The Go-Betweens and B) to then name any song they had recorded. Out of eight people, not one person could name a single song, only three had heard of them at all and only two had an idea they were actually an Australian band, though one of those didn't really count because he thought they were an all-girl group in the mould of The Go-Go's. In fact, given his penchant for music from the likes of Bananarama and The Spice Girls, I'm sure he was thinking of The Go-Go's. I would have thought at the very least that someone would be familiar with their 1988 singalong hit Streets Of Your Town, a song which did make mainstream radio or their 1983 offering Cattle and Cane, which made the previously mentioned APRA list in 2001.

    What is even sadder is that as I prepare this review I have learnt that The Go-Betweens, a band formed back in Brisbane in 1977 when guitarists and songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan got together, no longer exist following the incredibly sad and untimely death of McLennan on 6 May 2006 of a suspected heart attack. He was just 48.

    Despite the lack of recognition in Australia, The Go-Betweens earned some amazing critical acclaim abroad (a familiar tale if you consider the plight of such acts as The Triffids). Consider the quote from Village Voice critic Robert Christgau who once confidently proclaimed “Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are the greatest song-writing partnership working today”, while British rock mag NME describe them as "a real pop group. A group haunted by the ghosts of long-lost lovers, musty attic rooms, and Cash and Dylan on Nashville Skyline". So you get some idea of the esteem in which the duo were held, particularly in Europe. Joining front men Forster and McLennan over the years have been many musicians including Lissa Ross (drums), Tim Mustapha (drums), Lindy Morrison (drums), Robert Vickers (bass), Amanda Brown (violin, oboe), John Wilsteed (bass), Glenn Thompson (drums) and Adele Pickvance (bass).

   As a result of their popularity overseas The Go-Betweens toured numerous times during the 1980s, but never could quite crack the Australian mainstream market. After recording six albums, Forster and McLennan disbanded in December 1989, each forging solo careers. In 2000, much to the delight of their legion of passionate fans, they reformed the band and recorded the album The Friends of Rachel Worth. Amazingly, after years of toiling away some recognition at home finally came about in 2005. In October of that year, their new album Oceans Apart won an ARIA award for Best Adult Contemporary Album.

    The DVD part of this release (a CD is also included and is discussed in the extras section) contains two parts. There is a concert recorded at Brisbane's Tivoli Theatre on 6 August 2005 that runs for 70:54. The second part of the DVD contains a session called The Acoustic Stories and was recorded in Brisbane on 7 August 2005. This part runs for 77:50.

The Concert (70:54)

    Fans of the band will love the concert set list with songs featured from throughout their 27 year existence. Recorded in their hometown at Brisbane's Tivoli Theatre, the set includes tracks from their early days right through to some of the newer material from their Oceans Apart album. Robert Forster, ever the stylish dag, is wonderfully engaging with the audience and entertains with plenty of between-song banter. The guitar playing of both Forster and McLennan, accompanied by their solid backing band is excellent, though I thought the vocals wavered a little on occasion, not quite reaching the vocal range of decades past. Songs such as Clouds, Too Much Of One Thing, The Clock, Here Comes The City and of course Streets Of Your Town are played with intimacy and enthusiasm for both the music and the audience. The adoring crowd return the sentiment and join in on many of the tracks, making for a pretty fun filled and enjoyable show.

The Acoustic Stories (77:50)

    The Acoustic Stories will be great for fans who want to know more about the stories behind the songs. Sitting in a small room somewhere in Brisbane on a Sunday afternoon, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan together with their guitars tell the band’s history while playing several songs from the periods they discuss (including Lee Remick, Cattle and Cane and Here Comes The City). There is lots of information here that fans will devour.

    There are 27 tracks listed below. The first 16 are from the concert and the remaining 11 are from the Acoustic Stories feature.

Video

    This is reasonable looking widescreen transfer that is not as pristine or sharp as many of the modern recordings I have seen lately, which is a little surprising considering it was shot just last year. Overall it is a little lacklustre and flat which is a bit disappointing.

     It is presented in an aspect of 1.85:1 and is also 16x9 enhanced.

    Clarity and detail are probably the biggest problem here with an image that is not as sharp as it could probably be. Thankfully, despite this there is not a trace of any edge enhancement and while things get a little gloomy on occasion there are not too many problems with shadow detail. Grain is absent and there is no low level noise.

    With an extremely modest and natural looking lighting rig used at the Tivoli Theatre, the colour palette isn't affected by the usual problems associated with so many concert shows. Everything is reasonably colourful, though a little muted and occasionally a bit dark.

    There are no compression artefacts present and no video artefacts of any sort. Given the nature and youth of the source material, this is not unexpected.

    No subtitles are available on this disc, which is a bit of a shame.

    This disc is dual layered but I was unable to detect the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Sadly, just like the somewhat lacklustre video, this is an equally uninspiring audio soundtrack.

    There is only one audio soundtrack available and it's not an immersive surround track by any stretch. What we get here is a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at a bitrate of 224 Kb/s. The soundtrack for both the Concert and the Acoustic Stories is identical.

    The first problem you'll notice is that it has been mastered at a very low level, meaning you will need to crank it up a good dozen dB or so to make it sound even slightly realistic or entertaining. Unfortunately this is not something that affects the menu audio which comes across just fine at a more normal listening volume. What this means is that switching back to the main menu from the concert after you have wound up the volume you run the risk of permanent damage to either your ears or speakers - so be warned.

    Overall the track lacks that certain punch and clarity so evident in a really good music disc. It is a little dull at times with some flat sounding vocals and the separation of instruments is certainly not as pronounced as it should be. This is not the sort of track that you will return to again and again just to listen to how good it sounds. You will really need to be a fan to get the most out of this soundtrack, which is a shame because the source material deserves so much more.

    There is obviously no surround channel or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Introduction

Menu Animation & Audio

Booklet

    An eight page booklet with a couple of full colour photos, the full credits for both the concert and the acoustic stories plus several paragraphs from Robert Forster explaining exactly what the Striped Sunlight Sound is.

CD - Live At The Tivoli, 6.8.05

    Now this is an excellent extra. Want to listen to the concert found on the DVD in your car or personal hi-fi system, but only have a CD player? Well you can with this CD that is virtually an exact replica of the DVD concert (some of the between song banter has been trimmed down to get the CD in under 74 minutes).

Featurette - Q + A - Brisbane, August 6th 2005

    Running for just 4:20 this is not the sort of Question and Answer session I was expecting. Rather than a lengthy session with the band members, where they answer all sorts of questions from an audience of inquisitive fans, this is a Q&A with the fans! Long-time Go-Betweens fans are posed questions before a show, such as why they love the music and how they were first introduced to it. A bit of fluff really.

    The Region 1 and UK Region 2 discs are identical to this release.

    Long time Australian indie rockers The Go-Betweens are sadly no more following the all-too-early death of founding member Grant McLennan in May 2006. As a result this is likely to be the last ever DVD release from one of Australia's most underrated and certainly most under-appreciated musical acts.

    While the video and audio transfers are a little lacklustre when compared to a top-shelf release,  the overall packaging and decision to include the concert on both a DVD and CD is excellent and a welcome surprise.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall