Go-Go's-From Central Park (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Getting Ready; Let's Go; Here Come The Go-Go's; History Featurette-In Retrospect
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	66:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Dave Diomedi
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Belinda Carlisle Charlotte Caffey Jane Wiedlin Kathy Valentine Gina Schock
Case	Click
RPI	$39.95	Music	Go-Go's

    It has been 17 years since the girls from the Go-Go's put out an album. In that time they have all followed their dreams, performed separately in other bands, gone solo and some have found the time to have kids. Gina even had enough time to help with the audio and video supervision of this disc.

    The live show that is presented on this disc was recorded at Self Magazine's "The Mind, Body & Self Festival" at the Ramsey Playfield in Central Park N.Y. It features the always lovely Belinda, Charlotte, Jane, Kathy and Gina knocking out their punk tunes for just over 60 minutes. For anyone unfamiliar with the band, they are D*** fast with all their songs and it could be thought of as one of their trademarks. While the songs featured here are fast, age has caught up with the girls somewhat and slightly mellowed their tunes.

    There is a great collection of songs on the disc which comes complete with Dolby Digital, DTS and PCM soundtracks to cater for all tastes. Once you get your hands on this disc, jump to Track 14 (Our Lips Are Sealed), turn up the sound level until you get a nice headwind from the front speakers, sit back and enjoy. Ahhh heaven . . .

Video

    The transfer is presented in its original made-for-cable-TV aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is therefore non 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is quite clear and whilst not razor sharp it contains nice definition. A typical example of the clear video can be seen at 9:20 or 32:04 where focus is maintained from the crowd in the foreground, across the stage and beyond Gina at the back on drums to the backstage curtain. Occasionally it does have a softer appearance caused by the stage lighting. At 17:31 there is a brief sun-flare when the stage lighting reflects off the camera lens. The presentation has only limited shadow detail and there is no low level noise.

    The colours were bright and true to life with no irregularities. The stage lighting ensured all areas maintained enough brightness to produce a visually appealing and rather rich setup, draping the stage and crowd in blues, greens, pinks and reds.

    There were no MPEG artefacts or aliasing to be seen anywhere during the concert - very well done. In fact, I did not notice any film artefacts either, suggesting that the concert was captured on video.

    The only problem I really had with this disc was the exclusion of any subtitles or lyric tracks. I was very rusty with the words to most songs and will admit to having to resort to mumbling to a few.

    Whilst the disc is marked as RSDL-formatted, I could not find any layer change. I suspect that their live performance was on one layer whilst the Special Features were placed on the other eliminating any layer transition problems.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This is a magnificent audio transfer, but misses out on the reference quality moniker.

    There are three audio tracks on this DVD. The default is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There is also an English DTS 5.1 and a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. I listened to all three tracks for "Head Over Heels", "Our Lips Are Sealed", "We Got The Beat" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" and again in DTS for the entire disc. All three were great recordings with their subtle but noticeable differences. The Dolby Digital track contained more echo through the surrounds and sounded fine until I switched to the DTS track and then it became more apparent when switching back. It should be noted that the DTS track was recorded at a much lower volume level than the other two and also contained less bass overall.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times. Personally, I would have preferred if Belinda's microphone volume level was increased slightly to lift it above the general sound level of the instruments. It was not a problem caused by the transfer as all 3 soundtracks suffered the same fate and is most likely how it sounded live on the day. Overall, the miking could have been improved to pick up more of the vocals to balance the sounds.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer. At 28:04 Belinda is distracted by Jane when something funny happens to the right of the camera's focus and misses a few words while having a chuckle. The camera then moves across to see what all the fuss is about but by then it's too late to see what was so funny.

    Both the Dolby Digital and DTS tracks provided good surround use and you were placed acoustically midway through the crowd providing a truly enveloping experience. In between each song, the crowd roars which adds to the effect and quite often you can hear someone calling out one of the band member's names. The rear left of the crowd were definitely the rowdiest on the day and at 8:44 and 12:09 you can hear a girl calling out BELINDA which sets the crowd off again.

    The subwoofer was active during the entire performance, and placed an excellent bottom end on the sound when required.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Behind The Scenes

    This section lasts for 29:20 and is in the same aspect ratio as the presentation. It is broken down into the following menu sections;

• Getting Ready
• Let's Go
• Here Come The Go-Go's
• History

    Although they are listed as separate options on the menu, they are all part of the main Behind The Scenes Featurette and broken into different tracks for easy access.

In Retrospect

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Nothing

    Both versions are identical in content with only NTSC / PAL differences remaining. I was unable to ascertain if the Region 1 disc contained a subtitle track, but as all other features are identical I would suggest that this is not the case anyway.

    This is a fun disc and a great concert performance presented on a quality DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    All audio tracks are superb but DTS wins by a nose and "shows" its finer subtle qualities across the entire performance.

    The extras are very satisfactory, and we get to see how nervous the band gets before a performance. It is also a nice insight into the people themselves rather than simply seeing their on-stage persona. If you are a fan of the Go-Go's or enjoy this style of music then this DVD is a must have!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall