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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Deftones-Live in Hawaii (Music in High Places) (2002)

Deftones-Live in Hawaii (Music in High Places) (2002)

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Released 24-Sep-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Featurette-Getting There
Interviews-Cast
TV Spots
Featurette-Location Footage
Music Highlights-Just The Music
Biographies-Cast
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 2002
Running Time 50:54
RSDL / Flipper RSDL Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Alan Carter
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Chino Moreno
Abe Cunningham
Chi Cheng
Frank Delgado
Stephen Carpenter
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI ? Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles French
German
Spanish
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Deftones Live in Hawaii is another in the Music In High Places documentaries. In case you aren't aware of the previous titles, this series is essentially a music/travel documentary that features various artists travelling to exotic locations around the world. The idea is for them to meet and immerse themselves in the local culture and play some of their material in acoustic mode.

    Hang on a second, didn't I say far-flung exotic locations and acoustic material? Last time I looked, Hawaii was still part of the good old United States of America, and with the hard-rocker Deftones hailing from California, they really didn't have all that far to travel to get to this exotic and ancient locale. And an acoustic performance would most likely be quite a challenge to the Deftones, since they are most certainly a band that needs a small power-station supply of electricity in order to perform...aren't they? Raw, unbridled passion and power coupled with heaps of watts would be a good tagline for their next album. Seeing how they handled the unplugged mode was going to be quite amusing. Well, it turns out that they cheated a little. They do play a few acoustic numbers, but the majority of the songs on offer are from the impromptu live stage performance that they put on for some locals. Complete with everything electric and lots of wattage, this certainly doesn't qualify as acoustic. In between the few songs they play (there are only nine played during the show), the boys get shown around the usual tourist-type areas of Hawaii by a couple of ranger-style guides. One scene sees the band getting a native flora lesson. Having the intricacies of a certain noxious weed explained to the bored musos when it is fairly obvious that all they want to see is the lava is quite funny. In fact, the scenes involving the steaming red molten rock are quite an eye-opener, even though the band cannot get as close to it as they would like.

    This documentary only has a running time of fifty one minutes. Normally I would say that this is a little too brief, but in this case it's about right. I could only handle the guys talking about lava and how cool it all was (I think the pun would be lost on them) for so long.

    For the record, the following songs are performed:

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Track Listing

1. Headup
2. Knife Party
3. Digital Bath
4. One Weak
5. The Boy's Republic
6. Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
7. Around The Fur
8. Feiticeira
9. Change (In The House Of Flies)

Transfer Quality

Video

    Despite the lack of an anamorphic transfer, the video on offer in the other Music In High Places series discs I have seen is usually pretty good. This disc is no exception. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is pretty sharp all round with problems only arising due to inconsistencies in the source material which throws up a few poorly focused shots (11:21 is a classic example of focus and aperture being all over the place). Shadow detail is excellent and grain is minimal. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are usually the high point of this series, but this is one area where the video is let down. The leaden skies and rain of the tropical island do not help convey any sense of real vibrancy. Skin tones are perhaps a little red on occasion (maybe the guys were just out of breath after doing some exercise!). Blacks were solid and deep.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. A little aliasing pops up here and there on the usual culprits such as the fine lines of some of the band's equipment. It is neither distracting nor evident in vast quantities. Being shot on digital video tape, the source is clean of any imperfections.

    There are three subtitle streams available, but strangely none are in English.

    This is a dual layered disc with no perceptible layer change. I must therefore assume that the documentary is on one layer and all the other bits are on the second layer.

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

Audio

    There are two audio soundtracks to choose from. The first is a Dolby Digital 2.0 offering, whilst the second is a full bitrate Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Both are adequate without being stunning. The surround track offers an enveloping experience from pretty much the opening credits to the close, but it really doesn't add much to the overall experience.

    The dialogue is clear at all times and there are no audio sync problems. Some of the vocals are pretty difficult to understand, but I think that is pretty much the idea.

    There is pretty much constant surround channel use throughout. During each of the songs, the rears see plenty of instruments and the like, while during the quieter moments when some of the more traditional Hawaiian sounds are played, we get treated to some mild drum beats as sound effects from the rears. Perhaps a little overdone and obvious at times - if you find this all-enveloping experience sounding somewhat contrived, settle for the Dolby Digital 2.0 track.

   The subwoofer is used quite dramatically during the lava flow scenes, and is very much in evidence during the plugged-in songs.

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

Extras

Featurette Behind-The-Scenes

    Running for 6:59 minutes,  and presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, this is not 16x9 enhanced. The most interesting bit of this is when the band state that for an acoustic performance, the producers picked the wrong band!  A fair chunk of behind-the-scenes stuff is on show, but a significant amount of the footage is also repeated from the main feature.

Featurette - Getting There

    A 4:18 minute featurette. Shows snippets and brief highlights with no voice-over. It seems like an excuse to bunch together all the unused footage and call it an extra. Presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 this is not 16x9 enhanced.

Interviews-Cast

    Two sets of interviews (a term I use loosely), the first featuring Chi, Abe, Frank, and Stephen (11:11 minutes) and the second lead singer Chino going solo (5:23 minutes). The guys are really just waffling about their experience and basically revealing just how much of a waste of time they all think it is.

    Both interviews are presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 without 16x9 enhancement. Again there is some material here that is repeated in the main feature.

TV Spots

    A 52 second collection of brief promo spots featuring the band advertising their upcoming showing for the Music In High Places series. If you want to see how disinterested and uncomfortable-looking a rock band can be in front of the camera, watch this one.

Featurette - Location Footage

    Running for 9:49 minutes, this is really another chance to use up some footage that wasn't in the main feature. It is a horticultural lesson at first with the guys being shown around by a national park type ranger. They then venture into some of the volcanic regions which becomes a little more interesting, but there really isn't much here that we all haven't seen on Getaway in the past, and again much of it is repeated from the main documentary.

Music Highlights

    The ability to just play the songs featured in the main documentary. The songs can be selected individually or there is a Play All option.

Biographies-Cast

    Comprehensive biographic details for the band, running to several pages. You will probably learn more about the band and what they stand for from this summary than in the entire 50 minutes of the documentary.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Like the other Music In High Places discs, this one is identical to the Region 1 release.

Summary

    Something just didn't quite gel with this release. For me, the Music In High Places series is an effort to see some cultures we don't normally see in far-flung corners of the globe. To see a bunch of disinterested hard-rockers wander around while local guides tried to impart some of the history of the place onto them came across as contrived and forced. Surely there must have been a better band to choose than these guys? They really just wanted to see the lava and nothing else.

    The video is on par with the other releases in this series, being better than average despite the lack of 16x9 enhancement. Marks are taken off for the occasional poor quality of the source, which at times looks like the camera operator had had enough of these guys as well.

    The audio is average for a Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

    The extras are numerous, but as with the other discs I have seen from this series, tend to repeat a great deal of the footage that is already in the main documentary. Marks have been deducted for this.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Darren Walters (It's . . . just the vibe . . . of my bio)
Monday, November 04, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDLoewe Xemix 5106DO, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationHarmon/Kardon AVR7000.
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

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