Mudvayne-(L)ive (D)osage 50-L.I.V.E. in Peoria (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo Music Video-Death Blooms-Director's Cut Video Version Featurette-Behind The Scenes-4 clips on camcorder of the band crusing around Peoria
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	66:36 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Phil Tuckett
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Matthew McDonough Greg Tribbett Chad Gray Ryan Martinie
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$29.95	Music	MuDvAyNe

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.70:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

"If I soak my hands in other's blood am I sick,
If I wash my hands in other's blood am I sick,
If I drench myself in other's blood am I sick,
If I bathe myself in other's blood"

From: "Nothing to Gein" (Ed Gein = serial killer)

    The band members are Kud (looking like a refugee from a Mad Max movie) on vocals, Ryknow (the orange-haired punk) on 5-string bass, Gurry (the demonic one) plays flying V rhythm guitar and sPaG, who looks normal (!), plays drums. Note that the names have just been changed in celebration of their forthcoming album. The stage persona apparently developed spontaneously over the years and no doubt enhance the transforming process of the music (it's somewhat reminiscent of the tantric images of Buddhism - the fiendish devils supposed to scare and carve the badness away).

    The live concert was filmed at the Madison Theatre, Peoria on June 14, 2001. The DVD features 13 songs, principally from their debut LD 50 album and is interspersed with backstage and pre-performance footage of the band. There's obviously a pharmaceutical influence in the band - LD 50 stands for lethal dose : 50% and is used to describe the dosage of a substance needed to kill half of the unfortunate recipients. Hung high above the stage there is an enormous scored tablet, the flashing spotlight highlighting the inscriptions - MuDvAyNe and LD:50. The musical experience of MuDvAyNe is likened to the evolution of mankind as experienced in 2001:A Space Odyssey when the monolith appears to the primitive, then 20th Century man. Like the LD50 concept it is thought that exposure to MuDvAyNe's music may well have a terminal effect on an unlucky 50% whilst the remainder blow their f***ing minds and evolve to a higher plane. Kubrick is alleged to be a favoured director of members of the band with A Clockwork Orange gaining a special mention.

    There's no doubting the musical talent of the band members and the considerable energy generated by the band and audience is frightening - no doubt if Genghis Khan was alive today MuDvAyNe would feature high on his list of favoured entertainers. For this unfortunate reviewer, whose musical taste includes the likes of Rammstein, The Stranglers and who revelled in the revolution of the New Wave movement, the culture of MuDvAyNe overdoses my limited comprehension and puts me in the toxic 50% - so long and thanks for all the fish!

Video

    The video and bonus extras are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.70:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced.

    The video was slightly below average in sharpness and subject to a fair amount of grain, presumably to enhance the raw feel of the presentation. Similarly, shadow detail was very limited in stage shots but more evident in auditorium footage. There was considerable low level noise in some of the stage backdrops (e.g. at 24:50).

    At least the stage show wasn't bedevilled with the usual blue-red rinse; green and white floods were used with good effect. The rendition of colours was reasonable but hard to judge as extensive use was made of video effects including pastel coloration and posterization. There was also frequent video oversaturation. There was a mild level of chroma noise evident but this was also hard to spot due to the coarseness of the grain.

    There was mild aliasing evident throughout but this wasn't distracting. There were no film artefacts.

    There were no subtitles which is a great shame as I couldn't decipher many of the lyrics apart from the references to death and the usual expletives. Judging by the excerpt from "Nothing to Gein" featured above I guess you're not missing much but if you really want to know you could check out AZ lyrics.

    The disc is a single layered, single sided DVD-5.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There were two audio tracks, a default stereo LPCM 48/16 track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 version. I listened to all of the surround mix and sampled the stereo version during each song. Both tracks were very good mixes and all the threads of the performance were easy to follow. The surround mix, as you would expect, gave greater depth to the performance but in some ways I found the more 2-dimensional LPCM track less unpleasant to listen to.

    The dialogue and lyrics (when sung) were in thick American and I found them difficult to understand - much of the vocally chundered lyrics were growled or screamed and pretty much indecipherable. These observations are more a feature of the performance than any technical shortcomings.

    As far as I could judge there were no lapses in audio sync.

    This music and culture is very much a specialist area and would appeal to a specific audience. Whereas the Chilis and Rammstein both have melody as a feature of their music, this was largely absent in MuDvAyNe's compositions. It would make a great accompaniment to some of the gothic horror movies (Dig is featured on Resident Evil) or maybe Dante's Inferno as it really conveys a heavy, metallic, grunge feeling of despair and torment.

    The surrounds were very effectively used to increase the soundfield depth by well-mixed audience and reverberation feedback and had occasional special effect use in projecting the vocals around the soundstage.

    The subwoofer chugged away continuously throughout the set enhancing mostly bass guitar but I also thought there was some presence of the kick-drum.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Biography

    10 pages of notes about the band and their theory on evolution and change.

Behind Scenes

    6:56 total of footage from the mosh pit and the band cruising around Peoria in their beat-up Chevy, visiting the local coffee house and hub-cap dealer and getting pulled over by the cops in an obviously staged search.

Photo Gallery

    Six half-page shots of the band presented in random order.

Music Video

    Director's cut of "Death Blooms" running to 4:32 of footage of an old lady getting buried on the beach and her evolution beyond.

    The R2 and R1 versions appear to be identical to our multi-region R4 version.

    The video quality is pretty poor but appropriate for the genre of music.

    The audio quality is good and both stereo and surround listeners each benefit from a well-presented soundtrack.

    The extras are basic but likely to appeal to the group's fans. I would have liked to have seen some lyrics and a discography included.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall