gonzothegreat
05-17-2006, 12:02 PM
I'm not quite sure where to stick this review so if the mods want to kick it into another 4m, so be it.
Last week I noticed a Google-ad (a Gad-gle? Ad-oogle?) that mentioned a "live" video concert at certain movie theaters. The details were sparse other than him performing "On an Island" and Floyd material. The nearest theater was two hours away. I figured for the $10 admission price I'd chance it.
Tuesday night I threw on my '94 vintage Division Bell tour shirt and hit the road to Kenosha, WI with my internet-admission ticket in hand. I had high hopes for this concert (Division Bell pun for those of you paying attention...)
It was a big letdown but I still enjoyed myself.
What was the biggest disappointment? I was expecting a *full-length* concert instead of a video for the single "On an Island", a making of video and a relatively short BBC-shot concert video (03/07/06 Mermaid Theater). No Echoes. No Fat Old Sun. Arrggghhh!
Next disappointment - the sound. Before last night, I'd never had a chance to listen critically to a "modern" movie theater sound system. This wasn't some ancient theater. It had stadium seating and the required digital projector (more on that later). THE SOUND SUCKED BIG TIME! I swear my living room TV has better audio! No bass and I think the audio cut out above 11k. Extremely honky midrange. If I'd known the audio was going to be this awful, I'd have asked for a hearing impaired headset and brought a pair of good isolating cans. They didn't even turn the volume up to a reasonable level. I may not be into auditory blood-letting but good music gets cranked. With every note, my brain kept reminding me how this guitar riff or that bass-line sounded on my home system or at the Chicago Gilmour show.
So after I accepted that the sound was not going to be even remotely concert-grade, I sat back, took a big swig of soda and tried to enjoy myself.
The video was obviously shot in HD. I could see lots of detail on the well-lit shots (mic screens, the various dings on Gilmour's black strat and such) but the low light audience pans were a blurred muddy mess. No detail and the black levels were way off. I'm not into high-end video but even I could tell the blacks were nowhere near my ancient Sony monitor/TV. Maybe they never bother to calibrate it? The bright whites were OK but I could usually see screendooring on large patches. I believe theater projectors are DLP/micromirror devices - correct?
So even thought the video and the sound were sub-par, I still enjoyed the show. Lots of close-ups of Dave's guitar work.
Final verdict? It was worth the $10 admission (plus $5 popcorn and $3.50 soda) but I'd like to see the video on a nice plasma/LCD and hear the audio on my home system. I expect this video to eventually reach DVD so that will give me time to upgrade my video system.
Still bummed about Echos... :tears:
Last week I noticed a Google-ad (a Gad-gle? Ad-oogle?) that mentioned a "live" video concert at certain movie theaters. The details were sparse other than him performing "On an Island" and Floyd material. The nearest theater was two hours away. I figured for the $10 admission price I'd chance it.
Tuesday night I threw on my '94 vintage Division Bell tour shirt and hit the road to Kenosha, WI with my internet-admission ticket in hand. I had high hopes for this concert (Division Bell pun for those of you paying attention...)
It was a big letdown but I still enjoyed myself.
What was the biggest disappointment? I was expecting a *full-length* concert instead of a video for the single "On an Island", a making of video and a relatively short BBC-shot concert video (03/07/06 Mermaid Theater). No Echoes. No Fat Old Sun. Arrggghhh!
Next disappointment - the sound. Before last night, I'd never had a chance to listen critically to a "modern" movie theater sound system. This wasn't some ancient theater. It had stadium seating and the required digital projector (more on that later). THE SOUND SUCKED BIG TIME! I swear my living room TV has better audio! No bass and I think the audio cut out above 11k. Extremely honky midrange. If I'd known the audio was going to be this awful, I'd have asked for a hearing impaired headset and brought a pair of good isolating cans. They didn't even turn the volume up to a reasonable level. I may not be into auditory blood-letting but good music gets cranked. With every note, my brain kept reminding me how this guitar riff or that bass-line sounded on my home system or at the Chicago Gilmour show.
So after I accepted that the sound was not going to be even remotely concert-grade, I sat back, took a big swig of soda and tried to enjoy myself.
The video was obviously shot in HD. I could see lots of detail on the well-lit shots (mic screens, the various dings on Gilmour's black strat and such) but the low light audience pans were a blurred muddy mess. No detail and the black levels were way off. I'm not into high-end video but even I could tell the blacks were nowhere near my ancient Sony monitor/TV. Maybe they never bother to calibrate it? The bright whites were OK but I could usually see screendooring on large patches. I believe theater projectors are DLP/micromirror devices - correct?
So even thought the video and the sound were sub-par, I still enjoyed the show. Lots of close-ups of Dave's guitar work.
Final verdict? It was worth the $10 admission (plus $5 popcorn and $3.50 soda) but I'd like to see the video on a nice plasma/LCD and hear the audio on my home system. I expect this video to eventually reach DVD so that will give me time to upgrade my video system.
Still bummed about Echos... :tears: