DVD Review: Lou Reed - Berlin

A friend of mine is a Lou Reed fan. I asked him if he'd like to come over and view this DVD with me, thinking that perhaps he could furnish me with a few tidbits of information which would assist me in writing this review. He wasn't too keen. "You won't like it," he told me. Apparently it wasn't my "kind of thing". He went on to say that it was Reed's most unaccessible album and that he couldn't understand why Lou Reed had resurrected and toured it.

So, as you can imagine, I approached this DVD with a certain amount of trepidation. And you know what? I reckon my friend was thinking of the wrong album. Surely he was referring to "Metal Machine Music" which was a double-album of guitar feedback loops (and didn't I hear somewhere that this has now been arranged as an orchestral piece?). Anyway, I really couldn't see what my friend's problem with "Berlin" was.

Sure, it's a bleak piece subject-wise, dealing as it does with the inevitable self-destruction of two drug addicts, Jim and Caroline. However, the music is classic Lou Reed and as a performance piece I found it highly engaging.

The visuals of the band on stage are punctuated with specially-shot film footage depicting the characters in the story. This works very effectively as it takes it away from being an ordinary concert video. The camera also gives us some very interesting angles. It seems at times like we're up there on stage with Lou Reed and his band, moving between them and behind them. What we don't get are irrelevant shots of the audience enjoying themselves. That may be all well and good on an AC/DC live video, but here it's really not needed and frankly the film is all the better for it.

Reed and his band - led by guitarist Steve Hunter (who also played back on the original 1973 album) - are joined on stage by a string section, a brass section and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the sound is magnificient.

Reed hardly seems to touch his guitar on the first few songs, but as things progress he plays some incredible solos and duets with Hunter. I'd quite forgotten what a good guitarist he is.

I'm not going to do a song by song breakdown. Let's just say that it's a great performance from all concerned. Having the Brooklyn Youth Chorus along for the ride was a stroke of genius, especially in those somewhat disturbing moments in the narrative when the children's distress at losing their mother is conveyed.

I'd say this was an essential purchase for all Lou Reed fans and those of the Velvet Underground too (seeing as some Velvets songs had been re-worked as songs in "Berlin"). It also shows quite nicely what a music film can look like given a little imagination.

Visually and musically rich, but not one to view if you're feeling depressed.

DVD Review: AC/DC - No Bull (The Director's Cut)

Let's face it, how much reviewing does this DVD need? With a band like AC/DC you know exactly what to expect: good honest, straight-forward rock'n'roll and with that all-important element of fun.

The footage on this DVD was filmed at the Plaxa De Toros De Las Ventas bullfighting arena in Madrid on the Ballbreaker tour in 1996, and was originally released to video shortly after. The director David Mallet was never happy with the results and so for this new DVD edition the film has been completely re-edited in HD and the audio remixed in both Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

The results are quite spectacular, it has to be said. For starters, the venue is amazing (introducing "Hail Caesar", singer Brian Johnson comments that its the perfect setting for that song), the picture is crystal clear, there are seemingly cameras EVERYWHERE so that we get viewpoints from all over the place, and the band appear to be on top form too.

I approached this video as someone who was not a fan of the band as such, although I bear them no malice, they were just a band I'd never followed. Let's just say, I've been converted. I would have loved to have been at this show, to have seen the spectacle and have witnessed the band working their arses off!

The rhythm section - Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, Cliff Williams on bass and Phil Rudd on drums - are AD/DC's secret weapon. Those guys are so tight and together they form the powerhouse that drives the whole band along. Brian Johnson's vocals at times resemble a strangled croak, but so what? - it suits the songs - and he has the capability to produce a dirty bluesy growl on songs like "Boogie Man".

Obviously the star of the show is the SG-wielding lead guitarist Angus Young. He is just incredible, and I marvelled at how he could play a guitar solo with apparent ease whilst bombing about from one side of the stage to the other like a demented toddler. His now legendary school uniform only lasted until seven songs into the set, when he interrupted his own guitar solo in order to perform a strip tease. Now that's not the kind of entertainment you get from the likes of Eric Clapton.

There was a fair amount of OTT theatricality to this show what with giant demolition balls, Brian Johnson swinging from the clapper of a giant bell Quasimodo-stylee ("Hells Bells"), cannons firing into the audience ("For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)"), and a monolithically pneumatic Rosie making an appearance in "Whole Lotta Rosie". Somehow all this fails to detract from the band just blasting out their own brand of riff-tastic rock'n'roll. After all, the venue's big enough for all of this.

What more can I say? I think this is the kind of thing that you're either going to love or you're going to hate. I thought it was fantastic, but all the fans are going to buy it anyway. All the big hits are there. It's well-directed, well-produced. I think it's a winner.

At two hours for the main feature I'd say it was good value for money too. Additionally the special features include a couple of bonus performances from other shows on the same tour - these renditions seem somehow rawer to my mind, and are intriguing when contrasted with the Madrid show. Then there are also the alternate "Angus-cam" versions of four songs from the Madrid show, for those of you who'd like to study his technique on a Gibson SG guitar or else to copy his trademarked "spasm".

Buy it here.

CD & DVD Review: John Mayer - Where The Light Is - Live in Los Angeles

Let me just say right at the start of this review that prior to this, I had absolutely no idea who John Mayer was. Had you mentioned him to me I would most likely have thought you were talking about John Mayall and that I had misheard you, or else you had developed some species of speech impediment. Quite how John Mayer has managed to slip under my radar, I don't know. An easy answer would be to say that he simply isn't that big over here in the UK, but to be perfectly honest I couldn't tell you how true that actually is.

This double CD set and/or DVD would appear to be the perfect introduction to John Mayer. Each has the same track listing and is divided into three distinct parts in which we see John Mayer perform firstly an acoustic set, secondly a set with the John Mayer Trio, and finally a set with his full band, all recorded at a show at the Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, last December. As Mayer jokes in the DVD film, he is effectively his own support act.

So, to start, I uploaded the CD into iTunes and gave it an intensive listening to on my iPod.

But, oh dear! "Oh my God, how am I going to review this?", I said to myself. "I don't like it!"

I forgot about the album for a while, and listened to some other bits and pieces. As often happens when I don't have an inkling to listen to any particular album, I set my iPod to "Shuffle" whilst working one afternoon, and one song - with some great guitar playing - shuffled up and caught my attention. "Wow! What's that?" I said, and checking the iPod discovered it was one of the John Mayer Trio songs from the album that I had previously dismissed. The one song played in isolation from the rest of the album had made my prick up my ears, whereas when I'd played the two CDs straight through I found it all a bit too much to take in.

I decided it would be easier to review the DVD. Watching an artist play is nearly always interesting to me. I like watching what a guitarist does, how he plays, what techniques he uses. It's one reason I love to get up front and close to the stage at gigs.

The DVD is subtitled "A film by Danny Clinch", which to my mind is a bit pretentious. It's a live music video, so let's have less of this "film" talk. Unfortunately because there are pretensions at work here, we get unnecessary scenes of Mayer talking utter shite whilst driving his car and with a small yappy-type dog on his lap (is that legal?) and various backstage scenes interspersed between the songs every now and again. These I find highly annoying. He doesn't say anything particularly insightful or interesting, he's just providing inane soundbites probably on-cue from the film maker. This is not the kind of thing I want from a music video. I want the music, so let's have the songs uninterrupted please! Save the silly backstage stuff (e.g. Mayer choosing a wrist watch to wear on stage from a selection of about 20 or so) and the scenes of Mayer and his dog driving about talking bollocks to the DVD extras.

Or as the late Frank Zappa once said, "Shut up and play your guitar!"

Now the music is really quite good. The first three acoustic tracks are Mayer on his own and it's clear from the offset that his guitar playing is quite outstanding. It's fascinating to watch his fingers move and I'm dead jealous of the way he hooks his thumb over the top of the neck to play the bass notes on the low E string. He's joined by Robbie Macintosh on Dobro on the fourth song, and on the next David Ryan Harris joins in on additional guitar. (I'm reminded of The Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense" which begins with David Byrne playing guitar along to a ghettoblaster for the first song, and with each subsequent song an additonal band member joins him until the full band is present.)

The next section features the John Mayer Trio, which is Mayer on guitar and vocals, Steve Jordan on drums, and Pino Palladino on bass. Pino Palladino is a name I know from way back. He famously played the fretless "yoobeeedooo" bass on Paul Young's "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)" back in the 80s, and in more recent years has joined Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry on stage with The Who following the sad demise of John Entwistle.

From this section it's obvious that John Mayer's guitar playing is not only informed by Jimi Hendrix, but that he must have studied Hendrix's playing in intricate detail. It's obvious from his playing, his mannerisms, his phrasing and on a visual level in his choice of guitars (e.g. Hendrix "Monterey" Strat replica, and Voodoo Strat with reverse headstock). Oh, that and the fact that he pulls off two very well executed Hendrix covers, "Wait Until Tomorrow" and "Bold As Love". All in all, the Trio set works incredibly well. It's exciting, the playing is fantastic from each of the three musicians, and there's lots of eye candy for guitar enthusiasts as Mayer plays a different guitar for each song (seven different Strats and a Guild Starfire). Yessir, this boy can play the blues.

The final secton with the full band (two additional guitars, bass, drums, keys, trumpet and sax) I didn't enjoy anywhere near as much. Perhaps this is the poppier material, and I just have a preference for the edgier sound of the trio. Nevertheless, this final set still has its moments. Mayer coaxes some incredible sounds from his guitar, especially on "Gravity" where he plays a solo by bending the strings of his Strat behind the nut. We also see some great hammer-on soloing and a little violining going on.

The last three tracks see the band joined by Pino Palladino, so there's two bass players. I was trying to work out if they were playing different parts or just doubling up the same bass line, but I couldn't really tell. I've gotta say, the show was dragging on for me a bit by this stage. Mayer was thanking the audience for staying so late (the show must have been over-running). I was just sorry for those of them who had missed their ride home (I know what that's like, trying not to miss the last train).

So, to sum up...

He's a brilliant guitarist, let's make no mistake about that. I'm not decided on whether or not I like his voice, the jury is still out on that point, and I find some of the things he says to the audience and to the camera to be quite cringeworthy. (But then, at 30 years old, he's still a kid, right?)

John Mayer fans will love this CD and DVD, but they won't need me to tell them that. As a showcase for Mayer's music, it's a great collection, and the three sets idea is a neat one. I can also see that either the CD or DVD would be a good introduction to John Mayer for the curious.

Guitar fans will most likely get a lot out of the DVD in particular if they are like me and enjoy watching other guitarists play. And of course there are plenty of guitars to drool over (I counted at least eight Strats, one Guild, a Gibson semi, three Martins, and possibly a few others that I've forgotten about).

As I've already said, the Trio section was the most enjoyable for me, but I suppose that's what's good about this collection. Different people will like different parts.

Buy it here: CD / LP / DVD / Blu-ray