Review of Savage Garden: Superstars And Cannonballs

Introduction

Savage Garden are an Australian 2-piece group and one of my fiancee`s favourites! This DVD is essentially the live footage of a video concert from Brisbane - their hometown - with interviews, a documentary and various commentary tracks added.

I`ve watched and listened to quite a few music DVDs recently and, with the exception of the excellent Underworld (Everything, Everything) DVD they have all been slightly disappointing in their lack of features to persuade me from buying the CD instead.

This DVD is in the same, smaller, category as Underworld ;)

Video

Excellent, if a little repetitive. The whole DVD is in widescreen, including all the extra features, something that even the big Hollywood DVD often lack. Video quality is pretty good as well, the live performance has been well lit and is filmed in the usual running-about-with-a-camera style we`ve come to expect from concerts. Even in the darkest moments (and quite a lot of the footage is dark) you can still see definition.

The DVD menu is well designed and easy to use.

Audio

Excellent - you get a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack to experience the whole concert `ambiance` and it works pretty well. The sound stage is set fairly well forward with the surround channels adding depth to the music and putting you right in the crowd. Bass is handled well and everything is well balanced.

You have the option of a decent 2 channel stereo track as well for more traditional listening.

Features

At 110 minutes long, the whole DVD isn`t massively populated but they have used the DVD format to maximum.

First the boring (but useful stuff) There`s a full discography of Darren and Daniel`s works to date, complete with cover shots.

Now for the more fun stuff. Finally I`ve got hold of a decent DVD that uses multiple angles in a fun way (yes I know Pr0n discs have been doing it for years ;) Three of the songs have the option of multiple angles and it`s quite good fun.

Nine of the songs can be heard with an audio commentary by the band on why they were written, what they mean etc. Most of this promotional stuff tends to be done by Darren, as Daniel doesn`t like the media (watch the documentary to find out more)

The documentary is around 25 minutes long and happens backstage around the concert with intervies and chats to the band, their backing singers, musicians, roadies etc and is fairly interesting - and not too long :)

And they chucked in some bonus videos too.

All in all a good selection of things to do once you`ve watched the concert. My only negative comment really is that, with the exception of the videos, everything contains footage of the main concert, so it gets a little repetitive after a while.

Conclusion

If you are a fan, you`ll have the album already but you`ll want this as well, just for the more intimite backstage footage.

If you hate them, they you`ll not have read this far anyway but if you quite like them and aren`t sure...... I`d recommend it.

There are enough special features knocking around to give your new DVD player a good workout and the guys are actually quite talented (don`t tell my SO I said that!).

PS She gives it a girlfriend rating of 3/5.