http://thepunksite.com/reviews.php?page=album/dvd/puddleofmudd
JUNE 2005
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Do you remember Puddle of Mudd? Of course you do,
everyone does. In 2001, they busted into the music industry with Come Clean
which spawned four major radio and MTV hits. Everyone fell in love with the
classic rock songs like Drift And Die and Blurry,
I even had a mini fan site for them up for a few weeks before working on
something else. Sadly, after they released She Hates Me, Puddle
Of Mudd drifted off into the has-been pile. Sure, they released another
CD in 2003 called Life On Display, but who knew that? I only found out
like four days ago, so its safe to say it went unnoticed. Nevertheless, the
L.A./Kansas City rock band doesn't want to go quietly into the realm of
nothingness, so as their fans wait for the follow up to Life On Display,
they decided to release a live DVD called Striking That Familiar Chord.
Equally important, the two things that break or make a DVD are the
sound quality and image quality, and Striking That Familiar Chord
succeeds in both aspects. Visually, this DVD is amazing and is easily one of the
visually best live DVDs I've seen since Yellowcard's Live
At The Electric Factory. The colors are incredibly vibrant and you can see
everything crystal clear. The filming is done very artistically,almost like it
was on Much Music or something as they zoom in and out effortlessly and fade
from one member to another instantly. Even with all the different camera angles,
and there are lots, you rarely see ant camera men in the video - in fact, I
think I only saw them once the entire video. Really, just the sheer clearness of
the performance makes it worth a watch, and any live DVD fan will easily agree.
Sonically, they sound great too, there isn't really any feedback or any weak
moments, it is all very easy to hear and watch.
But after looking at the technical aspect of the DVD, you need to
look at the performance as a whole; and sadly, Puddle of Mudd
don't keep up with the technical sides of the DVD. I used to be a fan of the
band, but not so much anymore, and their live show didn't really change my mind
much. Sometimes, it is even boring. Like the guitar solo on Drift And
Die isn't entertaining, it is monotonous and just seems to drag the
song on aimlessly. They sound good, but don't really go over and above the
expectations of a concert to make it more memorable and the band
"commentary" is easily one of the weirdest set ups I've ever seen on a
DVD. Instead of talking over top of the performance like on most commentaries,
it cuts in and out of it between songs to get the members stories, and half the
time they aren't even about the performance. It's just really weird.
As a little added bonus, they also have four acoustic performances
(with the weird commentary if you want) on the bonus features. And like the
concert portion of the DVD, the filming for the acoustic set is don really well
too. Instead of just one camera covering them all, it moves around and has close
ups and fades ins and everything, which was pretty impressive.