Review: Show – A Night In the Life of Matchbox Twenty

Another concert DVD I sat down lately was the excellent capture of Matchbox Twenty’s tour to support their album “More Than You Think You Are”. This was their tour before taking a hiatus while members shifted and Rob Thomas released a mediocre solo album.

I had also seen bits and pieces of this DVD but never caught it all in one shot. It captured everything I love about MB20. Kyle Cook (thanks for the edit Eric!) is amazing on guitar. Rob Thomas is killer on vocals. The production of the show is alright. You can see them take bits and pieces from various other icons like U2 or the Rolling Stones but really…who can be original anymore?

I actually enjoyed the documentary even more which followed the band on the entire tour and highlighted behind-the-scenes happenings which showed what the crew did. I had never seen a documentary focussed so much on the crew and the production of the show. The closest thing I’ve experienced in this vein is the U2: Show book which is a must-have for anyone who wants to get into producing any sort of stage show. So it was interesting to see them discussing lighting and whether or not they should throw the house lights on during the last song. It’s also interesting to see that pretty well all of the rock shows you see are scripted to a certain point and that if you go see one show, chances are you may see them comment in the same fashion night after night, or have the same funny moments happening.

Palmer Interruption: I have spent a long time going to rock shows and I’ve realized what makes one band stand out over another in terms of repeated viewings on the same tour. It’s all about changing the show. The first time I realized that I was seeing the same show was when I saw Evanescence in Montreal in the winter, and then the following spring they ended up coming to Ottawa and I saw them there also. I realized it was the EXACT SAME SHOW. Even down to the comments about the tour or the city they were in. Sure, every showman has their classic comments like “You’re the best show of the tour!” which is always a questionable comment but it irks me when you see the same exact motions being followed…it’s like they’ve become their own cliché.

So when you see Led Zeppelin, or Pearl Jam, or the Smashing Pumpkins (to some extent), you see they have re-playability value on their tours because they are always somewhat different. Jimmy Page has stated that he has never played the solo to Stairway to Heaven the same on any date. Eddie Vedder has a commentary on today’s issues, today’s feeling at the concert…it isn’t scripted. Heck, he even does research into the city they are coming into and makes comments about them (like sports teams and such). The Smashing Pumpkins pretty well have the same show going on musically, but their commentary is always different or they switch up their setlist from time to time. I think it would get pretty boring to follow a band who has such a scripted show. Although U2 is probably the exception to this rule as they have such an energy that you get a high off of being there. But they themselves switched up their ZooTV show every night in small ways so every night could be a little different.

When someone asks me why I have so many Pearl Jam or Pumpkins bootlegs, this is the reason. They have re-playability power. If they had the same show each night of the tour, I would just get the best sounding bootleg from the tour and listen to that one and I essentially have heard the entire tour. But that’s not the case (which is definitely apparent with Pearl Jam officially releasing every bootleg of their tour and they sell like pancakes. Why does the term ‘hotcakes’ sound so much better when a hotcake is just a pancake?). End Palmer Interruption.

So the DVD was excellent and it got me excited to see the band in the spring in Toronto. I would recommend picking this DVD up for any fan. Heck, I think I got it for $8 at Music World a few years ago so it was well worth it.

iplaying: Razor – Foo Fighters (In Your Honour)