Title: The World's a big Place (Live DVD)
Artist: Mesh
Genre: Electro Pop
Release Date: 23rd November 2007
Label: Major Records
Introduction
In January 2007, MESH were the headliner of the Elektrisch! Festival Tour, which led the band through five German cities. MESH are well-known for their powerful and energetic live performances and it's a shame that one of those performances hasn't been recorded earlier, but now the wait for such a recording is finally over. The closing concert at the Kulturfabrik in Krefeld, which was simultaneously the closing concert for the tour, was recorded and eternalized on a DVD
Line up
Mark Hockings - Vocals, Guitar
Richard Silverthorn - Guitar, Keyboard, Backing Vocals
Additional Live Musicians
Gary Howe - Drums
Geoff Pinckney - Keyboards and Backing Vocals
Website
http://www.mesh.co.uk/ / http://www.myspace.com/meshwecollide
Detailed Review
The DVD is presented in a rather ordinary flex-box containing the DVD and a CD. If you're one of the lucky one's who got hold of one of the Ltd. Editions you'll have 2 CDs in the box containing the complete concerts, so you don't have to switch on the TV every time. But let's take a look at the artwork consisting of beautiful photos shot at the tour. All the photos from the artwork are in black / white which gives the whole thing a nostalgic touch and personally I sometimes prefer them over the coloured ones. They always have something special to it and they appeal a lot more precious to me. If you just look at the front and back covers you'll already get a good impression of how full and spectacular the show was. Thanks to some talented photographers. Let's switch over to the track list which consists in total of 22 tracks. Unfortunately ‘Not Prepared’ had to be removed from the track list due to rights issues. Too bad, I was really looking forward to the track. But the remaining tracks recompense for the one missing. Most songs are of course taken from the most recent album ‘We Collide’ like ‘Petrified’, ‘Room with a view’ or the brilliant ‘Can you mend Hearts?’ but also sings like ‘I can't imagine how it hurts’ or ‘Little Missile’ were taken into the program.
So, now we're coming to the visual part and I’m usually very fussy, when it comes to visual things like concert recording, but I have to admit that the Crazy Clip Team made a great job. The picture is crystal clear most of the time but I noticed the picture getting a little bit grainy mostly in the dark areas and now and then some pixels appeared, but apart from that it is a really high quality recording. A thing that at least I had to get used to at the beginning were the fast cuts and I was thinking that it probably would get very exhausting to watch it but fortunately I was wrong with that and after some minutes of familiarization it was all right. The concert was filmed from every possible direction, so no one on stage was neglected. The concert is interrupted several times by footage filmed on the road and showing MESH in Moscow what was really impressing because you'll also have a look on the beautiful architecture of some of the buildings there. One clip showed the guys backstage at the buffet looking for a hamster.
I have to mention the lightshow which was really awesome. Spotlights with changeable colours were used to accentuate the mood of the songs more individually. When more rocking and danceable songs were played, the stage was bathed in red light and the calmer ones like ‘Room with a View’ were accompanied by blue light. Speaking of ‘Room with a View’, MESH used a video projection wall at the show ,where various videos or animations were shown to accompany the corresponding songs, but especially this one stayed in my mind, showing green wall papers and on these wall left and right to the window you could see two pictures showing George Bush and Tony Blair. And when you looked through the window you could see pictures of war, soldiers in battles, explosions and at the end an obviously dead child lying in the arms of someone. After every song the band was rewarded with thunderous applause and during the songs, the people danced, jumped around and sang along. The mood was absolutely fantastic. After returning the second time for an encore, a wonderful concert ended with a great performance of ‘From this Height’.
The DVD also contains additional footage from “Behind the scenes” and all the people who usually work in the background like the light engineer or the back-liners have their sayings, talking about themselves, what they're doing, how long they're already working for MESH and so on. Of course the band also gets their shot, telling some nice and funny stories. One of them includes a sponge. Really made me laugh. You'll also get a little tour through the night-liner, which is more like a home on wheels with a kitchen and a lounge with a Playstation and WiFi network connection and the most important thing: You can change the colour of the light in the lounge. :-)
I almost forgot to mention the additional photo gallery showing more of those great photos taken at the concert as well as photos from various locations. The limited edition of this DVD also includes the whole concert split up on two audio CDs.
Tracklist
DVD
01. Intro /Rest in Pieces
02. Petrified
03. Self Healing Lie
04. This is what you wanted
05. People like me
06. Leave you Nothing
07. Open up the Ground
08. To be Alive
09. Little Missile
10. What are you scared of?
11. Fragile
12. Room with a View
13. Step by Step
14. Friends like these
15. I can't imagine how it hurts
16. My hands are tied
17. Crash
18. Can you mend Hearts?
19. Firefly (Too fast and Too short)
20. Confined
21. It scares me
22. From this Height
CD 1
01. Intro /Rest in Pieces
02. Petrified
03. Self Healing Lie
04. This is what you wanted
05. People like me
06. Leave you Nothing
07. Open up the Ground
08. To be Alive
09. Little Missile
10. What are you scared of?
11. Fragile
12. Room with a View
CD 2
01. Step by Step
02. Friends like these
03. I can't imagine how it hurts
04. My hands are tied
05. Crash
06. Can you mend Hearts?
07. Firefly (Too fast and Too short)
08. Confined
09. It scares me
10. From this Height
Extras
2 Audio CDs (Ltd. Ed only)
Cover Picture
Conclusion
If you own a 5.1 Surround System, you surely can take the concert experience to a whole new level, but even if it's the “ordinary” stereo sound, it's still one of the best mixes I’ve heard on a concert DVD so far. Every detail of the songs is clearly audible, but it doesn't sound like a CD recording, You can also hear the audience singing and applauding, which is unfortunately not implicitness. Kudos to the sound-engineer. Brilliant Work!!! But it's not only the sound which is awesome. The visual part belongs to the best I’ve seen so far with some small exceptions I mentioned earlier. It was really fun to watch MESH acting like a real band on stage. The live sound is much more organic due to the use of live guitars and drums. If you haven't seen them live already like me, this is the perfect item to get the concert feeling to your four walls.
{jos_sb_discuss:19}
If you own a 5.1 Surround System, you surely can take the concert experience to a whole new level, but even if it's the “ordinary” stereo sound, it's still one of the best mixes I’ve heard on a concert DVD so far. Every detail of the songs is clearly audible, but it doesn't sound like a CD recording, You can also hear the audience singing and applauding, which is unfortunately not implicitness. Kudos to the sound-engineer. Brilliant Work!!! But it's not only the sound which is awesome. The visual part belongs to the best I’ve seen so far with some small exceptions I mentioned earlier. It was really fun to watch MESH acting like a real band on stage. The live sound is much more organic due to the use of live guitars and drums. If you haven't seen them live already like me, this is the perfect item to get the concert feeling to your four walls.
{jos_sb_discuss:19}
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