Black Flag - Live!

Rating:
Summary: Five stars - it's Black Flag people...come on.
Review: I don't know what would be expected from a DVD of this nature. DTS? 5.1? THX LUCAS sound effects? Whatever notions you may have in your head, get rid of them. This is Black Flag. It sounded just like this at shows, at least it did when I was growing up and catching them live. You're just going to have to deal with things not sounding pristine, difficulties with imbalances in levels, etc. All in all, it sounds fine, images are fine, and it's Black Flag in their glory, captured at a time that will never again be captured. This is the true stuff people and if you have even a slight appreciation of the band, you should not hesitate to get it. I truly can't recommend this highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: Descent Video - LOUSY Sound
Review: I'm giving this DVD 3 stars when anything that comes from Black Flag should have 5. And those 3 stars are for video alone. Audio only gets one star. I have to agree with the guy from Sweden - the sound is glaringly sub-par and unforgivable. I got my copy at Fry's, and as I was standing there at the rack, looking at the cover and pondering whether I should drop $20 on what I knew was a glorified bootleg, I had only to remember the time I passed up getting it for $20 on video 10 years ago and missing out when I came back for it and it was gone. Any true fan should have this. That being said, here are some obsevations on various elements in the video:
THE LINEUP: This is the "Live '84" band lineup as is the setlist on this DVD performance. The Bill/Kira rhythm section, though not being as fierce and brilliant as the Biscuits/Dukowski/Cadena (see 84 demos bootleg) lineup, is more than adequate, even though when you see bill and kira live, they are not as energetic and animated as henry and greg, but this is really splitting hairs and and i know this.
VIDEO EDITING AND QUALITY: This is the best thing about this DVD. It's obvious that they had about 3 or 4 cameras, at least two or three on the stage and behind the drum riser, and all panning, and zooming in and out, never dwelling on one member too much. The editing was also fabulous from the standpoint that someone took the time to incorporate all the camera angles into a flowing whole complete with fades, cuts, cross fades, etc. I do have a bone to pick with the guy who edited some of the in between song stuff. Not cool. He even edited out the first half of bill and kira's classic intro to slip it in! NOT COOL. As for image quality goes, its about as good as a bootleg gets. The color hues are not really that great, but keep in mind *when* this was done...But the images are crisp and clear and decently lighted, so you can really see what's going on. Anybody who's ever seen a 20th generation bootleg filmed with one camera from the balcony can appreciate the fact that this is higher quality effort.
SOUND: The good news - it's Black Flag, and all BF sounds good. Also, every thing *is* audible if your ears can tell the difference between instruments, and the general volume level is adequate, if not somewhat subdued. The bad news - overall sound sucks. If you listen to this on a 5.1 system, only the front right speaker plays, and when I tried watching it through TV channel 3, it only came through the front center speaker. Also, as many here have mentioned, Henry's volume is jacked way over a everything else in the band. Gregs guitar and Bills drums are quite audible though, but kira's bass needs to be twice as loud, but you *can* hear it. All I can say is that if the producers of this DVD are going to ask the same price for this product as a Pink Floyd concert, they should at least get in there and level things out and get the sound to go through all channels. Come on "Visionary", its the digital age and sound engineering isnt exactly rocket science.
THE VERDICT: All black flag fans should have this. Especially if you havent seem them 5 times like i have. You are not paying for a state of the art DVD. You are paying for an imported English bootleg video that is low on production quality, but a more than adequate document of a legendary band in the midst of a fine performance.

Rating:
Summary: Black Flag - LIVE
Review: If you are a true Black Flag fan this is what you have always been waiting for. I have a few old videos of the flag, but the quality on them is getting worse as they get older. A must buy for anyone who rocked with Dez, Biscuits, Duckowski, Ginn, and Rollins in the eighties!

Rating:
Summary: Terrible sound quality
Review: It could have been so much better with good audio. It's a vintage Black Flag performance with Hank on vocals, but it sounds like it was recorded with one mic, the one Henry sings into. You hear the music, then when he sings you hear nothing but the vocals. The sound is so bad it's painful to sit through.

Rating:
Summary: Too bad...
Review: It's a real bummer that they had to mess up the sound on this DVD of this awesome band. Henry is way too loud and you can't hear Greg and Kira at all!

Another bummer is that they cut out the time in between songs, when the band interacts with the crowd. So you can't really call it a whole concert but just a bunch of cut up song's put together. The set arrangement could have been totally different and you wouldn't even know it.

On the up side: The video quality is good and you are actually watching Black Flag perform live!

On behalf of the sound and editing: it is truly a shame. Especially since live Black Flag performances on tape/DVD are so rare. Oh well...

Rating:
Summary: The guy who transfered this to DVD?
Review: Maybe the most God-Awfull Video to DVD Transfer I've ever seen.
While the video quality may be terrible, it's great compared to the sound. The sound is so bad, you cant watch this all the way through.
You cant hear the instruments at all!!!! All you hear is Vocals, literally!!!
What should have been an incredible document of a pioneering Punk band turns out to be a collossil mess.
At least we still have the music.

Rating:
Summary: THE BARS
Review: MY BLACK FLAG VIDEO IS PERFECT I DONT KNOW ABOUT ALL OF YOURS BUT I GUESS I GOT ONE OF THE GOOD ONES NOT THOSE DEFECTIVE ONES THAT YOU OTHER PEOPLE GOT