The Pietasters Performing Live At 9:30 Club

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Concert: C+

 

 

Yet another band who is somewhere between post-Punk and Ska (or post-Ska) has issued a DVD.  The Pietasters Performing Live At The 9:30 Club is an hour-long mostly-concert piece where they make various comments in-between playing music.  Those songs include:

 

Set Me Up

Rachel

Malmo

Higher

Told You The First Time

Girl Take It Easy

Chain Reaction

Biblical Sense

Out All Night

Freak Show

Wasted

Drinking & Driving

Maggie Mae

Dollar Bill

Somebody

Factory

Metro

Can’t Stand It

DC Sniper

 

 

They are at their best when they play music and talk music, but when they get on the subject on how much they like to drink alcohol, it gets tired very, very quickly.  Young fans might like this, but these guys have more talent than many such bands and it looks like their hijinks may stop them short from realizing their potential.  Too bad, because they have a good-enough thing going, so we’ll see what happens to them in the future.

 

The full frame 1.33 X 1 image was shot on NTSC tape and looks it.  After its fancy point-of-view shot from the tray of a restaurant bar with alcoholic drinks (surprise?), form goes down the drain into a predictable, typical presentation with definition limits and detail trouble.  The sound is here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with some Pro Logic surround action and Dolby 5.1 with a slight advantage for fidelity, but not much.  Extras dubbed “desert” on the menu include two extra concert tracks, less than ten minutes of concert footage, and an audio commentary by the band goofing off while watching themselves for the hour-long length of the program.  For fans only.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo