On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C

 

 

There are those bands out there that have talent and can make great music that will be remembered for all of time.  *Nods at The Beatles*  Then there are bands like The Dropkick Murphys.  The band does exhibit a great voice talent, their lyrics center on simple topics like drinking, and their instrumentation is just adequate.  Overall, the band is not thrilling by any means but does have a huge fan following.  What is the reason for this you may ask?  Well, they are fun.  They play good, old, Irish bar music that gets the masses pumped.  Even this reviewer can admit seeing this band in concert is much different than viewing them on film.

 

One can barely understand their mumbling lyrics, the difference being in concert you can afford just to have fun, on DVD it just is bad.  On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys features a Live 2002 St. Patrick’s Day Concert in Boston, in which the band plays 22 of their most popular Irish ballots.  Also, this DVD features every Dropkick Murphy, which at this point was eight in total.  The music videos are more entertaining to view than the concert solely based on being able to understand (more so) what the band is singing.  We also get an array of home videos, and backstage looks on their bus tours.  As stated previously, the band is not extremely talented but if you are a fan and want to own all their music videos, this is the DVD for you.

 

The technicals on this DVD are merely passable.  The picture is presented in a 1.33 X 1 Full Screen throughout that is unimpressive for these wide video and concert scenes, also the coloring is constantly off and the picture remains gritty.  The Sound is slightly better than the picture presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo, but in concert has high/low issues, the music videos having barely any high/low issues.  No extras or Easter eggs are viewable on this set, only the aforementioned features of concerts and videos.

 

If you are a fan pick it up, if not run and don’t look back!

 

 

-   Michael P Dougherty II