| The
Review |
On September 22nd, 2005, at the
Wyspianski Theatre, in Katowice, Poland, British neo-progressive
rockers Arena celebrated their 10th anniversary and filmed
this excellent, two-hour, career-spanning concert, which comes
to you as Smoke & Mirrors. This concert features the same
lineup of Clive Nolan (keyboards), Mick Pointer (drums), Rob
Sowden (vocals), John Mitchell (guitars), and Ian Salmon (bass),
that appeared on their last concert DVD, 2003's Caught In
The Act, and have now miraculously been together since 1999.
After overcoming numerous personnel changes, during the band's
first four years, it appears that things have finally stabilized
in the Arena camp.
Although not one of my favorite
progressive-rock bands, Arena have consistently churned out
high quality music, since their 1995 debut, Songs From The
Lions Cage. Each album unfolds with complex moods, and dramatic
concepts that blend elements of symphonic-prog, metal, and
classic-rock, and often demand repeated listens to fully absorb
all that is being unraveled before you. My reaction to the
band mostly mirrors what you see from the remarkably subdued
audiences on each of their DVDs. Rarely do they rise from
the comfort of their theater seats, or manage more than a
few polite claps. Not your typical rock concert vibe. Some
of the band's performances can be quite uninspiring, while
others, such as "The Hanging Tree", "Solomon", and, the always
climactic, "Crying For Help VII", can be downright amazing.
These guys are very hit and miss for me.
With this new release, Arena have
again put out one of the best conceived concert DVDs of the
year, in terms of overall content and quality. Too often,
you see bands, with probably ten times the budget that Arena
has, put out these mediocre, hour-long, concert DVDs, with
hardly a hint of bonus material, which is why it is so refreshing
to see bands, like Arena, who obviously care about giving
their fans something special. This DVD has a total running
time of almost three hours, including all of the bonus material.
Smoke & Mirrors is anchored by
the 19-song, two-hour main feature, and is enhanced by a superb
bundle of bonus material, including an interview with Clive
Nolan and Mick Pointer, a biography, a discography, and a
photo gallery. This is all highlighted by the October 16th,
2005 reunion concert footage, from Zoetermeer, Holland, which
featured a couple of old band mates, John Jowiit (bass), and
Paul Wrightson (vocals), leading a few of their older classics.
This footage adds another 27-minutes worth of excellent live
performances to the package.
The set list for Smoke & Mirrors
differs radically from that found on the Caught In The Act
DVD. Where Caught In The Act focused primarily on their new
album at the time, Contagion, Smoke & Mirrors features more
of a career spanning set that focuses heavily on their 1998
breakthrough album The Visitor, represented by six songs,
and their latest album, Pepper's Ghost, which provides four.
Each of their other studio albums accounted for an even two
songs apiece.
The performances were good, but
certainly not dazzling. As usual, guitarist John Mitchell
is an emotionless, robot on stage, who almost looks bothered
to be up there at times. The guy is as technically proficient
as anyone, but he's got no personality to elevate the songs
beyond what you get on the albums. When you listen to Hendrix,
Van Halen, Page, Gilmour, or any of the greats, you can hear
their personalities shine through in their playing. The only
sign of life that Mitchell showed was during the reunion concert,
when he and his former band mate, John Jowiit, were jumping
around playfully during "A Crack In The Ice", as Wrightson
sang from out in the crowd.
Sowden was his usual charismatic
self, and he helps to make up for Mitchell's lack of personality
with his colorful attire, excellent showmanship, and theatrical
interpretations. He performs the first half of the show wearing
a long, blonde, braided wig, dark glasses, and the occasional
black top-hat, which made him look eerily like Gary Oldman's
Dracula. Not until the 13th song of the night, "Chosen", is
the blonde wig gone and he is wearing a black, full-length,
hooded, leather overcoat, with those ridiculous, fluorescent-green,
wraparound sunglasses he likes to wear.
The production quality of this
DVD is once again outstanding. The widescreen presentation
was very sharp and captured the colorful light show well.
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and stereo audio options were provided,
and they sounded excellent. The surround mix was crisp and
provided good instrument separation. The front center channel
was only used for ambience, similar to the rear surrounds,
and the lead vocals were spread evenly across the two front
speakers instead. The camera work was superb. The director
never felt the need to rapidly alternate between multiple
angles every couple of seconds, which is so prevalent in most
concert videos. Here, all of the great camera angles that
were deployed, slowly faded into each other after beautifully,
only after lingering on each shot for just the right amount
of time.
Arena fans could not ask for a much
better concert DVD than this, and if you are new to the band,
this is an excellent place to start.
Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - May 2006
www.concertdvdreviews.com
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