Creed – Live

artist website

publisher

impulse buy

DC3 Music Group
Produced by Daniel E. Catullo III, Lionel Max Pasamonte & Peter James Bowers

Before the release of their comeback album Full Circle a reunited Creed set off on a 41-date tour of North America for over two months, and recorded the September 25 stop at the Cynthia Woods Mitchel Pavilion in The Woodlands (Houston), Texas for this incredibly polished live DVD.

Filmed with an unbelievable, and really quite ridiculous, 239 high definition cameras (mostly for the deluxe version, out next year) the concert footage looks spectacular, with outstanding colour balance and excellent editing. The sound is also flawless, showing off Creed’s heavy side just as well as the new album does, bolstered by new touring guitarist Eric Friedman. But this also highlights the DVDs main problem: Scott Stapp’s voice.

Either Stapp can no longer sing the same way as he used to, or he now chooses not to, but either way there are times we he sounds completely flat, mostly on high or longer notes. He’s fine on the aggressive parts, and on the very soft parts, but struggles in the middle-ground. He doesn’t sound altogether bad, he just doesn’t sound like he’s supposed to. The addition of Friedman to the band though gives them an entirely new dimension from a guitar prospect. Not only does his rhythm playing beef up their sound, backing Mark Tremonti’s solos where necessary, he also trades solos, and songs like Say I and the seminal What If get new jam sections in the middle as the guitarists play off each other.

Because the whole tour was conducted before the release of the new album, the set is lacking in songs from it, with only classic first single Overcome, and the less impressive A Thousand Faces included. The rest of the set plays more or less like their Greatest Hits CD with one or two tracks added (and thankfully Weathered dropped), which might be a bit predictable, but since this is their first ever concert film, a greatest hits set is fair.

The World Record breaking number of cameras were used primarily for new technology called “Big Freeze”, which enables a near 360° rotation on most of the stage shots. This will looking unbelievable, if the trailer in the bonus features of this DVD is anything to go by, but won’t be released until a three-disc deluxe edition box set of the show is released in early 2010 (including a CD of the concert audio).

The rest of the bonus features are a very poor photo gallery (the shots are great but they’ve all been unnecessarily softened for some reason) and a 45-minute documentary about the recording of the show and the filming of the Overcome music video (which is better than the video itself – also included here). This should prove interesting for fans, and is a very good example of this kind of behind the scenes footage.

Live is probably the best-looking concert DVD ever produced in both picture and sound, and if it weren’t for Stapp’s periods of vocal flatness, it would be a simply perfect product. It almost is anyway.

“ spectacular ”

Tracklist: Bullets / Overcome / My Own Prison / Say I / Never Die / Torn / A Thousand Faces / What If / Unforgiven / Are You Ready? / What’s This Life For / Faceless Man / With Arms Wide Open / My Sacrifice / One / One Last Breath / Higher

Bonus Features: Documentary / Photo Gallery / Deluxe Edition Trailer / Overcome Music Video

Photo(s):
Don Seidman | www.donseidmanphotographers.com
Donna Marshall

Written by Andy Lye
More: Hard Rock, Live DVDs, Creed