Hardline's performance at "The Gods 2002" is immortalized on this DVD.
Check out the
review of the CD album for additional review of the performance. This review will concentrate on the visual performance.
The Gioeli brothers are the only remaining members since the brilliant "Double Eclipse" release. Almost all tracks from "Double Eclipse" are featured in concert.
Lead singer Johnny Gioeli is an energetic frontman. However, he is clearly annoyed during second song
Life's a Bitch since there are sound problems with the band's monitors. Gieoli asks the audience how it sounds out there, since it apparently sounds like "Super shit" on stage. The problem isn't fixed by third song
Everything and you see a desperately Gioeli signaling to the sound crew that there is still problems. During the guitar solo to the big ballad
Face The Night from the forthcoming album Hardline II, a furious Gioeli runs to the side of the stage and I am sure that the English sound crew learned what swearwords are hip in Los Angeles.
I don't know if the female backing singers did not get any monitor feedback either, because their vocals on
Face The Night are horrible. They don't sing, but scream and it's sounds totally out of key. Almost like hearing myself in the shower. On
Face The Night the female backing singers are too loud in the mix and their singing is too strained. I wonder what went through the audience's mind, since this was the first pre-taste of Hardline II.
It's a real shame that Johnny has to focus on sound problems for the first couple of songs. However, he loosens up during
Takin' Me Down and from there concentrates on giving the crowd a great show.
Takin Me Down is already played as song number 5 and it gets the slow crowd going. The crowd looks a bit worn out, since Hardline went on stage at 1 o'clock after a full day of concerts. Johnny gives his brother a smile in powerlessness, since it obvious that he can't sing the chorus to
Takin' Me Down as high as he should.
The use of 3 backup singer provides Hardline with a big sound. Joey Gioeli's guitar is almost impossible to hear, but Josh Ramos is very loud in the mix and just understates that Hardline is a guitar based Rock band.
Josh Ramos has to be experienced on stage. He is always smiling and his stage presence is so 1980's. He only looses his big sunglasses in a few minutes throughout the performance. His playing is top notch. He glows on
Life's a Bitch and is simply just a fantastic guitarist.
Bob Rock's drum solo is entertaining even though I never been a fan of drum solos. Bob Rock is solid and consistent and really let's the rock animal inside him loose. Pretty cool for a guy, who used to play with Nelson.
Rock's drum solo leads to
Rhythm from a Red Car, which is one of my personal favorites. Johnny tries to get the crowd to sing-along, but they are exhausted.
The DVD only has a playing time of 63 minutes. It's only Hardline's performance and no extra features like interviews, backstage scenes or anything. The performance is great and filmed with a camera on stage, cameras in front of the stage and cameras from the balcony giving a panorama view. However, compared with other DVD's on the markets this DVD does not provide as much value for money as others.
A must for Hardline fans, while I recommend the CD version for the non-die-hard-fans because of the bonus tracks included.
Rating: 5.5/10Written by
Michael Saturday, November 29, 2003
