User Reviews

Listening to Jaz Coleman throw around superlatives when talking about his band, one might easily be lead to think what a pompous, self-absorbed bastard he must be. However, there aren't enough superlatives to stick onto the name of Killing Joke: arguably the best band of the 90s and 00s. I am not particularly interested in their 80s stuff, hence that (the song selection) would be the only (but also perhaps major) drawback of this DVD.

Killing Joke's music can be neatly divided into two periods: pre-1990 and post-1990. The first phase was marked by a rather timid sound, occasionally interesting guitar riffs, but a lack of energy, a weak sound, and thin vocals. In the late 80s they even briefly sounded like a pop group. However - and this is unique in the history of rock music - what was once merely a solid, barely heavy 80s band, suddenly became very abrasive, more inventive, the vocals became raw (very Lemmyesque), and the sound improved tremendously. The vast majority of quality bands/musicians release their best material at the outset, and then things only go downhill from there, until the musicians find themselves totally drained of ideas, playing solely for cash and/or because they have nothing better to do (Metallica, Slayer, and a million others). Hence Killing Joke are a bit of an enigma; their last five albums are head and shoulders above all their previous releases. Even in their mid-40s they'd managed to produce terrific albums, "KJ 2003" and "Hosannas". That is almost unheard of.

So it was high time for them to release a live DVD. Unfortunately, the band themselves do not share my view that their first phase was basically forgettable, which is why there are only 5 songs from this "Golden Age", out of the 17 offered on "Gathering". Worse yet, there isn't a single track from their perhaps best album, "Democracy". The only two good songs from the pre-1990 era that they play here are the excellent, psychedelic "Requiem" and the solid "Love Like Blood". Even "The Wait", covered so well by Metallica, doesn't hold any interest. "War Dance", "Sun Goes Down"... who wants to hear this kind of crap when they have true gems in store, such as "Savage Freedom", "The Death & Resurrection Show", "Absent Friends", "Millennium", "Aeon", "Inside The Termite Mound", "Pleasures of the Flesh", etc...? I would have thought it more logical to at least make a more-or-less even 50/50 split between the old and the new stuff, considering that this is a quasi "birthday special" gig, i.e. an event that "celebrates" all 25 years of their existence and not just one portion of it.

The quality of the picture and the direction are very good. The sound is solid, but occasionally leaves a bit to be desired. Jaz's voice sounds perfect, but the guitar is occasionally (very) far down the mix, this sad fact being nowhere more evident - and frustrating - than in "Pandemonium" during which even the keyboards sound ten times louder than Geordie's sublime guitar-playing. What was that all about? Perhaps Geordie's ego isn't sufficiently ballooned up (like Jaz's) for him to threaten violence toward anyone who dares to "mix him down". Maybe he should have smashed a guitar onto the occasional mixer's head throughout his career, thereby gaining a violent but ultimately useful reputation for not tolerating a softening of the overall sound.

Jaz is a likable, charismatic and excellent frontman with an unbelievable growl, but I would have preferred if he hadn't espoused his laughable political views between the songs. (It's bad enough that some of the songs themselves contain them.) Before "The Wait" starts, Jaz asks the audience whether they agree that Diana (yes, the big-nosed money-hungry Royal bimbo) and David Kelly were murdered by Tony Blair and/or Alistair Campbell. To make things even more embarrassing/silly, Jaz again brings up this idiotic conspiracy-theory baloney during the DVD interview. Naturally, the brown-nosing interviewer wholeheartedly agrees with Jaz's insipid theory. After all, all weak and inferior minds are drawn toward a paranoid vision of the world. Jaz and the interviewer are classic examples of the kind of childlike IQs that infest the world of pop, rock and metal, whether it be that idiotic species known as "the rock journalist" or the "dumb, uninformed rock star". Ironically, at one point the interviewer - in his uncontrollable urge to kiss a** - even describes Jaz's intellect as "huge", "immense" or something like that. Jesus, I had to cringe...

The interview with Jaz is over half-an-hour long, and is almost as fun to watch as the gig itself. He has plenty of interesting (albeit not always intelligent) things to say, and is a rare character in the world of rock music dullards.

For more of my music-world rants, go to: http://rateyourmusic.com/collection/Fedor8/1