DVD RETROSPECTIVE: 3 Bats Live - The DISSECTION

[Wario]

I did a similar thing a year ago, but that was when i thought the DVD was coming in February [http://www.mlukfc.com/forums/showthr...ighlight=Bats]. I decided to be a bit more indepth.


I guess its that time to look back at the two previous Meat DVDs that have bestowed upon us. Ill do MSO in a week or two. This one Ive had the pleasure of sitting down and watching all the way through for the first time since November 20, 2007 (Give or Take a few days).

I joined this community January before this DVD was released and when it was, I was still new and l kept most of my opinions to myself. As time went on, over the years youve prolly got the gist this DVD wasnt my cup of tea. Well, thats actually not 100% correct, but its not 100% wrong either. The cinematography is amazing, the boxart is amazing, the menus are fantastic, the band's kickass, The arrangements rock, and meat gave 200%. So why is it not a masterpiece of cinema?

The problem I have with it have to do with the audio mix, the editing, and Meat himself. lets break these three things down before i give you all a Song-By-Song dissection (much as I am going to do with MSO and the soon-to-be GPT DVDs). ALong with that, In Search of paradise being packaged with it in the UK did it no favors. Had someone watched ISOP before 3 Bats Live, the atmosphere of the DVD would be very negative.

THE AUDIO MIX:
The audio from this DVD is 100% live, Raw, and prolly just mixed to dolby digital from the raw soundboard overlapped with the crowd mic. Thats a great mix.... for a bootleg. The drums are very watery and flushed, The guitars are a tad stale, and the studio material used is louder then everything else. Throw in the monstrosity thats the last third of Bad For Good and you have a rushed piece of Pro Tools poop. Now Meat had no time in his busy schedule to do any of the dubbing, or mix. Whoever did edit this still could've done a better job.

THE EDITING:
The concert seems to have been entire shot and calibrate through a switchboard and plastered onto the DVD. Time wasnt taken to see if maybe their were better shots to use, better actions on stage. We miss out on alot.
Meta did something awesome with his mic stand during gimme shelter thats inexplicably absent from the DVD in exchange for a terrible close up of randy's guitar. Thats sloppy and uncinematic. watch meat during gimme shelter from this audience clip, so much you dont see on the DVD in favor of inferior shots. Wonder what else we missed out on. Their are alot of sloppy shots on the DVD, that indicate switchboard. CInematography and color correction though are top notch. Also, i feel The needless and pointless banter in objects couldve (and shouldve) been cut down in favor of the audience banter in Took the Words and "The Storm" instrumental before STN.

YouTube Video

MEAT:
now I did say meat gave 200%. The problem is, He gives 200% until Objects uncludes, and his remaining energy dissipates by the end of RRD. Yes hes passonate, but when he changes into that black silk shirt its hard to watch for the most part.

the songs....

ALL REVVED UP / PARADISE
The wig rocks the band rocks, aspens great, and meat looks like hes having fun (one of the few times he looks like hes having fun I might add). I like this arrangement of paradise alot, llots of sax is awesome. Meat's flat throughout though, I can't help but think the New YEars and Jimmy Kimmel performances were better.

TOOK THE WORDS
Meat doesn't look like hes having fun on this one, and thats bad as im only at track 2 (3 technically). Meat sounds alright, but the atmosphere sucks and the audience banter is cut, so any gleaming of meat having fun (if there was any) isnt visible in this final edit of he song. Was he preacher meat? did he single anyone out? well never know. thats sad. LOVE john's bongos though. wish that stayed.

FRYING PAN

Oh dearest Frying Pan, i miss you. The sax is a fantastic addition and the band is top notch. The thing is, again, Meat does not loo like hes having fun. Far superior version with the same arrangement can be found on the UK itunes version of HCTB.

LEMON
Lemon dos not work without its second verse. its truncated and Meat has no life. one of only two tracks this first act id suggest you skip this.

ANYTHING FOR LOVE
The second of only two tracks this first act Id seriously suggest you skip. Meat performs anything for love, and he does it with passion. But it just doesnt have a plesent watch factor, no fun in his soul. Hes still at least energized a bit.

5 MINUTES OF POINTLESS BANTER / OBJECTS
Objects, the performance, is the best of the DVD. Meat is really into it, the band is awesome, and the ix is actually really good on this track. I think this is the indisputable highlight of the DVD. The problem is, instead of going into an interesting 5 minute story about how the song came to be, Meat blabbers on about marion raven, lesbian talk, and such. Very disappointing, that was prime time to go into how Jim came up with Objects. The pointless banter Doesnt lead into Objects very well at all, and its 5 minutes of the DVD that didnt need to be there.

ROCK AND ROLL DREAMS
Second to Objects as the best performance on the DVD. Not because meat sounds uber awesome, but because he looks like hes having fun. The last time think I see him smile big and wide for the rest of the DVD. The third to last song where it doesn't feel like hes performing it as a chore. Daves sax is kickass. Much prefer his sax solo on the DVD to the case de carne disk.

SEIZE THE NIGHT
Seemingly inspired by the 1988 Original Sin arrangement, it was really cool. CC and Aspen harmonize well. Sadly it lads into the lowest point of the DVD: TMIL.

THE MONSTER IS LOOSE
The lowest point of the disk. i almost skipped it this time around! Very hard to watch, Meat looks stressed and uninterested, and the only time i can say This band was not fantastic. Nope. Nothing about this song works live at all. SKIP THIS.

BAD FOR GOOD
My third favorite performance of the DVD, and i love the sax and arrangement. Meat seems to be into it for the FINAL time this DVD. Hes not too into it, but at least the end of the tank was buffing for a bit. The audio errors are indeed distracting, but with some editing no-how they can be averted. The rest of this DVD basically blows chunks cause you have a disinterested Meat not having fun. You cant have a good experience watching a DVD if the lead singer is uninterested.

BREAK IT

Cinematically, this song is he best. Meat is just out of gas. SKIP

BLIND AS A BAT
The studio vocals are a massive distraction, and meta is not interested. Gas is completely gone. SKIP.

TWO OUT OF THREE
I wish Two out of three wasnt on this DVD. this was flat. very flat. Too flat.
That and meat was just not into this at all

BAT
Meat cant do bat wrong Live, and this is now exception. its Bat. Good for what it is, but there are better versions to chose from.

BLACK BETTY
I have a boot of a superior 2007 version. Mea sounds alright, but he just looks dreary and disinterested. Nice to listen to, though.

IACBTMN
Never liked the studio version and think its the worst ML song ever. live its worse. SKIP.

MERCURY BLUES
Theres noting about this version of mercury thats special. Nothing bad about it that makes it better then the almighty MSO version.

GIMME SHELTER
A reasonable finale, but the arrangement on the ISOP version is far superior. Dunno why they changed it. I think the finale's OK.

OVERALL:

CINEMATOGRAPHY: 10/10
BOXART AND MENU: 9/10
DVD PERFORMANCE: 6.5/10

[GDW]

A better way of rating this DVD would be how many times you have watched it since the first day you bought it. My rating = 0

[Mr. Happy]

Objects is incredible.
Rock and Roll Dreams is incredible.
Break It is incredible.
Blind as a Bat is incredible.
Seize the Night gives me chills. They should have done the whole song, rather than just the intro. It also needs to be selectable by itself from the menu. I always have trouble finding it
Black Betty isn't incredible, but that's just because the song itself isn't on par with the ones above. Still great performance though

The rest isn't horrible, but it's not great. It's All Coming Back To Me Now and Bad for Good are the shakiest, though. The latter needed some seeeeeeeeeeeerious tweeks.

[Wario]

Well ive fixed BFG for what its worth:
http://www.facebook.com/v/3895192411876

[Mr. Happy]

Originally Posted by Wario

Well ive fixed BFG for what its worth:
http://www.facebook.com/v/3895192411876

This mix is just as good a performance as Objects and better than Rock and Roll Dreams or Blind as a Bat Although the studio guitars at the end might not have been necessary

Also, on a slightly related note, I love the addition of the sax in Bad for Good. Beautiful touch

[Evil One]

Originally Posted by Evil One

You can tell Meat's ill and not having fun.

The pokey little venue does nothing for the atmosphere.

Whoever edited it did a shite job.

The first half isn't actually that bad, but Meat seems to put everything he's got into Objects and then does the rest of the show with the tank on empty.

The band is awesome.

There was no need for any sax during Frying Pan. It would have been better without.

Aspen is not Patti, but it's nice to have a change every once in a while.

As mentioned by Wario the ladies singing 'girl' during All Revved Up sort of sets the tone for the show.

Overall it's not a patch on the MSO concert and not Meat's finest hour. But then he's already said he hates it too!

My views have not changed since the first time you did this thread.

[Adje]

Originally Posted by Wario

CINEMATOGRAPHY: 10/10
BOXART AND MENU: 9/10
DVD PERFORMANCE: 6.5/10

I can agree for a great deal.

I know cinematography and editing are completely different disciplines but as you only mentioned cinematography I like to combine the two together. It was very well filmed but not the best shots were picked (I assume from what I do get to see) so that gets a 8.5 from me

Well boxart and menu all great and I can agree with the 9

DVD performance.... wow, I can't give this more than 4.5. As you mentioned Meat looks not happy and at times uninterested. It destroys the experience of the concert. The fact that he didn't sound great doesn't help either.

Since 2007 I played the DVD 5 times over several years. And every time it gives me an unpleasant feeling. From the opening vocals of Paradise (which I really dislike, the vocals on Paradise) There are some highlights but it's too little to enjoy this concert.

Like you I have a superior bootleg for this tour. And like you I never heard a decent live version of IACBTMN not even on that bootleg.

It was well set up and such but in the end, I believe, they just picked the wrong night to tape this.

[misterfive]

The only problem with this DVD is his preformance he just sounds a little off, too off for a above average rating. I say if he was at his top form it be higher if not perfect but the guy sounds a little ill or having to deal with the change in his voice. So for the preformance I say 5/10 for his voice but 10/10 for effort and emotion.

[Monstro]

Jury's out as to whether this thread has a purpose for me

[Sarge]

Originally Posted by GDW

A better way of rating this DVD would be how many times you have watched it since the first day you bought it. My rating = 0

I watched it twice in total. I have no desire to watch it again. The box it came along with was nice, though (except for the cover art), and the documentary was quite interesting but watching the concert gives me a bad feeling. I can't enjoy it. I rather watch Bad Attitude Live for the umpteenth time.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by Monstro

Jury's out as to whether this thread has a purpose for me

itd be interesting what you think of it. WHen i do MSO youll be singing a different tune

[Monstro]

Originally Posted by Wario

itd be interesting what you think of it. WHen i do MSO youll be singing a different tune

Why? my opinion hasn't changed,

B3 DVD, best part is R&RD and that's only for the guitar work at the end of the song, rest imo is awful

MSO DVD is excellent, loved it first play and continue to.

Jury's decided, no need for me to rehash anything

[misterfive]

Originally Posted by Monstro

Why? my opinion hasn't changed,

B3 DVD, best part is R&RD and that's only for the guitar work at the end of the song, rest imo is awful

MSO DVD is excellent, loved it first play and continue to.

Jury's decided, no need for me to rehash anything

No the best moment was Out of the Frying Pan and Into The Fire, you just can't beat that energy. He always has that when he sings it. Even if he does sound like he needs an inhaler.

[CarylB]

I listen to and enjoy Meat's albums. I let surgeons dissect I love magic .. Meat delivers it for me. I don't like to put it in a killing bottle and pull the wings off

Caryl

[Paul Richardson]

Originally Posted by CarylB

I don't like to put it in a killing bottle and pull the wings off

In your opinion Caryl, but please don't spoil everyone else's fun

[Evil One]

Originally Posted by misterfive

No the best moment was Out of the Frying Pan and Into The Fire, you just can't beat that energy. He always has that when he sings it. Even if he does sound like he needs an inhaler.

I love that arrangement of Frying Pan, although I think it would be even better without the saxamophone.

[Wario]

Ive decided not to make a separate thread for MSO, as my thoughts in last years MSO thread are the same: http://www.mlukfc.com/forums/showthr...rrent+Thoughts

This is how 3 Bats Live looks in my itunes. says alot:

Originally Posted by Monstro

Why? my opinion hasn't changed,

B3 DVD, best part is R&RD and that's only for the guitar work at the end of the song, rest imo is awful

MSO DVD is excellent, loved it first play and continue to.

Jury's decided, no need for me to rehash anything

Ahhhhh I see!

[allrevvedup]

Black Betty, break it (not vocally), the end of rock and roll dreams and it's all coming back to me now.

The rest comes across as very poor. I don't think they've ever got Blind as a bat right in the times I've seen and heard it live.

Anyway, knowing what we know now it's a bit more understandable as to why it wasn't the best.


Overall I don't think that period will be looked back on too fondly by Sir Loaf and fans alike

[Wario]

2007 is down there with 1982 as far as Meat himself is concerned.

My guess is Meats favorite periods of time are: 1977, 1987-1993, 2010, 2011, and current.

[CarylB]

Originally Posted by Paul Richardson

In your opinion Caryl, but please don't spoil everyone else's fun

Have I prevented you? Even attempted to do so? I don't think so. Please allow me the right of a reply and my reasons

[ShelbyLee]

I just watch MSO or Storytellers instead.

[Paul Richardson]

Originally Posted by CarylB

Have I prevented you? Even attempted to do so? I don't think so. Please allow me the right of a reply and my reasons

No, No, and I did, so we're cool yes ?

I just thought for one horrible moment that your comparison of the critique of Bat 3 to putting it into a killing jar and pulling off its wings was a rebuke to those who wanted to debate its merits ?

I guess we're all guility at times of taking things at mere face value ...

[Cherry.Loaf]

I watch it rarely; I much prefer MSO or the Original Bat tour; The highlight for me is when Aspen and CC sing Seize the night that's beautiful and haunting.

The reason I hardly watch it is Aspen I really didn't think her voice worked and her singing Paradise with Meat just doesn't work for me and I just don't enjoy it.