Live’s new live concert DVD and CD are now available. Just go get it and you won’t regret it. It’s live, loud and raw. It’s must have for anyone who likes, or ever did like, Live!

I have been eagerly anticipating my copy of the DVD and CD in the mail. I preordered mine through Friends of Live in order to support the band’s fanclub. Well yesterday it came. I couldn’t wait to open it and pop it into the DVD player.

I’ve got a high-end 10 foot movie screen with a high def 1080p projector in my media room at home. A Blue Ray player that upconverts. And an audio system that would make audiophiles drool.

I ran into the media room and fired the system up. Let me just say that the DVD experience was awesome. The digital 5.1 surround is fantastic. I love going to concerts, but getting to experience a bit of the concert experience in the privacy of my home allowed me to feel the goosebumps and emotion of the experience moreso than I would in a crowded room full of drunks. I lost my mother a few months ago and I listened to some Live music along the way in the process. After a decade of being devoted to the music, it just meant that much more to me to after that and it stirs emotions inside of me.

I always get goosebumps when I hear the crowd at a concert singing the songs along with Ed and he turns the microphone over to them. There’s a bunch of that on this DVD, like in I Alone, Lightening Crashes, and Overcome. It’s really special stuff and highlights not only the connection of the band to its fans, but also the fans to each other. It’s like “Hey, I really get this and you all get this too. We’re responding as one.”

What am I not crazy about on this DVD? It took me a little while to get used to the rapid switching of the camera angles and the zooming and out of focus shots as the footage is rolling. It creates a somewhat frenetic feel to the footage, and I get it. I get that they are trying to capture the moment and the energy by washing it all over you. But there are times when I would have liked a long shot of Chad doing the stomp, of Ed dancing around, of Patrick grooving – like you would do as you stare onto the stage at a concert. I wanted a little more of that on this DVD.

Then I have the obvious complaint, and I feel the same way about every concert I go to. It ain’t done till I get to hear White Discussion. I don’t feel ridden hard and put away wet unless I have heard Ed, Chad, Pat and Chad squeeze every last drop out of White Discussion. I want jumping, screaming, stomping, pounding and thumping just before the lights go up. When it’s over, I want to look at the guy next to me and say “Wow, WTF just happened?!”. I don’t want to walk out of a concert venue or push “eject” on my DVD player after Dance With You. That’s a lullaby and White Discussion is a grenade between the ears. Just my two cents.

The CD seems to be mixed just right. I loved listening to it in the car this morning. Man, this CD is the best capture of a live performance I have ever heard. Ever. Just brilliant.

This photo was among the first shots that I ever took of Live. I believe it was around 2001 at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City, when a very generous friend invited me to have the opportunity to shoot a concert. I was shooting film back then, as were many people. I remember the excitement and anticipation of being right up against the stage when the band came out. It was mind-blowing to be that close to the stage and at the feet of my favorite performers and taking photos, living out my favorite hobby in the most covetous of situations imaginable.

I knew a lot less then than I do now about shooting a concert. Exposure, shutter speed, ISO speed, composition. And using film made it much, much more difficult. I remember quickly fumbling around unloading and loading 24 exposure rolls of 800 speed film during the first 3 songs, which is the only time that photography is permitted. That seems so archaic now. Digital makes things so much easier, and the ISO speeds of my new Nikon D700 are unbelievable by film standards. I still use the Nikon 80-200 2.8 lens that I used for this shot. This photo is framed as an 8×10 on my wall at home, in a frame that also contains my first photo pass, my ticket and Chad Taylor’s autograph.

I have some great stories about the night I took this shot. The first time I ever met Ed was that night – he jumped on the elevator with me as the doors were closing. I ran into Chad Taylor in the hotel lobby early the next morning and saw Chad Gracey eating breakfast in the diner. As a fan of the band, it was pretty cool to see the members of the band popping up everywhere.