311 - Live in New Orleans 311 Day

Starring:311
Studio: Volcano
Product Type: DVD

Description

A special double DVD release, comprised of the band's live "3-11 Day" concert in New Orleans. Performing on 3-11 Day (March 11th), is an annual tradition for the band. Each year 311 fans from around the world travel to New Orleans for this special event. It is the ultimate 311 concert experience - and this year, we're bringing that experience directly to your living room. 311 Day: Live In New Orleans, the 2-DVD set contains over three hours of live concert footage - including all the band's classic hits plus rarities, b-sides, covers and more! The DVD will also include a behind-the-scenes look at the band & their fans. The DVD was filmed live on location at UNO Lakefront Arena to a sold-out crowd of 8,000 screaming fans. In response to this special 311 concert event, the mayor of New Orleans officially proclaimed "March 11th" as "3-11 Day" in New Orleans!!!

Customer Reviews:

311 Day - DVD .......2007-04-26

This 2 disc set of 3/11 day in New Orleans captures it all. The playlist is all of their best songs and there is great footage of the concert.

The 411 on 311's Live in New Orleans 311 Day.......2007-04-20

After my initial viewing of 311's Live in New Orleans 311 Day I thought, "What a nice gift these dudes have given to their fans with this performance and the DVD that documented it." Well it turns out that my first impression was short-lived.

In some of my other music DVD reviews, I take the tact of applying a set of standards to a release and establishing how the DVD measures up. Let me say in advance that when I take this tact, it usually means that I was disappointed in the release, and that is indeed the case with Live in New Orleans 311 Day.

A memo really needs to go out to all bands and music DVD producers that says at minimum: "1) Music DVD's should be produced to the highest standards. 2) The musical performances within should represent the talent that made the studio recorded CDs sell. 3) Theatrics are very cool too, as long as you can pull them off without deterioration in the quality of the music."

Let's break it down then for Live in New Orleans 311 Day:

1 - "Music DVD's should be produced to the highest standards." - It's here only here that Live in New Orleans 311 Day has failed...and failed miserably. I've been doing a lot of traveling watching DVDs on a portable DVD player instead of my home theater. This makes it hard to judge the picture quality and sound of a DVD. So before I pass any judgments, I wait until I have the time to take a look at the DVD on my home system. I was ready to give 5 stars to Live in New Orleans 311 Day before I watched it on the plasma/surround system.

It turns out that the picture quality in Live in New Orleans 311 Day is fair at best. The DVD was recorded in 2004 (on 3-11), so there is no excuse for a "fair at best" picture quality. The under average picture is hardly noticeable on a standard def TV, but it's very noticeable on a high def plasma TV; I think that just "flat" would be a good way to describe it. The technology to deliver a high quality picture was well in place prior to this recording (click on my name above and see my Amazon Listmania List of The Best Rock DVDs With High Quality A/V), and for 311 not to go with quality for this release--that captures almost their complete catalogue to date--is a shame.

The visuals are well-directed and don't jump all over the place every 2 seconds (as is true with way too many music DVDs; for some reason the notion all too often is that changing the visual projects the energy of a song...and that's a stupid notion). The camera shots in Live in New Orleans 311 Day give you nice long looks at each performer at the right time; if you were actually at the show, you'd probably be looking at the performer that the camera is on. This made for a viewing experience that enhanced the illusion of having a front row seat to the show, but the picture quality quickly reminded me that I was watching a DVD on my couch at home.

The biggest shock to this DVD production was the sound. Your only option here is standard stereo. No Dolby 5.1. No DTS. No Surround. Stereo on my portable or standard TV sounded fine, but c'mon guys. I'm not sure that I even know of a music DVD that at least wasn't offered in Surround in the last decade. The sound on Live in New Orleans 311 Day really ruins the illusion of being at the show using a home theater.

2 - "The musical performances within should represent the talent that made the studio recorded CDs sell." - The guys prior to hitting the stage definitely committed to each other to go out and play the music true to the studio versions of the songs. All of the tracks on Live in New Orleans 311 Day are performed precisely. And as I mentioned earlier, they give you all of their best songs. 64 to be exact! It's like a 4-hour show. Incredible. So to give such a great performance, but deliver it with poor recording quality, just has me scratching my head.

The band gives you all of the songs that you'd really want to hear plus some cool bonus material leading up to the show. There are other reviews that give the track listing so I won't waste space.

3 - "Theatrics are very cool too, as long as you can pull them off without deterioration in the quality of the music." - There are no over-the-top theatrics...which is great. The guys just play the music, and as I said earlier, they perform the songs to perfection.

So to sum it up, 311's show on 3-11-2004 was killer...especially if you were at it. But if you wanted to experience it in high def with quality audio you indeed needed to actually be there, because the DVD is one of the most lacking that I've ever viewed in the picture/audio departments. However, the performance is superb and really shows that 311 is a very talented group of musicians. The performance makes it worth the purchase.

Ok, now where's the rest?.......2006-03-31

OK, I like the show and all, neato songs, nice footage and whatnot...I just wonder why, if they're already going with multiple DVDs, why not include the whole show? There were several songs performed at the show that are missing here. Another small gripe that many won't share is that I don't like when flubs and miscues are edited out in post-production. That isn't what happened at the show. I like reality. Whatever, you should probably still buy this.

311 review.......2006-03-17

if your a 311 fan this is a must have.
great footage,quality and music of course.

Very good investment.......2006-03-10

Of course being the hard care 311 fans that we are, we had to get his one to get us pumped for the 3-11 day this year in Memphis. We have seen them live several times but never been to 3-11 day. Sound is great and all of the good old school and rarities are on this two disc dvd. Of course all their new stuff is great, but we been hard core fans since 1994. Next best thing to being at their shows. You haven't experienced 311 until you see them live.

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