Dave Matthews Band IS "Larger Than Life in 3D"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 13 December 2009 23:39

Written by Frank Lovece

Hannah Montana and U2, who have had their own 3-D concert films, may be hard acts to follow, but this engaging mix of three diverse concert draws tries hard to have something for everyone. Running a one-week engagement, from December 11 to 17, 2009, the generically titled Larger Than Life in 3D weaves together acts from three recent summer concerts – New York City gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello at the All Points West Music & Arts Festival in New Jersey, California pop-fusion performer Ben Harper and his band Relentless7 at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver, Colo., and the peripatetic pop star Dave Matthews and his group at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Texas.

Using a trio of acts with such distinct styles and sounds but who complement each other seems a savvy way to reach a broader audience than just core fans – who bought tickets in troves for Hannah Montana, but didn't say yoo-hoo to U2.

It was also savvy to open with the high-energy Gogol Bordello, whose Eastern European-derived sound and manic show kick things off with aural and visual interest. After a quick couple of numbers – the band eventually coming back to play in a frame alongside  the movie's closing credits – the tempo downshifts to singer-guitarist Harper, who displays a high, virtuoso voice reminiscent of 1970s-era Steve Winwood.

Night descends during his band's set, segueing to Matthews' seven-man ensemble, which performs over a half-dozen songs – mostly Matthews' own, including "You Might Die Trying," "Shake Like a Monkey," "Why I Am" and his closer, "Ants Marching," but also the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House." Throughout, the camera well captures his Jim Belushi-eque, admirably Everyman aura.

Projecting 3-D is inevitably tricky, given that 3-D movies nonetheless project on a two-dimensional screen, and it's not usual for the illusion of depth to vary widely within the same movie. The opening two segments sometimes appear less three-dimensional than they do like a series of 2-D planes, like in old stereopticon postcards. This multiplane effect is less pronounced in the night scenes, where there's less contrast and backlighting, though by the same token, the cinematography in the low-light Matthews segment is less vivid and "present."

In the modern, mid-Manhattan theater where I attended a public screening, the audio came solely from front speakers – authentically enough like a real concert, as far as that goes. But in a movie theater, especially when the visuals are presented in 3-D, it's a bit disconcerting not to have the same surround-sound that anyone with even a rudimentary home-theater system would have.

There's little backstage footage and no interviews, keeping the focus squarely on the songs. Judicious editing, thankfully, avoids dead spaces between songs, and the whole package, while not really emulating a concert experience, is tight and musical and could have a solid life in the home theaters of which we spoke.

For more info got to: http://www.inconcert3d.com/

Larger Than Life in 3D
Directed by Luke Harrison and Lawrence Jordan
Produced by Action 3D and AEG Network Live
(Cinedigm Entertainment Group)
at various theaters nationwide

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