Billy Talent – 6-6-6

Throughout the past few years, I’ve seen a lot of bands live. Yes, its true, I’ve barely scratched the surface; but I’ve still seen a fair few and one band I’ve always maintained as being one of my favorite acts live has been Billy Talent. In the past four years, I’ve seen them grow from being the first band on a four band bill to selling out small clubs and then finally headlining coliseums. Every time I saw them live I was amazed, but it was rare that I was able to find a live clip of them that actually portrayed their intensity. The sound quality of their live TV appearances almost always seemed to be sub par and none of the little clips ever capture their live show properly. 6-6-6 solves that problem as I finally have documentation of their live show that actually does them justice even though it’s still not quite as good as it is in person.

Capturing the band at the height of their touring schedule, the DVD portion of 6-6-6- features six songs from three different shows across Europe. First up is six songs from the famed Brixton Academy in London, second is another section of cuts from their set at Philipshalle in Dusseldorf, Germany and they end it all up with six songs from the massive Rock AM Fest in Nurburging, Germany.

The image quality from the three different sessions are great, there’s numerous camera angles that alternate constantly without being obnoxious or off putting and the tracks are flawlessly seemed together. In fact, you can’t even tell that the songs don’t follow one another but actually come from various parts of the performances. Throughout the release there are only a few downsides, the first is the abnormally limited shots of Jon Gallant. While he does make a fair few appearances, I couldn’t help but feel that the focus was on the other three members for the most part. Then comes the annoying George Bush rant that Ben gives before Worker Bees almost every time, it’s a rant I’ve heard far too many times by far too many bands and now it’s just lots it’s ring. The last downside is the most noticeable and yet easiest to overcome: the slightly weaker sound quality at the Rock AM Fest. While it still remains better than prior recordings from the band, the outdoor festival doesn’t come through the DVD as well as the first two segments. However, you soon get over the fact as it never truly becomes too painful to listen to and you become far more fascinated in seeing the camera sweep across the crowd of over 80,000 people. As for bonus features, there’s not much to offer other than a picture gallery and surround sound settings which is slightly disappointing but not overly so.

The second disc of the two disc compilation is a CD recording of the entire seventeen song performance in Dusseldorf. Once again, the sound quality comes through as the recording is very clear. There’s a raw feel to it which makes it feel more authentic and unpolished and there’s very little banter in between which lets the listener just entertain themselves with songs and not trying to picture the band speaking in between.

Both the DVD and the CD feature little changes that the band has thrown in the live format which they left out from the studio. There’s some added screams from Ben, some background melodies thrown on top of the bridges and most notably, the great introduction to Prisoners Of Today. It’s always those little quips which make seeing a live band more entertaining, and Billy Talent were able to capture them on here too.

So while I’m normally not much a fan of live CDs, I do always like to hear a live recording of my favorite bands. With 6-6-6, Billy Talent has given me a live album that actually conveys their great live show and an album that I’m sure I’ll go back to in the future.