Billy Talent – Scandalous Travelers [DVD]

It’s no secret that I love Billy Talent. They are my favorite band. I love their debut CD and try to see them every time they come to Edmonton (and have succeeded in seeing them four times to date). Time and time again they have wowed me with their live show, becoming my favorite, and most talked about, live band. So it’s fair enough to say that I love them. That’s why I was so pumped when I heard they were releasing a DVD on November 23rd.

So I get my hands on Scandalous Travelers and take a look at it. My first impression: pretty cool artwork, although very similar to that of their CD. I pop the disc into my XBOX and press play and the documentary starts rolling, and I must say I was slightly disappointed. Now, I still like the documentary, it is good. But I am a HUGE fan. And, unlike Against Me!‘s great DVD, We’re Never Going Home, which was able to convert me and other haters into a fan of the band, this DVD won’t appeal to any casual fans or disbelievers.

But for the major fans of Billy Talent, this is what you’ll get:
You’ll see Billy Talent traveling around the world, Canada, the US, Germany, England, and more. Traveling in a small van on the MTV Campus Invasion Tour to a huge bus during the Warped Tour, you see their transformation from a small unknown band opening for the Buzzcocks to a huge band wowing over 16,000 fans at Edgefest. They do interviews with various radio stations, Much Music, and the camera man. The band, especially Ben, gives some great analogies and answers to questions which you probably wouldn’t expect to hear. You get to see into the life of Billy Talent on tour for a bit, something which normally no one would get to see. Scattered around the documentary is various live performances (including one with them joining the Buzzcocks for a song), which, for the most part, do not display the raw power this band has.

After the documentary, they have quite a few bonus features for you to check out, which is all laid out neatly on the back of the DVD. There is a photo gallery of them onstage, backstage, offstage, and Aaron’s head injury in Edmonton a couple months ago. Then, there is a bio where you can read up on the band, and last but not least: the bonus footage. Three live acoustic performances, and four other live performances. Finally, the last two live performances start to portray their live power. Line And Sinker at the Leeds festival and Living In The Shadows at Warped in Toronto start to show the band’s amazing live presence. The last part of the bonus features has Aaron actually crowd surfing (like really surfing on a surf board) with the lead singer of The Beatsteaks in Germany, that’s something interesting to see.

Now, I still like this DVD. It’s not ground breaking, it won’t convince any haters to become fans, it won’t change your opinion on the band in anyway. But it does show them in a more personal way, and huge fans will most likely like it a bit; but don’t expect something spectacular.