Rise Against – Rise Against – Another Station: Another Mile [DVD]

Live DVDs are a tricky thing and really only for the hardcore fans. Over the years I’ve watched dozens of them and have progressively gotten more bored with them with each new release to the point where I rarely have any motivation to go and watch a live DVD.

Unless it’s something truly original (Bruce Springsteen’ Live In Dublin is fantastic), live DVDs generally fall flat as the intensity and excitement of the show is never able to properly seep through the TV.

Because of my ambivalence, it took me a good six months before actually watching Rise Against’s latest live DVD, Another Station: Another Mile and I’m left with generally the same sensation as I had before.

As a whole, Another Station isn’t bad as they mix the live performances with small snippets of interviews to create a small documentary release.  This is what saves the DVD – the documentary aspects.

Beginning with the look into the writing of their new album Endgame, Another Station shows the band goofing around and having fun – humanizing them and giving a glimpse into their writing process.  The DVD progresses forward, having each member telling stories about the others, introducing the stage crew and pointing out exactly what thy do on tour. They get history lessons in Hungary, throw the baseball around Wrigley Field and get tattoos touched up. It’s also nice to see them get excited as they meet their musical idols, something that I’m sure thousands of kids feel when they get to meet Rise Against. These snippets are what make the release worthwhile and you just wish there was more of it -like on their last DVD, Generation Lost.

Not that the live performances are bad per say, it’s just that they’re only for the biggest fan around. There’s a nice selection of songs, although mainly focusing on their newer material with only Blood Red White & Blue from Revolutions Per Minute.  The camera work is strong and immensely varied from show to show. In the House of Blues performances it is steady and controlled, while the German festival footage is spastic, crooked and full of quick cuts. The audio quality is consistently strong but with slight variations from venue to venue, the best coming in their performance of Audience Of One at the Much Music Video Awards in Toronto.

The trouble is, the live footage isn’t really ground breaking or all that engaging and only when they switch it up do the live tracks truly succeed. Take Swing Life Away for instance. It’s an acoustic performance pieced together from multiple shots of Tim McIlrath playing the song around the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest.  He plays on the front steps, on the train and in various locations around a few concourses and people either stop to watch, drop money in his guitar case or completely ignore him – it’s a unique view and the highlight of the live footage. The second highlight comes from the rain soaked performance ofReady To Fall as the rain adds a new twist to the look and feel of it all.

With a bit more documentary, this would have been a great success. As it is, it’s good but only for the biggest fans and completists.