Various Artists – Beyond Warped [DVD]

There is no shortage of Warped Tour documentaries being released in the past year or so. SideOneDummy Records released the Punk Rock Summer Camp documenting the inner workings of the 1998Warped Tour while Kung Fu Records released the Warped Tour 2003 DVD, which took a look at the 2003 tour. Now Aloha Films Group have just released the latest in Warped DVDs called Beyond Warped. It looked promising saying it “takes viewers on a 2 month journey across North America following the performers and their day to day lies on the World’s longest touring music festival. Live performances and in-depth interviews from 26 bands captures their unique lifestyles and thrusts viewers into the heart of emerging music.” This quote, found on the back of the DVD, grossly, grossly, grossly misrepresents the contents of the DVD.

Beyond Warped is by no means a behind the scenes look at the Warped Tour. It features a few interviews with various bands dispersed in between countless live performances, but for the most part, it is solely live performances. There’s no denying that Aloha were able to successfully capture the bands performing and some amazing shots of the crowds during the festival – but it is not a behind the scenes look at the tour. You get to hear a few band’s opinions on the tour and punk rock in general, but you don’t get to see how the stages are set up, how the bands are picked, what they eat, where they eat, their day to day lives, or anything you can’t see from being at the actual tour yourself.

So if you bought this DVD in hopes of learning more about the inner workings of the tour, then you will be very, very disappointed. But if you bought it for the live performances, then you will be very happy. The DVD documents many of the smaller bands on the tour, only going to the main stage bands once or twice and the quality of each recording is fantastic. The sound is clear and the image is spotless, and with multiple cameramen filming each performance, you get a ton of different angles. Bands like Guttermouth and The Matches (who each play three songs) stand out amongst the performances as well as the unique Native-American song by Black Fire and the hip-hop band The Lordz Of Brooklyn. Juliette And The Licks, Anti-Flag, and Another Damn Disappointment also supply some good songs andBeyond Warped also has the best live performance by Toronto’sBilly Talent that I have seen filmed. The only really disappointing live band on it was Mae as it was just a boring performance.

Overall, Beyond Warped let me down because it didn’t give you any insight to the band’s day to day lives like they had promised. But it did give some very clear live performances. Unfortunately, its nothing you can’t get on other DVDs. If you were to pick a Warped DVD, I’d still go for SideOneDummy‘s Punk Rock Summer Camp.