| The
Review |
The new Pulse DVD is the much anticipated follow up to
the VHS release of Pink Floyd's best selling concert video
documenting their monumental Division Bell tour of 1994. Rumors
began spreading back in 2004, possibly earlier, of the DVD's
imminent release, but the date was pushed back numerous times,
with production problems or scheduling conflicts usually to
blame. Now that it has finally arrived, was it worth the wait?
Of course it was.
The two disk DVD package comes in a basic two-fold digipack
and features some trippy new artwork by Storm Thorgerson.
A four-page booklet is inside which includes mainly concert
photos and menu maps for each disk. David Gilmour also made
sure to throw in a postcard ad for his new On An Island album.
Much of the video has been re-edited, sometimes for the worse,
using alternate camera angles, which may leave you scratching
your head if you recently viewed the VHS version.
Pulse was recorded on October 20th, 1994, during Pink
Floyd's two-week stand at London's Earls Court, while touring
in support of the recently released, Roger Waters-less, Division
Bell album. For those of you lucky enough to have seen the
tour, or who at least saw the original VHS version of Pulse,
you know that the Division Bell tour was one of the most amazing
visual spectacles to ever call itself a rock concert. I can't
say that it has been, or ever will be, topped. The stage is
so damn enormous, and the wall of lights, lasers, videos,
and special effects are so spectacular that you might find
yourself forgetting that there is actually a band playing
up there.
Although this tour was in support of the Division Bell
album, the real star here was The Dark Side Of The Moon -
performed in its entirety. The performance was absolutely
stunning, and I look forward to comparing Roger Waters' version,
when I see him next month. Before the Dark Side album was
trotted out, the Floyds opened the show with a mesmerizing
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Right off the bat you will notice
that some of the camera angles have changed dramatically from
the original release, especially the opening sequence which
now focused much more on Gilmour than the screen film.
From there, they trot out the best of the post-Waters
material, with four songs from the Division Bell and two from
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. I probably appreciate the Division
Bell material more than most long time Floyd fans, but these
performances mostly just created a high sense of anticipation
for what was soon to follow. The end of the first set gives
you a sneak peak of exactly that, starting with a loose, highly
improvised version of "Another Brick In the Wall", followed
by their ferocious instrumental classic "One Of These Days",
from 1971's Meddle album. Watching two giant inflatable pigs
squealing in delight as Gilmour tears through this brilliant
slide guitar masterpiece made it the obvious highlight of
the first set. Too bad the editor couldn't add the footage
of the pigs actually jumping down to the ground.
After the first intermission, the stage darkens to reveal
a huge heartbeat pulse flickering across the giant circular
screen. This, of course, triggers the beginning of The Dark
Side Of The Moon's opening track "Speak To Me". After a haunting
performance of "Breath" things really heat up, literally,
as "On The Run" ends with a burning airplane flying across
the entire length of the arena until it crashes and explodes
into a giant fireball at the front corner of the stadium.
Oh, it only gets better.
The famous orgasmic female vocals on "The Great Gig in
the Sky" were performed stunningly by Sam Brown, but when
she handed off the ending part to the other two backup singers
they failed to sustain the same electricity. "Money" featured
a cool soulful/blues breakdown in the middle, before ending
with another phenomenal Gilmour guitar solo. The set came
to an end with a dazzling light display that signaled the
end of "Eclipse", which brilliantly concluded The Dark Side
Of The Moon.
After a second intermission, the recorded intro to "Wish
You Were Here" fills the arena, before a spotlight eventually
shines on Gilmour as he fingers the opening chords to this
timeless classic. It was as beautiful as I've ever heard it.
This leads to what I was especially anxious to see on DVD,
since it is one of my favorite songs of all time, "Comfortably
Numb". The performance was plenty awesome, but the stage show
now goes from merely astonishing to down-right mind-blowing.
During Gilmour's second guitar solo, the huge circular screen/lighting
rig begins to rotate down, horizontally, over the stage, and
by the end of the song the giant mirror ball that had been
reflecting a dozen spotlights all over the stadium, slowly
peels open like some monstrous alien spaceship - and that
was just child's play compared to the light show during the
finale of "Run Like Hell".
When I first saw the VHS version of Pulse sometime around
1998, I vowed not to watch it again until I had the DVD version
in my hand. It deserved to be seen on DVD with 5.1 surround
sound. Little did I know it would take another eight years
to achieve my objective, but the Pulse DVD has been worth
the wait. Two Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio options are
provided, one at 480 kbps and one at 640 kbps. David Gilmour
helped with the production of these tracks, and did a remarkable
job. A Dolby Digital stereo track is also included.
The booklet includes a disclaimer that the 640 Kbps track
may not work on some "older" model DVD players, and this turned
out to be true in my case. My four year old Hitachi DVD player
would not play the 640 kbps track, but my cheaper, one-year
old Zenith player had no such problem. The 480 kbps track
sounded excellent enough through my surround sound system,
but the almost DTS quality 640 kbps track was a noticeable
improvement, especially at lower volumes. The only problem
I noticed with the mix was whenever the giant bass drum was
struck by percussionist Gary Wallis, I thought my poor subwoofer
was going to implode. It was mixed excessively loud.
This video really cried out for a widescreen presentation,
considering the immensity of the stage show, but it was presented
in its original full-frame format. Unfortunately this is a
better option than artificially widening it and cutting off
some of the picture in the process. The picture does suffer
from some noticeable graininess, but the overall restoration
looks fantastic. This easily blows away the VHS version. David
Mallet generally did a good job with the camera direction,
mixing in plenty of wide angle shots of the entire stage show,
with some nice close-ups of each performer. He did often change
angles too quickly, especially when Gilmour was in the middle
of one of his amazing guitar solos, which is not exactly the
ideal time to switch over to the backup singers or the video
screen every ten seconds.
Considering the lengthy time it took to get this DVD
released, Pink Floyd had plenty of time to come up with some
excellent special features, and they did. These are the highlights:
-
Bootlegging the Bootleggers: Camcorder footage of "What
Do You Want From Me", "On The Turning Away", "Poles Apart",
and "Marooned". The video is edited between multiple camera
angles, and the audio sounds surprisingly decent.
Screen Films: All of the screen films and animations
are provided up close via the large, circular projection panel
used on stage, which is referred to as "Mr. Screen". They
also include several older, alternate versions of some screen
films, which are all set to music from the concert.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction: Former Smashing
Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan gives a reflective induction
speech and then joins Gilmour and Wright onstage for a stripped-down
version of "Wish You Were Here". Roger Waters and Syd Barrett
were unfortunately absent from this 1996 ceremony.
Also included was a fifteen-minute behind-the-scenes
documentary called Say Goodbye To Life As We Know It, the
music videos for "Learning To Fly" and "Take It Back", and
more.
Reviewed by Paul
M. Roy - August 2006
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