LENNON - My Crazy Life DVD

Wow!! This DVD cover really doesn’t give you ANY REAL indication about what you are about to experience!! Though the cartoons are humorous, there’s no track listings or any LIVE pics to behold the calamity that is contained within. Yet, this is a great collection of her adventures and mishaps of her bands' 2005 line up. Honest Lennon, to the max, without any apology.

Before I really go in depth on reviewing this DVD from Lennon, the artist and the band in this respect, I wholly recommend EVERY up and coming artist who’s really serious about making a career in the music business to add this to their collection of must have ‘behind the scenes’ or ‘as it happened’ videos. Not only alphabetically will this and her other DVD, Before The So Called, fit between KISS’ The Second Coming, and Metallica’s A Year and a Half in the Life of…, but it should be required viewing! This is a fantastic journey through the ‘fly on the wall’, if you will, view of the amazing career that Lennon has pursued now for over 6 years.

The opening root menu scene has only 2 options, ‘Play’ and ‘Chapters’ to either begin or to specifically get to where you want to go. The music playing in the background is some unreleased material, something to the effect of “Just One More Night”, is my best guess of the song title that most of us here in the states don’t have, yet! Unless you buy the DVD!! Yet, this song is a good mid tempo rocker that would actually be a decent radio hit if Clear Channel didn’t monopolize every damn thing!

On with the review; we see her posing for her latest batch of pics for the Suicide Girls.com site, which opens this video. And then goes right into a typical bad situation that can befall any artist, they have technical difficulties!! Not something you really want to happen on the Vans WARPED TOUR or any show for that matter. But overall there’s a lot of general behind the scenes of life on the road, at sound checks and on her bus. Even the now infamous bus wreckage by a semi-driver falling asleep at the wheel and ramming their trailer into the back of their coach. Looking at the footage, the damage doesn’t seem as bad as we thought from reading the original news clip about it. But I'm sure going through that was an experience not to be easily forgotten!

On another note, I will give a general shout out to the compilers of this disc right off the bat; there are no signs of drug or alcohol abuse anywhere on this disc. If there are, it was not included here, which shows that her and the band are in control. At the same time, it shows that you can have a lot of fun without having to be fucked up all the time to get around.

Some of the features on this disc contain some really great moments in her career up to this point. I was particularly impressed by her radio interviews in Tokyo and Hong Kong. This is the real Lennon that is under the image and sound of her music. A very gentile, good-natured soul that has a gift and wants to chare it with the world. Though many of her fans can totally relate to a good portion, if not all of her lyrics, she really exhibits a sense of vulnerability that some artists really lack these days.

The best parts of this video, as far as any LIVE material, culminate at the Hong Kong show. Featured here is professional shot footage of “Couldn’t Breathe”; “My Beautiful”; “One Or The Other” and “Brake Of Your Car”. I’ve counted about 5 different cameral angles that really capture Lennon well. These contain a fair balanced amount of shots of the whole band and not just her. The 5.1 sound really stands out well! Especially after listening to the low-fi of most of the digicams shots through out the video. However, I should point out that it’s obvious that by the 2nd song she’s running with full throttle open and no looking back! And as the evening is getting darker during this set it makes her and the lighting on the stage come more to life. But by 2/3’s into “Brake..”, she’s beginning to sound winded and a little rough. But that should be expected for giving it her all to slay the crowd in a short amount of time. An excerpt of her press interview after the performance centers mostly on her guitarist. Bummer.

The main thing I have noticed about her LIVE performance is showcased here perfectly. My only criticism is that even though she moves a lot on stage, she doesn’t “perform” much. She has a tendency to just randomly roam around the stage and doesn't really get too close to the crowd or face them for any real length of time. I’ve seen some of her gigs where she really steps out as a great front woman and as an up and coming rock icon. In these shots, her bassist D.J. is her only real counterpart and sometimes takes away from her presence onstage. An incredible performer himself, and a great addition to her band but had this had multiple camera angles as an option, it could have easily remedied that. Not to take away from the performance at all, but I'd love to see a complete full concert shot at multiple camera angles that cover the gamut of her music. I think it would sell quite well and be a must have for even a moderate music fan!

Overall, this is a phenomenal and intimate look inside a moment of a soon to be legendary career. Fans will be talking about some of the material on here for years to come. And for me, it was great to see more footage of drummer extraordinaire, Kenny Aronoff! This guy is like the king of the session drummers!! Not to mention that he's just totally bad ass on a kit!! Again, help support this independent artist and buy her DVD today! You will not be disappointed!

Sonny Thomas – 2.13.06

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