PRATA VETRA - DIENAAS, KAD LIDLAUKS PAARAAK TAALS (2003)
Released January 6th, 2003
Details At A Glance
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Music |
Booklet Main Menu Scene selection Photo gallery Featurette-Preparation Featurette-Conception Featurette-About Tour Featurette-Surprises | |
| Rating | n/a | ||
| Year Of Production | 2003 | ||
| Running Time | 148 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | DVD Directed By | Kaspars Roga |
| Studio Distributor |
Brainstorm Records Company MicRec |
Starring | PRATA VETRA |
| Case | Have never seen such before... | ||
| Price | available on request | Music | PRATA VETRA |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | Dolby Digital 5.1 PCM Stereo | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, the salute | ||
Plot Synopsis
Brainstorm was formed in 1989 by Renars Kaupers, Janis Jubalts, Maris Mihelsons, Gundars Maushevics and Kaspars Roga who made their hard way from the small performances in their own school in their homewotn Jelgava to such a high level concert shows they did during the last summer in Latvia. I have personally attended all the 5 "Dienaas kad lidlauks paaraak taals" Latvian Tour 2003 shows and I must say that those were one of the best LIVE concerts I haver even been to. Compared to the previous Brainstorm Tour in Latvia ("Kakjeens, kursh atteicaas no juurasskolas" Tour 2002) these guys really have made it "up to the next level". The closing show of the tour, in Riga at Skonto stadium gathered more than 25'000 people which became the absolute record not just for Brainstorm but for whole Latvia. If you were there, I believe you would love to see it again (as I do), but if you weren't (there) - now THIS is your chance to see it!
The playlist includes the tracks from Brainstorm's latest album "Dienaas kad lidlauks paaraak taals" such as 'Colder', 'Pa pareizaam', an absolutely BEST hit of summer 2003 'Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris' and others, as well as the greatest hits from band's previous albums such as 'Maybe' (of course), 'Iissavienojums' (its english version 'My Star' became very popular in many European countries after BS lined up in the 3rd place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000), a never-to-be-forgotten 'Ziema' from the band's very first album 'Vairaak nekaa skalji' (1993), the first mega-hit song 'Lidmashinas' (1995), yet unreleased song "I Saw The Sunrise Deep In Hell' and much much more (see the track listing hereinafter).
The show begins with a bunch of songs from the new album starting with one of the most energetic new album's song 'Pa pareizaam', followed by less dynamic tracks 'Kaisliibas' and ''Kristiaanijas sunji' during which Renars is playing a guitar (by the way), and then there goes one of the most "powerfull" tracks - 'Puse no sirds' after which Renars is still standing on his own feet (in fact, he doesn't really look tired) continuing with one of the jump'iest songs 'Prom uz siltajaam salaam'. It is now time for some 'slower' tracks - 'Waterfall' (interrupted with a little tribute to Madonna with Renars singing a small part of 'Like A Virgin'), 'I Saw The Sunrise Deep In Hell' - the mysterious song which for the very first time I heard at the concert in summer of 2002. It had been later played on the different concerts in different countries but to this moment still wasn't available on any record (who knows, maybe it will be included in the next Brainstorm album?), but until then you can enjoy listening to its LIVE version, which is, in my own opinion, not less than brilliant. To keep the audience jump a bit longer and a lot higher - it's the time for 'Briivdienas nav manas laimiigaas dienas' accompanied with the yellow and red colour lightening probably insisting on the opposite (to what the song title claims)? :-) Renars regains his guitar and the show goes on with 'Es gribu' making Renars mostly dancing rather than playing the guitar. 'Ir vieglaak'. Hmmm, there was a little "story" about this song in connection to this Tour. In short - the song was not supposed to be in the playlist at all, and the video that was showed during the song on the big screen in the background was actually made for another song! :-) OK, the story is here if you want the details. :-) For a moment the action is slowed down by 'Starp divaam sauleem' and 'Ja tu esi mans prezidents' and then is followed by the magical 'Gala Komma'. Renars has finally got rid of the his suite and the magic begins....... This, in my opinion, is one of the best tracks on the list. The lightening effects and video footage being shown on five screens in the background is just WOW, and adding the great performance on the stage this one really makes it to the 'Top 5' at least. 'Kakjens, kursh atteicaas no juurasskolas' is great as usual, but this time for some reason the beat is noticably slower than in the original song. It still doesn't stop Renars and Janis running and jumping all around the HUGE stage expressing a lot of energy, a great part of which is imediately taken by the audience. A mix of anger, sadness, joy and never stopping action at the same time with 'Animals like me', but now it is time for a slower stuff and the magic continues with 'Spacemuminsh', which once again is accompanied with spectacular visualisation and lightening turning the stage in blue colours. The first single of the new album starts with a remark from Renars claiming they were promised the August to be sunny and... sometimes it probably was, but...it's an autumn coming, and... it's getting 'Colder' and colder... :-) And then it's "never say never, baby, it's 'Maybe'!" which was the greatest hit of 2001 and which was allways hard to perform LIVE same good as it sounds on the album and have probably made you think it is the last song at the concert, but you know that it isn't... ;) And it actually doesn't sound very much like a 'hit' anymore because... now it's the time for the mega-hit of the year 2003 - 'Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris'! This is another great track making it to absolute Nr. 1 among all the other songs performed during the concert - the crowd gets mad! 'Ziema' - a song from Brainstorm's very first album "Vairaak nekaa skalji" (1993) gets wilder and wilder each year. But you know, everybody just seems to like it (and so do I). The next song 'Lec' misses only one thing this time - the stage is placed on quite a high level above the ground and Renars just can't jump off of it and get closer to the audience as he usually does during the performance of this song but... it's OK - that has been compensated enough anyway. Guess what happens when all the band is leaving the stage and only Janis stays? Yep, it's 'Spoguliit', of course, which is already for a couple of years being performed LIVE solo by Janis and this time he does it at his best (there are people wondering why the lead singer is still Renars? LOL). 'Iissavienojums', a hit song in 2000 with which Brainstorm won the 3rd place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 gets a very warm welcome from the audience, but it just cant' compete to the Brainstorm classic 'Lidmashinas' - this time the crowd goes really crazy, I guess I could even feel the ground rumbling and shaking during the opening beats of the song! And now this is the time for farewell. The 2 hour show ends with 'Tu izveelejies palikt' and a beautiful salut up in the sky above the stage. Yet the crowd is not leaving yet - people are singing 'Sveiks lai dziivo' - a 'Happy Birthday' song to someone who now has the absolute right to celebrate after such a tremendous work, the result of which will stay in memories of more than 25'000 people who were there at the Skonto stadium that magical night of September 1st, 2003. :-)
To be honest it is hard to describe such a great concert like this. You really have to be there to fully appreciate it. If you were there, I am sure you will have a good time to experience the magic once again. If you weren't - you probably have to see this.
Though there was one moment about this DVD which I didn't really like. And it was that not a single camera was positioned to catch the close-ups of the first row, where the biggest fans were standing with their banners, posters (including the 'Happy Birthday' greetings to Renars) and flags representing the countries they have come from. Oh yes, there were also fans from another countries - Poland, Russia, Slovakia (hey, it was actually Slovenia - Renars mixed the countries! LOL), Lithuania, Estonia, Czechia! Still one can catch a few glimses of them (international fans), for example, at 25:20, 33:00, 1:15:35, 1:24:07 and 1:34:05.
Otherwise, the overall cut of the show presented on this DVD is very good, except for a couple of moments which I personally would have done (i.e., cut) a little bit differently. These were: the very beginning of the 'Kakjeens, kursh atteicaas no juurasskolas' when Renars is making his 'cat moves', and an absolutely great moment with him not just running but more like flying across the stage after the first chorus of 'Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris'. This was one of my favourite moments of the show and since I wasn't lucky to capture it good enough on a photo film (I was photographying the whole thing, you know), I hoped to see the whole sequence here on video, but unfortunately it was the general view of the stage from the far back (not a close-up one) presented here. Oh, well - OK, it still wasn't that bad (I mean the view). :-) LOL
Track Listing
|
1. Pa pareizam 2. Kaislibas 3. Puiseni no zvaigznem 4. Kristianijas sunji 5. Puse no sirds 6. Prom uz siltajam salam 7. Waterfall 8. I Saw The Sunrise Deep In Hell 9. Brivdienas nav manas laimigas dienas 10. Es gribu 11. Ir vieglak 12. Starp divam saulem 13. Ja tu esi mans prezidents |
14. Gala Komma 15. Kakjens, kursh atteicas no jurasskolas 16. Animals Like Me 17. Spacemuminsh 18. Colder 19. Maybe 20. Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris 21. Ziema 22. Lec 23. Spogulit 24. Issavienojums 25. Lidmashinas 26. Tu izvelejies palikt |
Transfer Quality
Video
First of all, I must say that I am not a "professional DVD reviewer", and I don't know much about all the different flaws and artefacts that sometimes appear on transfers (on DVD), that's why I am not going too much into these details.
Overall video quality is quite acceptable, even good, but not perfect (compared to what I have seen "on DVDs" to this day). And that seems to be so because of the original source material. The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame. The main problem is the lack of sharpness throughout the main 'program' (i.e., concert), which is probably, as I already said, due to the source material (and/or imperfection of video recording equipment), although I have to note that I was viewing the concert on a PC-DVD system. Later, I viewed it a bit on TV set (via composite tv-out on my Radeon 7500) and it obviously looked much better. So, if you will watch the show on TV set (either DVD-ROM or DVD-player), it will be OK, I think. :-)
This is not just a concert. This is a spectacular show from Brainstorm with very wide and dynamic colour range and very much high contrast scenes because of the constantly changing lightening all around the stage. Colors are mostly very good, and skin tones look very natural most of the time. There is number of occasions when some color is dominating over the others and thus the picture is "not-so-good-looking" or not so natural as it actually was. For example, 1:10:35, when everything is "blue", including all the red and pink things like Maris' red T-shirt which looked rather unnutural for a few seconds, and 7:30 when few blue light rays turned partly green. I guess these were only really noticable occasions of this kind discolourness, so you will not worry about it. Film artefacts seem not to be present on this transfer (since this is one of the latest Brainstorm concerts). Grain is not visible on the 'professional camera' shots (the image was a bit blurred or not sharp enough when I watch it on PC display, as I mentioned above) which 99.99% of the concert consists of, but is present on a couple of other shots - in the very beginning there is a shot in of the stormers in backstage, just before they go out on to the stage in the beginning of concert, and another example at 1:40:45 which seems to be shot with an amateur camera. Another thing that attracted my attention was two big screens on both sides of the stage. For some reason, most of the time "blacks" were actually more green than black: 8:50, 1:02:38, 1:07:25, 1:26:06 etc. Aliasing seems not to be present in the main program but it does so in featurette(s), when backstage footage is showed.
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Audio
My very first impression of an audio on this DVD was - wow, not so bad (as I expected while remembering quite awful sound on the previous Brainstorm concert VHS) and it without a doubt is definately MUCH better than that video-tape - now it sounds like a CD. Although there are still some imperfections, of course. The dialogue and the singing are quite clear and easy to understand, it's just that a voice track sounds a bit too loud (compared to music), especially during the first half of the concert - later it gets better, as I noticed.
The disc features both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo audio tracks. I was confused by the lack of some kind of "audio setup menu" on the disc, so the only way to switch between the tracks was to use the menu of the WinDVD software I was using (on a DVD-player you must use the player's setup menus, I guess). I tried to switch there and back from one track to another and was pretty confused by the fact that I couldn't figure out which was which. I don't know if it's just me or something else, but the second track (Audio 02) sounded kind of a strange to me. While the whole voice tracks and most of the music was concentrated in the CF (central front) channel, other channels were quite silent (very low volume level). The other track (the first choice - Audio 01) sounded way much better - music came out of all front speakers, and so did vocals, besides, volume level was higher on this one. too. Surrounds were also used to the great extent providing specific surround sound effects, so I guess this one is the Dolby Digital 5.1 track.
Surround channels were constantly active throughout the whole 'program' and there were quite a lot of great rare surround action. Now, this is when you actually hear and FEEL the advantage of multi channel (Dolby Digital 5.1 in this case) audio track, and when you get to experience it, believe me - you will not want to have anything less than that. This is absolutely amazing feeling to hear the audience singing and clapping their hands behind your back and all around you along with Brainstorm - I actually felt I was there!!! The best examples are 24:00, 1:11:45, 1:22:00 when Kaupers and audience is shouting during Ah-ha's! in the beginning of 'Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris', 1:29:30, 1:33:25 when audience clapping in the beginning of 'Lec', and a bit later again at 1:35:10, and finally - probably the best examples at 1:46:00 when the audience is singing "Spogulit" ALONE without Magic (he is not singing at that moment), and 2:00:00 at the very end of the show with the audience shouting, screaming and singing and the salute rumbling all over the stadium!
Low frequency channel (LFE or 0.1) was also used pretty much when necessary being nicely integrated throughout the concert. The subwoofer did not call much attention to itself most of the time, and at the same time showed more of its power on those occasions when the bass was present the most, as I remember it from the show. Examples are: the ending 'Gala Komma', already mentioned above the beginning of 'Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris', the ending of 'Spoguliit' at 1:45:25 and absolutely best workout it got in the beginning of 'Lidmashiinas', of course (that's why I like the LIVE performance of the song much better than the original album version which was not so much "powerfull"). And finally, with some more bass added, the salute, which closed the show, sounded really more like a salute (compared to what I have seen during the reports on TV). :-)
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Extras
This is the first DVD from Brainstorm and it has quite good selection of extras.
Booklet
A colour booklet containing some Brainstorm photos, quotations of the band members and lyrics of the song "Kristianijas sunji" on the back cover.
DVD Case
I haven't seen DVD case like this before. It's made transparent, is stylish and very good looking. In the beginning I had a problem with opening it but then it became clear 'how to' (you have to lightly press on the front-left side of it with a finger) - so no problemo anymore.
Menu
A very simple static menu, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Brainstorm Tour promo picture in the background, and also with a part of "Spacemumish" song being heard "in the background"
Photo gallery
Photo gallery of the Tour photos containing 29 pictures, mostly from Riga's concert.
Featurette-Preparation (3:23)
Normunds Blasans, lighting desiner and scenographer, talks about the different aspects of preparation of the whole Tour as well as of its separate parts, including technical aspects of stage design, visual look of the songs etc, describing the work together with the band, technicians and Latvian Television.
Featurette-Conception (4:52)
Kaspars Roga (drums, the DVD director) talks about the concept of the Tour describing the creation process of specific stage elements and video clips used during different songs.
Featurette-About Tour (7:00)
Interview with Renars and Janis (and Kaspars "in the background").in which they talk about the developing the idea of the whole tour. There is also an insight into the 'weather problem' that followed the tour from the very beginning, showing some 'behind the scenes' footage taken during the rehearsal just right before the concert. They also reveal the details about the canceled concert in Jelgava (due to bad weather conditions) - how they were watching the weather changing, still hoping to do the concert, and how it got worse and worse and finally they decided to cancel it (video fragments accompanying the explanation approve that they made the right choice).
Featurette-Surprises (11:47)
This featurette contains an interview with Renars and Janis (in which mostly Renars is talking) and also video footage of surprise appearances of Vaira Vike Freiberga (President of Latvia), band's friend - popular photographer Anton Corbijn and known Latvian cook Martinsh Ritinsh, plus a small interview with Corbijn. The featurette also contains the beginning of the song "Viss ir tieshi taa kaa tu veelies" which was taken out of the final DVD tracklisting. The main "feature" of this featurette is still an interview during which Renars and Janis are talking in their usual funny way telling a lot of jokes. :-)
Taking into account that this is not only the first Brainstorm concert DVD but also the first concert DVD in Latvia the extras are quite good. Though, it would be very nice also to include a couple of videos (like "Colder" and "A Day Before Tomorrow", for example), the Tour promo video clip, probably a bit more photos, but what we get is still very good. Featurettes are informative and very interesting to watch.
Summary
Although not being the best example of music DVD, I think this disc is a great item for everyone who knows who Brainstorm (Prata Vetra) is, and likes at least some of their songs, and is definately a 'must have' item for every fan. This is not just a concert or set of the greatest of their hits - this is an awesome music show which will rock you right away! The greatest Brainstorm Tour, the greatest concert, and probably the greatest show from a Latvian music band - on the first Brainstorm DVD which is also the first latvian concert DVD at the same time.
The video quality is acceptable.
The audio quality is quite good (especially the first audio track).
The extras are good.
Ratings (out of 5)
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| Audio | |
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Wednesday, January 7, 2003
| Review Equipment | |
| PC | CPU Athlon XP 1700, MB... |
| DVD-ROM | Pioneer DVD-106s |
| Display | Hansol 920D |
| Video card | Radeon 7500 |
| Audio card | SB Live! 5.1 Digital |
| Speaker System | Creative Inspire 6700 6.1 |
| DVD Software | WinDVD Platinum |