In case you missed them the first time around, Collage was one of the more promising neoprogressive bands of the 1990s. Unfortunately, this well regarded Polish act called it a day a few years ago, after leaving us with one classic symphonic gem in Moonshine. Collage have recently more or less reformed under the Satellite moniker and blessed the world with two equally strong CDs.
Clocking in at four hours and including tons of concert footage, television appearances and interviews, Living in the Moonlight is a nice nostalgic DVD (has it really been a decade?) that reflects on Collage's glory days as the bright new hope of European prog rock. The main program is a 90 minute concert filmed for Polish television. "Live in Szczecin 21/04/96" consists of the Moonshine album in its entirety as well as a couple of cuts from Basnie, one song from Safe and a barely recognizable version of "God" from The Nine Songs of John Lennon. The performance is fairly well photographed, while the picture and sound quality are quite solid. The only fault I can really find with this portion of the DVD is that the editing is a bit strange, particularly in between songs. Each piece ends abruptly with no audience applause whatsoever and fades into the next track. There's almost no interaction between band and audience, making for a somewhat stiff but still enjoyable presentation.
Bonus videos include excerpts from single camera bootleg quality concerts, such as the hour long portion of Uden, Holland from 1995. Much of the Moonshine album is reprised here as well, but the shaky camera and distracting zoom lens of the hand held camcorder make it a little hard to watch. However, I'm sure ardent Collage fans won't object.
Other features consist of four promotional videos, discographies, desktop images and most important of all, a couple of candid interviews. Vocalist Robert Amirian gets a twenty minute spot, reflecting on his time in the band. Drummer Wojtek Szadkowsi (these days looking uncannily like a young Robert Fripp!) and guitarist Mirek Gil are interviewed together for nearly forty minutes. These are excellent and informative interviews and I won't spoil any of the anecdotes or factoids that I gleaned from this particular program.
Living in the Moonlight is easily recommended to Collage fans. It's a little rough around the edges but wholly enjoyable nonetheless. The DVD can be had for less than twenty dollars and at 240 minutes, is nothing short of a bargain.
Main Program Contents
Live in Szczecin, 21/04/96
- Heroes Cry
- The Blues
- Lovely Day
- In Your Eyes
- Basnie
- Kolysanka
- One of Their Kind
- Wings in the Night
- Living in the Moonlight
- Moonshine
- War is Over
- God
Bonus Live Videos
Bootlegged at Stodola, Warsaw, 24/03/1995
- God
Bootlegged in Uden, Holland 10/06/1995
- In Your Eyes
- The Blues
- Living in the Moonlight
- Wings in the Night
- Kolysanka
- Moonshine
- Basnie
Plus interviews, promos, etc.
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