T.S.O.L.-The early years live

MVD Visual
2008

Punk band T.S.O.L were filmed live in 1983 although the location and specific date are not listed. The longest show is listed as the Flipside show and they are playing outside at what looks to be a college campus. The sound is decent for what it is and the time as is the picture quality. The major drawback is the lack of energy from the crowd and from vocalist Jack Graham. There are a quite few spectators for better lack of a term, but only a couple of people who seem to know or care who this band is. Most of the people there just look like college students who thought it was a pretty day and went outside and happened to stumble upon a tiny concert. So most of them just sit there and look with little understanding or appreciation. Vocalist Jack Grisham sounds alright, but he acts like it's a joke and gives very little effort towards creating a stage presence of giving off any kind of energy. He just kind of meanders around grinning and moving around like he is just there to hang out. The music is good enough, but when your singer treats a show like a rehearsal then it just doesn't click. I am not even sure die hard fans are going to find this show to be very satisfying. There is also what is listed as the Target show which is also from 1983. This is in a club in front of maybe 30 people if that. The sound quality is fuzzier than the previous show, but the energy of both the band and the crowd elevates the performance quite a bit. Unfortunately we only get three tracks from this show so it ends just as I was starting to get into it. The bonus materials include one live track from last year which is very good plus some interviews from the early 80's. The interviews with the band are interesting, but the views also show how young the members of the band were at the time. The running time is about an hour, but the amount of worthwhile material is well below that. If either the Target or the 2007 show had been the complete concert than this may have been a worthwhile disc. Unfortunately the bulk of this DVD is from a rather bland show that's not going to appeal to very many people.