D.O.A-The Men of action

Sudden Death/MVD
2009



Vancouver's long running hardcore band decided to celebrate their 30th anniversary with this DVD collection. During all those years they have gone through a few bass players although Brian Goble and Randy Rampage have covered most of the time. They have also gone through their share of drummers including Chuck Biscuits who also went on to play for Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Danzig and others. His brother Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery also sat behind ths kit for D.O.A years before his death in 1994 by a drug overdose. However my choice for best D.O.A drummer name would go to The Great Baldini who pounded the skins for a few years during this decade. The band has also had the occasional second guitarist. However the central figure of vocalist/guitarist Joey "Shithead" Keithly has kept the wheels turning for this band. Despite the line-up changes this band has primarily kept to their roots of being a no-nonsense straight forward act with a focus on anarchy. This DVD is comprised of 26 clips with the oldest being a live outdood clip of "Disco Sucks" from 1978 and the newest are from this year. A few clips on this set appeared on the "Smah the state" DVD that came out two years ago. Still this is huge collection of songs that cover the band's long career. Attitude has always been so much a part of D.O.A's approach and it has often times been a part of the fire that keeps their music going. This collection includes live performances recorded in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and of course Vancouver. There are also music videos as well and they are of varying quality as some of the earlier ones are a bit silly, but humor has made it's way into D.O.A.'s image at times as well over the years. This band started out very raw and their skills have gotten better over time and they have tightened up some, but all of the clips show the spirit that has kept them going for all of this time. I didn't get into this band until around 1987 and they had been around for almost a decade at that point. So that made them veterans by punk rock standards yet here they are another two decades later still ripping it up. The audio is re-mastered on these discs so the sound is generally solid. There is also an option to watch all 26 clips with commentary from Joey Keithley. Sometimes his comments are relevant to what's on the screen and sometimes not, but he is very enthusiastic about giving his views. As a bonus this set also includes the band's most recent CD "Northern Avenger". I am not sure as to why this disc is added in because if you are a fan than you likely picked it up when it came out last year. In case you didn't it's another solid release and one of the heavier releases. Honestly I was overwhelmed by the amount of material on this disc and that is certainly a good thing. There are some great presentations of classics like "The prisoner", "Fucked up Ronnie", "World War 3" and piles more. The shoe-string budget video for "We're driving to hell 'n back" had me rolling as well. There is no dead weight here for sure. The sound quality is strong and for the most part so is picture quality. By putting in performances from so many different years they have managed to give a good overview of the band's career. "The men of action" is a must have for fans and it would be a great introduction for those unfortunate few who may not be familiar to this band.