| | | |  Album Description:
For the first time, the DVD premieres the previously unseen historic 1978 Tokyo concert, aired only once on Japanese TV. Bonus features include a new interview with the band plus two songs taped at 2008 Budokan Anniversary Show. Two CDs feature At Budokan: The Complete Concert, newly remastered, while an additional disc includes the audio counterpart to the DVD plus four bonus songs not included in the original film. |  | | | |
Average Rating : 
Rating : - Take the plunge if you've somehow NEVER owned the original CD before
If you somehow have managed to make it nearly 30 years and do NOT own a copy of Cheap Trick at Budokan, in any of its prior incarnations (original 1CD, the 2 CD "Complete", LP, etc), then by all means, pick this up. The album is a fantastic, landmark 70's live rock album. With this reissue, the real prize here is the DVD, which while showing off some technical limitations of the time (very grainy, some focus issues, and the like) is actually a pretty charming document of what was a great show. That said, this package has a HUGE drawback, which others have outlined here, and I agree with 100% : The terrible pockets that scuff the discs (very annoying....had the same problem with the recent Rush "Snakes and Arrows Live" DVD, the Band box/book set, etc - do yourself a favor and get paper sleeves or extra cases and be very careful when removing the discs). The mastering here is not so great....maybe it's an issue with the source tape? Or is Sony just lazy? The extras on the DVD are ok - though not very high quality, but the interviewed recollections are interesting. And if you already own the "Complete Concert" 2CD, then a ton of this stuff is redundant. The killer for me is that the `complete' 2CD's barely missed fitting on 1 CD by maybe one or two minutes, necessitating it being on 2cd's again (thus bulking up the package).
BOTTOM LINE: If you have NEVER bought this stuff before, then by all means take the plunge (being aware that the packaging leaves a bit to be desired), but I really can't recommend paying more than like $25 for this set, due to the repetitious material. If you are a huge Cheap Trick fan, and want it for the DVD, then it's probably worth picking up. I've seen Cheap Trick live many times, and can attest that they are one hell of a lot of fun live - always a very entertaining, energetic show, and this captures them in their youthful prime (though they're still terrific).
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