With music store shelves boasting more live, extended, uncut and never before seen footage of any band worth their weight in digital media, it is no longer acceptable for a band to simply set a camera rolling stage left and call it a live DVD than it is for a TV company to put 10 members of the public in a house under surveillance and call it entertainment.

Thankfully this state of play is something Matchbox 20 are keen to stay one step ahead of. In persuading you to part with your hard earned cash, they have released a 20 track live set (more than twice the length of most albums these days!) that runs to almost 100mins, filmed with 22 cameras, in 5.1 surround sound. As if this wasn't enough to satisfy your Matchbox hungry eyes and ears, there is a second disc, of which the mainstay is a darn well filmed and recorded documentary that clocks in at almost 2 hours, with a picture gallery, multi angle songs and lyrics adding the icing to what must be any fans dream parcel.

Kicking the gig off with one of their latest smash hit singles Cold, the building intro is more akin to Audioslave than mum and dad rock, but fear not; we are soon back in the familiar sing along land of Rob Thomas' faultless choruses. A highlight from the same album More Than You Think You Are follows in the form of Soul. The crowd are ecstatic as a full arena sing along to the Jagger-penned anthem. The quasi-disco beats of Disease are somewhat forgettable, but quickly forgiven as the Three Doors Down-esque ballad Could I Be You returns the sultans of soft rock to their pedestal.

It only gets better as debut album lead track 3am inspires more retarded screaming than the Beatles could have dreamed of. This track could have been written by any number of American AOR groups from Hootie and the Blowfish to The Counting Crows, but the passion in Thomas' voice and the intricate layers of each instrument make for a faultless summer classic. Hand Me Down and If You're Gone offer a contrasting stripped down spotlight encounter, with vocals and guitar vying for space on top of further demented housewife screeching.

Utimately I don't care how cool, hardcore or cynical you are, Matchbox 20 write damn good songs, with awesomely catchy hooks that end up sticking to you like gorse. As the earnest front man proclaims; "For the next couple of hours we're gonna forget about our jobs, schools, and bills, and we're not gonna talk about politics. So you can all sing along, shake your ass, and have a good time!"

Ground breaking and revolutionary musicians they ain't, but multi-platinum and going strong they surely are. With such time and effort invested in putting together an altogether faultless live experience you can hardly knock 'em.

  share with:  Facebook | Digg | other sites