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If Manowar gives you nothing else with this DVD, they give you value. This two disc set features their live performance at Earthshaker Festival (in front of 25,000 fans), historical moments, a documentary about their involvement in the festival and preparation for said festival, and a look at the Manowar Fan Convention. These features combine for well over five hours of viewing, which I'm sure has die hard Manowar fans creaming themselves at the very thought. I'm not a die hard fan, but I found this to be very intersting viewing material.
Watching 25,000 people going nuts to Manowar was quite a site within itself. It was very cool watching a sea of people sing along, throw up horns, move in unison to the music and even cry while watching Manowar onstage. Their performance was pretty deserving of those emotions (I'm not a die hard fan enough to cry), especially "Battle Hymn," which featured every member of the band onstage playing at once, which was an awesome experience to watch (especially seeing three drummers at once).
The documentary about the set up for the Earthshaker Festival was a great watch. It was cool to watch everything take place; from the press conference announcing their headlining the tour to the rehearsals to the stage set up to the lighting set up (revealing that the lights should be able to be seen from space) to the PA set up (which would make this show louder than a nuclear explosion) to the filming aspect (this is something that should be viewed by everyone interested in filming as they did something really unique for this concert). The oddest thing about this documentary is learning that Manowar had a spiritual advisor.
I can't recall of any bands having a fan convention before, but Manowar pulled it off and caught it on film. This was an idea that was tossed around for about 16 years before finally coming into fruition. It was very cool seeing a band so dedicated to their fans that they (along with the head of their fan club) set up something like this that would actually net them a loss instead of a profit. There were a lot of cool things for fans, including recording themselves playing with a CD of the band (if you sang, they'd take out the vocals, add yours and give you a CD), guitar clinics with Ross the Boss, David Shankle and Karl Logan, a drum clinic with Scott Columbus, an arm wrestling competition, a screaming competition and a bunch of other activities, so many, in fact, that it took about two and a half hours to give fans at home a glimpse of everything.
Even though I think this DVD goes overboard with everything, I feel that thats the point. Their going overboard shows a band that is overly dedicated to their fans; a band willing to do anything to make their fans happy. Other bands should check this DVD out and take notes on how they can better serve their fans.
Written by: RF