Twisted Perception

Bookmark: http://www.digitalrushexperience.com/database/review.php?RecordingID=1658
Media: 2 CD Audio
Time: 2 hrs
Source: Proshot VHS (unknown gen) - DVD Rip
Date: March 08, 1990
Location: The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA

DISC 1
Force Ten
Freewill
Distant Early Warning
Time Stand Still
Subdivisions
Marathon
Red Barchetta
Superconductor
Show Don't Tell
The Pass
Closer to the Heart

DISC 2
Manhattan Project
Xanadu
YYZ
The Rhythm Method
Scars
War Paint
Mission
Tom Sawyer
The Big Money
2112: Overture
La Villa Strangiato
In the Mood

Average Rating: Audio: 7.5

AppleJack Studios   (Audio - 7.5, Video - 7.5)

Producer Notes:  This project has been a labor of love and hate, of inspiration and despair. Most people know about the Presto proshot from Detroit, and most that have seen a copy know that the quality on most versions pretty much sucks. Like many, I have been on the lookout for a low gen copy of this show for years. One copy that came into my possession was noticeably better than the rest, albeit nothing close to mint, it was still a notch or two above the rest. With the 15th anniversary of this concert upon us, I decided that I was going to go ahead and stop waiting for a better copy to appear and just do the best with what I had. And so I give you... Twisted Perception.

The title is inspired by the lyric, of course, and is appropriate because this thing has been through quite a bit of manipulation... pushing, pulling, pounding, kicking and screaming, in a desperate grasp at squeezing out a reasonable level of entertainment value. The audio especially, from a source mired in oceans of tape hiss and entirely lacking in upper frequency presence, has been seriously messed with. The result is still far short of what I'd like it to be, but at the same time it's still not too bad, either. Once you get your ears dialed in to what they're hearing (and what they're missing!), the audio is sufficiently acceptable to enjoy the visuals. Its kind of like listening to good tunes on AM radio... you wish it was FM (or satellite!) but you can still get into the groove.

The video also has issues, to be sure, but is still very watchable. Worth noting is that the opening track "Force Ten" was actually taken from an different VHS tape than the rest of the show, a source that is considerably lesser in quality that the primary one, but didn't have as many tracking issues. Once you get past the opening track, you'll notice a fairly decent up tick in the video quality.

And just to round out the discs, included is some historically interesting bonus materials. The music videos for "The Pass", "Super Conductor", and both versions of "Show Don't Tell" are on DVD 1. On DVD 2 is some interview footage of all three members from 1990 as well as a November 1990 ceremony where the band is presented with a "Group of the Decade" award for their work in the 80's, and it includes a pretty nifty retrospective on their career up to that point in time. Of course it's not without irony that none of the bonus material is from master sources, either. But that way the whole package hangs together nicely.

Thanks and credits go to RusherMan for donating the video source, to ModernDayWarrior for the bonus materials, and to Duley for the title idea and the DVD cover art. Please trade this production freely, it was made by fans for fans, and is never to be bought or sold.
  (2005-03-08)

Frentic
  (Audio - 7.5, Video - 7.5)

A nice pro-shot video with great bonus material. Its surprisingly good considering its high gen source. As usual, Applejack did a great job putting this together. Hopefully, a low-gen version of this will surface one day, but until then, this is great to have!   (2005-04-11)