Search - Emerson Lake & Palmer - Pictures at an Exhibition on DVD

Disappointed

Sea Otter | Millbrae, CA United States | 03/19/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I have been an ELP fan from their first album onward. The CD version of "Pictures" is good but this DVD sucks. The sound is horrible and the "psychedelic effects" throughout most of the disc makes it hard to watch. Maybe good for one viewing but not something anyone would want to watch over and over."

Not nearly as good as the performance on "Live at the Royal

Kaiser Soze | 05/21/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I suppose that if you are a committed collected of everything ELP, you might want to add this to your collection. But if you are just looking for a good live performance of "Pictures at an Exhibition", the performance on the "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" DVD is far more inspired and exciting. I am quite certain that ELP would tell you the same thing. The vintage performance just lacks maturity in musical performance, which the latter performance has in spades. And with the other DVD, you also get excellent live performances of a lot of other ELP stuff, including Tarkus, Knife Edge, Prokofiev, Pirates, and "Fanfare for a Common Man". The other DVD, of the performance at the Royal Albert Hall in the early nineties, is just infinitely superior in every way. But if you are a diehard collector of ELP stuff, you might still like this, but you'll also get some cheesy vintage '70s video effects."

High Voltage

John B. Buchanan | Perth, Australia | 02/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"ELP initially wanted to release this album as a free give away with "Tarkus", but common sense prevailed and it was released, initially in the UK, on Island Records' budget Help label. An exceptionally well recorded album - the drums, in particular, are captured with clarity and dynamics, and the mix is very well balanced. The music is a wonderful ride through Mussourgsky's piece (with a couple of ELP additions), and doesn't flag at all. A seriously great album that should be near the top of the best live albums of all time."

Performance Great, Special Effects Annoying

Rob in L.A., Calif. | 03/01/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a pretty awesome performance by a very young ELP. All three are in fine form and the sound here is very good.



There's only one thing that screws this whole thing up: the cartoonish special effects that someone decided to overlay part of the performance with. Probably someone thought it looked cool in the 70's, but it's just darn annoying now. So instead of just watching the awesome band performance, instead you're treated to cartoonish color overlays that almost make the DVD un-watchable. Very annoying. Watching on my PC, it was during these moments when I left the sound on and went surfing instead. It's a shame, because this is a wonderful performance.



Also the DVD only contains the Pictures performance and nothing else, not even Nutrocker, so it feels like a very "short" DVD.



On the flip side of the disk is just the audio, which is nice for blairing in your car at high volume.



Trivia: Watch during the last song when Greg starts to sing his last chorus - the band actually makes a "mistake" somehow, with Greg doing one thing and the other two doing something else. Carl then looks at Greg and actually hesitates a beat to figure out where Greg is, then jumps in again. Not sure who was "off" in that moment - it looked like Carl and Keith were playing something else, but not sure.



Anyway, this is a awesome performance by one of my favorite bands but the DVD would have been better without cheesy special effects."