Evanescence - After Midnight (DVD)

...it worth it? This hardened Evanescence fan says maybe.

The basis of it is simple - it tells you the history of the band leading up to just after Ben Moody left the band due to unspoken reasons and ended up as a song-writer with Avril Lavigne and you get to see interviews with Amy Lee's (the lead singer) father, people from Little Rock Arkansas (the town where Evanescence formed) and people who were there for their early appearances...... ...
...someone wanting to hear about Evanescence then you're going to be left wanting a lot more, You never really get to know more about Ben Moody (probably because he's left the band - if he was still there I think this part would have been longer), Rocky Gray, William Boyd, John LeCompt or Terry Balsamo (Though I think that might be down to the closeness of this DVD's release to his joining the band). and that left me a bit disappointed.

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People who know me know my love for Evanescence, they know that just about anything they release I'll buy it - take Origin for example, American Import only - still I own it, anything released about them? I'll buy it, so imagine how bouncy I was when I noticed 'After Midnight in my local Virgin for £8.99, was it worth it? This hardened Evanescence fan says maybe.

The basis of it is simple - it tells you the history of the band leading up to just after Ben Moody left the band due to unspoken reasons and ended up as a song-writer with Avril Lavigne and you get to see interviews with Amy Lee's (the lead singer) father, people from Little Rock Arkansas (the town where Evanescence formed) and people who were there for their early appearances...... You'll note that in there, there was no mention of the band themselves - this is an unofficial documentary so you'll be hard to find anything actually by the band in this.

But enough about the idea behind the DVD lets get into the actual contents of the DVD itself, to be fair the main feature is split into two halves - firstly is the making of the band and how they came to be as famous as they are, and then there's the second half where people are talking about what to expect of the future of the band and what they hope to see in the future.

Documentary: The bulk of the DVD and why you really bought it is the documentary, and it does include some interesting segments, talking about the band's early gigs in a pizza-restaurant/bar/venue really gives you the picture of a band that struggled to get their talents heard, the description of how the band met was also one of particular interest to me - for those of you that don't know it was originally Ben Moody and Amy Lee who met at a Christian group when Ben spotted Amy playing the Piano in the corner, and even though I already knew it, it was still interesting to hear and watch what people around the band-members at the time thought of it.

Then you get into the current and more-so it comes across as more a documentary on Amy Lee and not so much the rest of the band - now don't get me wrong Amy Lee's my own personal goddess so for my own viewing pleasure that was absolutely fine but for someone wanting to hear about Evanescence then you're going to be left wanting a lot more, You never really get to know more about Ben Moody (probably because he's left the band - if he was still there I think this part would have been longer), Rocky Gray, William Boyd, John LeCompt or Terry Balsamo (Though I think that might be down to the closeness of this DVD's release to his joining the band). and that left me a bit disappointed.

Finally you get what the interviewees think will be the future paths that the band takes, and shockingly in what is a good and bad thing it isn't everyone fawning over how great they'll be for years to come - which is good because you get the sense that the maker's of this DVD really did want to produce an in-depth look into the band, but then the main person saying that they don't think the band'll last is a teenage rock fan from their town who to be honest reminds me of the wannabe-goth's that every town seems to have so its hard to believe he really knows what he's talking about, I suppose he does run a web-site but then anyone with half a brain can do that nowadays.

Quiz: How well do you know Evanescence? Can you tell me what Imaginary was really about? or the founder members of the band? If you can't then forget about getting a perfect score in the Evanescence quiz (just so you know - I did), it is a nice touch and does add a bit of interactivity to the whole experience of the DVD but to be honest, after you've taken it once you're going to get to know all the answers anyway - so its not something you're going to come back to.

Discography: It says on the casing that its an extensive discography - it isn't, its just the standard long list of names of singles and albums that the band've released along with what label they're on and when they were released - but then if you really wanted to see that - just use the web, you'll find the exact same information there.

Overall: It's a tough one to rate this one, I liked it a bit but then I'm an absolute die hard Evanescence fan so it'd take a lot for me not to like it having said that I can quite clearly see that anyone who had a passing interest in the band isn't going to like it, plus anyone who classes the band as 'one of their favourite bands' may struggle a bit to enjoy it - you really need to be an avid listener to everything that Evanescence release and a true guru of Evanescence knowledge to really be able to see anything in this and even then you probably knew it all already anyway, so in closing its a DVD for the true die-hard fan, but even then you may find yourself a bit jaded by it - Angelus's reccomendation? Buy Anywhere but Home instead and watch the tour documentary on that.
 

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