People’s opinions of Linkin Park are bound to be divided. After Limp Bizkit opened nu-metal to a wider commercial market, Linkin Park were certainly one of the first bands to capitalise. Some see them as a sell out (boy band with nu-metal trappings), while others no doubt like them for much the same reason!
I think Hybrid Theory was a great debut album, setting Linkin Park ahead of their peers and deservedly selling bucket loads. My cynical side says they’re milking it a little though. Over six million sales of the long awaited follow-up Meteora, yet they’ve still felt the need for a remix album and now live CD/DVD package in that time… Still Live In Texas coincides with a UK tour and comes just in time for Christmas, so maybe it’s to be expected.
Life In Texas is technically a CD with bonus DVD I believe. It comes in a special 2CD card fold-out digipak (much like Nine Inch Nails’ The Fragile). On Amazon.co.uk it’s listed both as a CD with bonus DVD (£9.99) and a DVD (still with CD) at £16.99! As far as I know (and I’m pretty certain) they’re exactly the same package…
The CD
The CD itself draws twelve tracks from the Summer Sanatorium shows in Houston and Dallas (with Mudvayne, Deftones, Limp Bizkit and Metallica), and covering both albums pretty well (plus ‘P5hng Me A*wy’ - a mellowed out version of the original that does sound both different and good). Obviously the sound isn’t as polished as their studio albums, but it doesn’t suffer too much as they’ve still used pro-tools to polish up the rough edges. Despite that though, it still sounds a little flat. ‘Crawling’ in particular was never my favourite song, but here drawing towards the end of the set it still lacks the energy and anger you’d expect. Polite cheers between songs suggest the crowd are hardly going wild either.
That’s not to say the album’s a complete disappointment by any means - including (by my count) seven hit singles from ‘Somewhere I Belong’ to ‘One Step Closer’ it certainly showcases a band at the peak of the commercial side of nu-metal. Perhaps the main disappointment is that, despite drawing on two shows, the CD runs to just over 40 minutes.
The DVD
This basically covers the same show, but includes an extended 17 songs tracklist, including personal favourite ‘With You’. That aside, there’s not much on offer - no extra features, just shots of the band in action - but it’s still better to picture the event.
It is quite nice to see the band in live action, but it’s not something you really want to watch many times over (I’ve said before that music DVDs are only for real fans). The footage stays mostly on the two frontmen on stage and DJ Mr Hahn - there are odd shots of the crowd and occasionally the band back stage (between songs) but it’s nothing particularly interesting. I thought it quite unfortunate that the footage sometimes showed empty seats in the stadium, or people walking about aimlessly in the background. That and Chester’s shirt looks *really* sweaty (ew, lovely).
If you think of it as a ‘bonus DVD’ I guess it’s quite good, but it definitely fails to fulfil the potential of a DVD. That’s a shame really, because like I said the DVD is surely the main draw of this package - the CD offering little really ‘new’ while the DVD includes a considerably expanded set list if nothing else.
Technical DVD details: Picture format NTSC 4:3 1 viewing angle(!) All regions Duration 68 minutes Dolby digital/2.0 stereo/5.1 surround sound
Conclusion
So, cynical Christmas marketing or a real treat for fans? Well, a bit of both really. I wouldn’t say this is anything to get too excited about. As you’d expect though it’s a very slickly produced package that will certainly please a few fans at Christmas. I’d buy the albums first though.
Pictures of Linkin Park - Live in Texas (DVD)
arena
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1999 - Music / Performing Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: Exempt - Starring: Donny Osmond, Joan Collins, Richard Attenborough
I love the band but agree that so much more could have been done. The performance itself offers up nothing that really grabs your attention, whilst it appears to be nothing more than a 'filler' between albums. As I say, I love the band, but 'stop gap' releases like this do wear my patience very thin. Alex
smc_donough 21.05.2004 13:36
great review, havent yet got this but I think I will finally get it.sarah
DingChavez 02.03.2004 13:42
Yeah right, the DVD's potential is not fulfilled...and it's surprising indeed that LP present a Live Record and a Remix album in such a short period of time. Well, but still I like this live record a lot, because somehow I do feel that songs like Crawling or One step Closer are more powerful and stronger than on Hybrid Theory. Anyway, very nice op, keep it up
![Linkin Park: Live in Texas [DVD] [2003] [US Import]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/81494273.jpg "Linkin Park: Live in Texas [DVD] [2003] [US Import]")
Dec 1st, 2003
(Jan 13th, 2005)
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