Search - Kodo: Live at Acropolis on DVD

A Kodo Fan Will Still Love It

Brian Pound | La Mesa, CA USA | 03/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, there are flaws in this DVD, especially the audio. As mentioned below, the interspersed interviews and audience applause are at a much higher level than the performers in concert. But, there is enough of Kodo's performance brilliance to recommend this.

This is actually an American production of a Japanese video that had no Mickey Hart interviews. It combines that video with portions of an earlier Japanese Kodo video shot on a soundstage (you'll notice that the first piece, "Irodori", is not done before a live audience). Some pieces, "Miyake" and "Sankan-Shion", are annoyingly brief. But don't rush out to get the Japanese version. The pieces are edited in that one as well. And "Irodori", absent for the Japanese tape, is one of the finest pieces on the American DVD.

I watch this DVD often and I love the performances. "Zoku", "Akabanar", "O-Daiko/Yatai-Bayashi", and the memerizing "Monochrome", are presented in the entirety.

The photography is beautiful (although I agree with the reviewer below who didn't like the excessive close-ups), especially during "Monochrome" and Chieko Kojima's dancing during "Akabanar". There are too many cuts, however. Just when you're focusing on one performer's moves, the view cuts to another.

For a better production, check out Kodo's newest concert DVD, "Kodo: One Earth Tour Special". While, I don't like that concert quite as much (mind you, this is a relative statement), it is presented in its complete form, from the audience seating themselves to the end of the encore."

Kodo Acropolis

CirqueMama | Manchester UK | 08/26/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Very good to watch their performances but the show is broken up with Mickey Hart's commentary which is a bit irritating"

Excellent for the ear and the eye

Brian Pound | 03/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fantastic video of one of the most impressive Japanese arts that mixes music and stage. The men and woman that perform here spend years training and the rhythmic and physical drive of this performance is amazing. The video is well edited and the comments useful despite the fact that the interviewer (from the Grateful Dead) lacks any kind neutrality and that the questions he asks are rhetoric. But, fortunately he is not the one on stage, and the music and tradition of Japan survive!
Watch it in a big screen and with speakers."