Not as exciting as it should have been
Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 08/20/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Live in Belgium is the first DVD release by Pride of Lions, an AOR/melodic rock band that features former Survivor guitarist Jim Peterik and relative newcomer Toby Hitchcock sharing the lead vocal duties.
The main program:
The concert was filmed at a large outdoor festival in Belgium, so the band benefits from a good sized and fairly enthusiastic crowd. The band serves up a dozen or so songs taken from their first two studio albums (Pride of Lions and The Destiny Stone) as well as a few gems from the Survivor catalogue. The Survivor songs obviously get the best response from the crowd, but that's to be expected. Vocalist Toby Hitchcock seems a bit too restrained for this kind of event. He gives a powerful vocal performance, but his stage presence needs work. He moves around on stage a bit, and even ventures into the audience, but he just doesn't bring much emotion or energy to the table. The guy needs to spend some time with a stack of Journey and Whitesnake DVDs to see how a "rock star" frontman should act on stage.
The bonus material:
This is a no-frills DVD release. You have the standard track selection and your choice of audio output options, but aside from a brief TV appearance, there isn't much in the way of bonus material.
The verdict:
With so little bonus material, the strength of this DVD rests entirely on the concert footage, which just isn't as exciting as it should have been. I almost never recommend the audio CD of a live performance over the DVD, but I have to do so in this case. At least with that version you get an extra disc of bonus tracks.
"