MIRACLES OUT OF NOWHERE

I'm tempted to throw in The First Review even if I haven't seen the DVD as such. I saw this document on the Finnish TV. It was a very nice surprise to see it broadcast on our culture-oriented YLE Teema channel (Kansas isn't so widely known), a big applause for that! Apparently there was some discussion afterwards, in the Facebook's prog community, whether the document was good or not. Some were very negative, which I can easily understand. However, as far as the TV viewing is concerned, I have no serious complaints; it definitely was a pleasure to watch and it really gave a lot of information new to me. But if I estimate it as a DVD possibly to be purchased to one's own shelf, I have no specific reason to hype over this documentary. Also in general these kinds of band documentaries (compared to concert material) tend to be mostly one-timers to me, ie. the multiple viewing times become less interesting. (Yeah I know, the DVD contains some extras that I can't say anything about...)

The history of the band is not actually told here further than to the success of Point Of Know Return. When they get to that point, the documentary is nearly finished, save some round comments on the band and the photo session in which the original line-up returns to the hill where they were photographed for the back cover of the debut. The music clips are pretty short, yet there are quite plenty of them. The interviewed persons are mainly the band members themselves. Others include e.g. Brian May of QUEEN. The talk throughout the film didn't suffer from the hollowness of clichéd praises, like some documentaries do.

Th editing was quite all right. The story proceeds nicely and there are a lot of interesting details and anecdotes. For example, when KANSAS were an opening act for Aerosmith, at the time their live success was growing bigger, Steven Tyler was getting mad at their success and tried to plug them off! But Kansas were prepared for that and had their REAL wires on the other side of the stage. The two songs that are given more attention are naturally their biggest hits 'Carry On Wayward Son' and 'Dust in the Wind'.

The album covers are shown amidst the document. A good documentary if you don't expect it to tell the whole history of Kansas. I probably wouldn't buy the DVD but surely would watch it all again from the TV if it was broadcast again.