STAGE

This new two disk DVD set is a perfect example of how to put together a successful concert DVD. Two gigs a week apart in very different settings were filmed, at a classy theatre with a quiet seated audience at Nearfest, and at an outdoor festival full of blissed out hippies at Berg Herzberg. The set lists are much the same (the Nearfest set was longer), but the setting brought out different performances, the Nearfest one being more classy and restrained, the German one more rocking and earthy. Both are excellent. IQ does material from The Wake, Nomzamo, Ever, The Seventh House and Dark Matter, their 2004 masterpiece. I was salivating at the prospect of seeing not one, but two perfomances of Harvest of Souls, my favourite piece of music of the new millennium, and I was not disappointed. I don't know if IQ fixed up this DVD after the fact, as so many performers do, but Peter Nicholls' voice is studio perfect, as are the rest of the band's playing and tones. The DVD is shot well and edited professionally, much better than DVDs I've seen by bands with much bigger budgets. A couple of fun documentary extras round out the package, which is great value for the money (I got mine from The Laser's Edge at a very reasonable price), and is contained in a great digipack with slipcase. I place this up there with Rush's lovingly prepared R30 and Rush in Rio packages for sheer quality and value. If you love Dark Matter, you need this DVD. As a prog DVD (and there are precious few to be had), this is a masterpiece and as essential a document of the best of the genre as we have had so far.