Iggy and the Stooges: Escaped Maniacs [2 Discs]

"Nearly thirty years after they recorded their first album, Iggy and the Stooges are still one of the most powerful and dangerous bands in rock and roll, and this concert film, which documents their appearance at the 2005 Lokerse Festival in Belgium, has been given a filled-to-bursting presentation on DVD. Iggy and the Stooges: Escaped Maniacs has been transferred to disc in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which is letterboxed on conventional televisions and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16x9 monitors. The concert was shot with a small army of cameras and is certainly a more impressive visual record of the band on stage than the 2003 release Iggy and the Stooges: Live In Detroit. Using the angle option feature, viewers can toggle back and forth between the ""original version"" of the film, which is full of flashy editing and gimmicky visual effects, and ""the director's cut,"" which offers a more organic and straightforward presentation of the same material. The audio has been mastered in two formats, Dolby Digital Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1; the two-channel mix is a bit more forceful, but the surround version is roomier and has more presence, while both preserve the primal howl of the Stooges with commendable accuracy. The performances are in English, with no subtitles or multiple language options included. Along with the complete concert, this set also features an hour-long on-screen interview with Iggy Pop, in which he discusses a wide range of topics at length, as well as conversations with guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and Esther Friedman, a close friend of Iggy's who photographed him during his sojourn in Berlin in the Seventies. The set also includes an hour-long look at Iggy Pop's career, cobbled together from interviews, still photos and performance footage, and it's periodically interesting (especially when Iggy gets to speak for himself) if not especially enlightening. And a collection of magazine articles, interviews and other data on Iggy and his band mates are included as PDF files on disc two, which can be accessed on personal computers equipped with DVD-ROM drives. As a celebration of all things Iggy, this set manages to be too much and not enough at once, but Escaped Maniacs does include an excellent filmed concert from the Stooges that clearly demonstrates what makes them a force to be reckoned with even as the members become eligible to join AARP."