Jethro Tull have been around since forever (or 1968, depending on your schooling in time). Featuring concert excerpts from some of their more recent shows, this smattering of members who barely resemble the original band still manage to sound like they did way back when. Fans of the band will love this, without doubt. Featuring concert footage, pub gigs, interviews with the members, a wide and comprehensive track listing and even reflections from the audience, this is a compilation of epic proportions from a band that are seemingly unstoppable.

Listening to some of these tracks, it’s easy to see where some of today’s big bands draw influence, particularly in the eclectic fusion of folk and blues, underscored with rock and roll. I could definitely see influence in bands like Tool, The Tea Party, A Perfect Circle and even Dire Straits appearing in some of the more intense tracks of Tull’s repertoire.

Song listings as each track begins would have been a nice inclusion, but I suspect the Tull devotees who want this DVD will know the songs inside out anyways and it won’t matter.

The track listing (with my highlights in bold) run as follows:

• My Sunday Feeling
• Cross Eyed Mary
• Roots to Branches
• Someday the Sun Won’t Shine For You
• Jack In The Green
• Thick as a Brick
• Wond’ring Aloud
• Sweet Dream
• Hunt By Numbers
• Bourée
• A Song For Jeffrey
• The Water Carrier
• A New Day Yesterday
• Life is a Long Song
• Budapest
• New Jig
• Aqualung
• Locomotive Breath
• Living in the Past
• Protect and Survive
• Cheerio

One of my favourite things during a film of this sort is watching a band member have an interview spliced up and mixed about during the entirety of the movie so it’s all out of chronology. You can tell by watching a stationary beer rise and descend each time they appear. It’s quite funny (another great example is Tim Rogers being interviewed in the Australian rockumentary film Dead Set.)

This is a well made and well edited documentary that shows the energy of an ageing rock band that won’t lay down and die. There’s an old adage that says it’s better to walk off stage than be dragged off, but these guys seem far from either with the stadiums they pack out with middle aged hippies who have started bringing their kids to the shows as well! According to the case, Jethro Tull have performed nearly 3000 shows in their career. This equates to about one show every four days for 36 years!

Far out, man.

Naturally, the video has been cut from a variety of sources which include videotape, film, television, big screens and God knows what else. There’s even parts of a very piss poor film clip with crap graphics. Regardless of this, mainly the film looks pretty good, but for annoying instances of flaring colour or TV screen horizontal pixellation. There are also some instances of sepia-toned blues songs complete with artificial film artefacts and all. (Forget that there’s all sorts of modern equipment aroundabout during these bits).

Audio is only in Dolby Digital 2.0, but this still manages to make the film sound alright. The sound is definitely clear and crisp without any hint of noise or static and all instruments have been well mixed. No one instrument, except perhaps for Anderson’s trademark flute, have any real precedence over any other which keeps the balances well leveled.

As to extras, well, there are a heep. Uriah Heep that is. The first of two Bonus Tracks features a collaboration with these old school rockers whilst the second is with Fairport Convention, another band of the era. Both of these run short and fade out mid-song, like when you’re at a party and want to change the music without attracting attention. Following this is a Photo Gallery which runs as a three minute short film with no explanations and Budapest running behind. Most of the pics are seemingly lifted from the DVD also, so this isn’t worth much. Next comes Tull Talk, a four minute collection of interview bits that didn’t make the film, basically. Anderson does speak, however, on who Jethro Tull actually was and why they use his name. Two and three quarter minutes of Outtakes come after that and aren’t much. They are mostly mistakes made whilst recording the next bit; the DVT Commercial (that’s Deep Vein Thrombosis to you). Finally, two more Bonus Tracks if you haven’t had enough. The first is a reunion piece with the original line-up playing My Sunday Feeling whilst the second is Beside Myself and features a three way look at the performance from various points within the theatre. To see from each camera, we have to restart from the menu, which totally kills any continuity. This would have been much better as a multi-angle feature. Oh well.

Allover, this is a fantastic package for Jethro Tull fans and followers that will satisfy any cravings for live performance they may have. With an unusual amount of extras, the value is increased, although not all the extras are great. Also included is a Booklet (that I forgot to mention above) written by Ian Anderson himself which has some interesting facts and techie information within. Very satisfying stuff for anyone who ever dug on the Tull. Peace, man.