In the heady world of DVD reviewing, it’s not always easy to keep abreast of the latest revolutions in music or even movies. And so, I admit I’d never really given much time or indeed heard much of, Therapy?, a four-piece Irish band who have been together since the early ‘90s.

They have a particular flavour to them and a certain wicked undercurrent of black humour that I found appealing, however, this sort of music is a little more raw than your average Britney Spears number and is naturally going to find a less broad appeal. That’s not to say it isn’t good; it is – it’s just not going to be lent to the more commercial palate.

Scopophobia (whatever that means Ed. - It's a fear of being seen or stared at. Don't you have Google?!) is a live set capturing the band in full metal racket mode, performing before a small crowd in one of those low-ceilinged noise venues so many of us ended our teen years frequenting. They perform solidly for an edited 77 minutes, banging out a monster set of 19 songs that cover their history of warm-bladed tracks. If the commercial music scene ever gets its head out of its arse and starts enjoying the minority groups of rock instead of racially choosing the least offensive or the least brainwork stuff, this is the kind of music that will be first in line. It’s not quite mainstream alternative (as bands like Powderfinger are now labeled) but it is well-crafted noise that is bound to appeal to fans of punk music in particular, though there’s a slight vein of deeper metal employed in sub-subtle doses.

As noted, this intimate set features 19 live tracks which run thus (my highlights in bold):

• Hey Satan You Rock
• Who Knows
• Nowhere
• Nobody Here But Us
• Church of Noise
• I Am the Money
• Stories
• Not in Any Name
• If it Kills Me
• Die Laughing
• My Voodoo Doll
• Ten Year Plan
• Trigger Inside
• Potato Junkie
• Diane
• Rust
• Teethgrinder
• Knives
• Screamager

Fans of their work will dig hard on this. It’s a quality performance, well-sculpted and professionally played and, regardless of the genre, these guys know what they’re doing and how to work the crowd.

The video quality leaves a little to be desired at times, with multiple instances of compression woes filling the vast and frequent areas of black. Shot to DV this mostly looks fine, though there are colour-bleed issues as well, probably caused by the low light in much of the set. The limited colour palette is over-saturated at times and does bleed, as noted, with the blacks being murky and inky and again bleeding into other areas it shouldn’t be. The picture is delivered in an enhanced 1.78:1 however, which is a bonus and the entirely average visual presentation does kinda suit the musical genre.

The audio is presented with a choice of DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital stereo or DD 5.1 surround. Being a discerning adult, I chose the DTS but the rest all sounded just fine too. There is plenty of full surround use and the subwoofer is, of course, worked to death. Mine fell over and twitched once before it moved no more. Awesome sound that outweighs the visuals without question.

As to extras, there’s an Irish shiteload. Firstly the impressively animated menus present our choices and look great in a deeply photographed blue filter. If you wait for a little while, there’s a tyre that rolls across the menu and hits the speaker and this is where we can see a sort of Easter egg I suppose, though it is noted on the back cover. It’s backstage footage of the band doing their thing, but is essentially some nit with a camera recording boring backstage stuff. I’m surprised they had enough room left to put this one after the next bit though; 11 music videos for their major releases to date. The playlist goes:

• Teethgrinder
• Nausea
• Screamager
• Nowhere
• Die Laughing
• Trigger Inside
• Isolation
• Diane
• Loose
• Lonely Cryin’ Only
• If it Kills Me

Again there are some compression woes here that are disappointing, but fans may not care.

Finally there’s a brief Q&A which is a bunch of edited interviews asking the band everything from favourite songs to favourite band members. A perfectly timed 5:20.

Overall this is going to be a popular disc with the fans of the band, as it generously delivers a good video dose of the band and the film clips from the last decade or so. The compression worries of the image are a bit of a shocker though, but looking past these the audio quality is rich and resonant and noisy as hell.

A great disc for fans, but I’m not sure people who’ve never heard of them or people with no open mind or taste for this sort of modern punk will find much to get thrilled by. I enjoyed it, but by the same token, it’s not exactly on high rotation in the House of Jules.