OUT COLD
LOOKING THROUGH COMMUNIST EYES
Track Listing:
| Hidden Agenda | ||
| Own Worst Enemy | ||
| It Went Bang | ||
| Just Because | ||
| Like Clockwork | ||
| Repellent | ||
| Spaceshot | ||
| Euthanasia | ||
| High Maintenance | ||
| No Point | ||
| Useless | ||
| Just Plain Mean | ||
| Energy Vampire | ||
| Defect | ||
| A Is For Asshole | ||
| Web Of Lies | ||
| Deviant | ||
| Stray Bullet |
Reviews:
| GROBADER (FRANCE) |
| I haven't watched that many
DVDs so far to be able to make great & relevant comparisons, but I've managed to see
quite a few shows over the years now. Most DVDs are shot far from the stage or right
aside, from above the audience, in order to get a good look at what's going on. These are
sweet intentions, but the result is often a little too clean. To my point of view, if
possible, a picture has to be taken from where the action is, that is in front of the
stage with the people watching the show, not from backstage. Same thing when, for some
reason, you're watching the show from far away...maybe you can see better (maybe), but you
don't feel quite into it. Here, with this Out Cold gig, you're right into it. It has been
shot by some guy in the audience during a show in St. Petersburg (August 2004). Just one
track, no editing (just one cut). Raw. So you can pretty much think of hardcore-punk
videos from the early '80s, though the overall quality is correct (sound, image). The eyes
of the camera are always moving, following each member of the band, then taking a look at
what's going on with the audience (and these Russians don't seem to fake it). So, to make
it short, it looks like a real show. And with a band like Out Cold, it was probably the
only way to do it. Here on stage, like on any of their records, they kick some serious
ass. Non-stop. Half an hour of angry hardcore punk. Live. ORIGINAL FRENCH TEXT: J’ai pas encore regardé tant de dvds que ça, pour pouvoir faire de grandes comparaisons. Par contre, pour un mec qui habite là où il n’y a pas (peu) de bons concerts, je commence à en avoir vu pas mal. Assez souvent, les dvds de concerts sont filmés d’assez loin, un peu en hauteur, de façon à ce qu’on ait une bonne vision de ce qui se passe sur scène. L’intention est louable, mais le résultat est généralement trop lisse. Pour moi, autant que possible, une photo doit être prise de là où ça se passe, du devant de la scène, pas de backstage. Lorsqu’on est obligé, à un concert, de se mettre loin pour pouvoir voir quelque chose, c’est pareil : on voit peut-être mieux (et encore), mais on se sent moyennement impliqué. Là, pour le coup, avec ce concert d’Out Cold, on est bien dedans. Pour l’histoire, il a été filmé par un gars du public au cours d’un concert à St Petersbourg (août 2004). Une seule piste, pas de montage (à peine une coupure). Donc c’est assez roots – on peut penser à des vidéos punk hardcore du début des années 80 – mais quand même de qualité correcte (son, image). Le regard est continuellement en mouvement, à suivre les membres du groupe, puis à se retourner pour regarder ce qui se passe dans le public (ils ont pas l’air de faire semblant, les russes…)… Bref, ça ressemble à un vrai concert. Du reste, avec un groupe comme Out Cold, c’était certainement la seule façon envisageable de faire. Ici sur scène, comme sur chacun de leurs albums, ça envoie… Très peu de temps mort : une demi-heure de hardcore punk en colère. Live. |
| LAST BREATH #2 (SERBIA & MONTENEGRO) |
| Out Cold is one of the rare punk hardcore bands that played in Russia ever. That occasion was marked in a form of a DVD. So, how did that turn out? First of all, this was an unplanned recording and according to the band, they had no idea they were even being recorded. The DVD was released without any touch ups or editing, so don't expect a professionally done recording. It starts with "Old school hardcore isn't about windmills, dude“ which was said by deceased Timur (see MRR #272) and then it follows with 18 tracks of non-stop, raging hardcore spanning their entire career, including: It Went Bang, A Is For Asshole, Repellent, No Point, Defect, Spaceshot. Crowd energy is pretty good but far from what it was in Belgrade. Despite the fact that John almost collapsed behind his drums they played 3 encores. Considering that this show was recorded with hand held video camera, the quality is pretty good and it totally captured energy of the band. This is a great document and mandatory for fans of Out Cold. |
| MASS MOVEMENT #19 (WALES) |
| At last, a live show DVD of Out Cold. If I can't get to see the boys live here in the UK then this DVD, shot live in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2004, will have to suffice. Don't expect slick cinematography, though, because this is shot how a DIY hardcore show should be shot on video - raw and as it happens by an audience member. Out Cold blast through their 18-song set of fast-paced raging hardcore in the way Out Cold are legendary for. This is great and how I would expect a live hardcore show to look on film. I got to get some of these to stock on the distro. |
| SCREAMINGBLOODYMESS.COM |
| 30 minute DVD that captures a show in St. Petersburg, at the Moloko, a club which has since shut down but that some have likened to the CBGB’s of Russia. The quality is what you would expect from a punk show recorded at a Russian shithole but it does capture the energy of this long running Boston hardcore band who were doing the raw late-'70s/early-'80s sound a long time before many more now more popular bands. It contains 18 songs spanning their entire career including Hidden Agenda and Repellent from one of their earlier (and best) records ‘Will Attack If Provoked’. The video was sent to the band after tour, (they claim they weren’t aware that the show was even being recorded) but it would have been nice to see some more behind the scenes stuff or interviews of audience members etc. Still this captures the band in fine form. |
| ARTCORE #23 (WALES) |
| As you'd expect from Out Cold, there's no arsing about on this DVD. Just a live set, in Russia, filmed on one camcorder, in 2004, lasting for just over half an hour. Apart from the simple sleeve, and cool insert which has the setlist on one side and the flyer on the other, this is like something you'd get off someone's trade list or under the table at a record fair. Raw and stripped down, just like the band. |
| SLUG & LETTUCE #86 |
| When I got off the plane in Iceland three years ago, pretty excited not only to be there, but to be the first US DIY hardcore band to play there since the 1980s (Crucifix in Iceland? Can you believe that shit?), my balloon was instantly burst hearing about Out Cold's tour there two years earlier. When my friends from Finland came to the States, talking about their recent tour of Russia...fucking Russia!...I thought, "Man, that would be amazing! No US band has gone to Russia." And then my friends told me that their Russian tour was with Out Cold. Overlooked and ignored, Out Cold has done more than just about anyone (to be fair, they've had 15 years to do it), and this DVD is a document of their first Russian gig in 2004, caught in it's entirety. 30 minutes of straight hardcore fury, and...wait, is that a guy in a suit stagediving? Yup, I believe it is. This really could be anywhere, which is sorta the point, I imagine. Pretty good sound quality from a hand held video camera...I have nothing but respect for these dudes. |
| MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #274 |
| In the summer of 2004, veteran Massachusetts HC band Out Cold travelled to Russia, and this DVD captures their first ever gig in that country, at the St. Petersburg club Moloko. Picture this: a no-nonsense hardcore band from the US travels halfway around the world to play an incendiary set for an excited crowd of young Russian punks. While not every note is captured with clarity on the DIY recording, the energy of the show totally comes through. Actually, the sound quality is not so bad, and will be forgiven by the Out Cold fans 'cause you can generally hear well enough to know what's going on and what song they're playing. The crowd won't let Out Cold stop till they've played two encores ("Do you want to hear a fast one or a slow one?" Naturally, the crowd picks a fast one), and the band can't help but grin and enjoy their warm reception. There are eighteen songs which span the long length of Out Cold's career, and while this probably isn't the best place to start with this band, I give it an unqualified recommendation because it is such a worthy document of what must've been a great show. |
| AL QUINT'S COLUMN (FROM MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #268) |
| Artless once had a song called "How Much Punk Rock Do You Hear In Russia?" Well, Out Cold brings its blazing hardcore punk to St. Petersburg for this DVD, recorded in August of 2004. A single camera shot, not all that polished but that's just fine. Not only there is punk rock in Russia, there are also circle pits and even a wall of death as Out Cold plays in front of an enthusiastic audience and tear through their songs in typically no-bullshit fashion. Raw and in your face, the way it should be. 18 songs in about half an hour, including two encores. By the end, drummer John Evicci is collapsed behind his drum kit. The show was a prt of grueling tour that started in Iceland and went through Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland - you can read the tour diary on their website. |
| RAZORCAKE #31 |
| It's a sad fact of life that,
oftentimes, putting a punk rock DVD in your player and hitting the play button is like
biting into a Hostess Pie and finding it filled with Elmer's glue. The unfortunate truth
is that band DVDs frequently suck. I don't know if that's due to the fact that punk rock
folks are, by nature, lame-tit cinematographers or that the medium itself has some sort of
reverse osmosis filtering system in play that sucks all the dangerous hoodlum electricity
out of the performance, rendering it effectively neutered. Punk and video just don't seem
to mix most of the time. So it was with some trepidation that I approached this live performance of hardcore veterans, Out Cold, performing in St. Petersburg, Russia. Not only was I (at best) only distantly familiar with the band, my head was plugged up with cartoonishly simplistic stereotypes of what an audience full of Russians would be like: cold, severe, potato-ish-looking people in heavy clothing and nary a flicker of punk rock primate emotion in their eyes. This could well turn out to be a bad band, poorly filmed, playing for a room of mannequins in mukluks. Well, it turns out I was pleasantly wrong and surprised. Out Cold is a scrappy, unrelenting, no-tits-and-whistles kind of old school hardcore band and their performance here is pretty damn impressive. Right off the bat, I pegged them as a t-shirt and short haircut early '80s hardcore unit of the BYO ilk, somewhat like Youth Brigade, but with slightly higher, slightly more splintered vocals. But then I noticed that the drummer was wearing a Zeke shirt, of all things, and that the bass player had on a Motörhead shirt. It's fascinating what visual cues can do to one's thinking, but right at that moment I suddenly found myself thinking Out Cold was maybe more like some souped-up, shit-kicking Zeke/Motörhead type band. Regardless of where you would plot them on the punk family tree, they crank out a blistering, stripped-down kind of hardcore that, if you jack the volume up to the proper level, tears into you like a load of Dick Cheney birdshot in the face. This video rips it up good. And you might be pleased to know that my jar-headed notions of Russian stoicism were wildly off the mark too. These unencumbered louts have absolutely no hesitation in going totally apeshit and they easily put many American audiences I've seen to shame. And there wasn't a single fuzzy Brezhnev hat in the bunch. All in all, thirty-three minutes of unaffected, bone-jarring punk rock pleasure. Well worth the eight bucks ppd. |
| NOISE #266 |
| This DVD is one entire show filmed in 2004 in Russia. It's filmed by a kid onstage with a camcorder who does it right: he constantly pans and zooms without being nauseatingly fast about it. Each band member gets attention and the cameraman makes an effort to highlight the right guy at the right time. He also pans the crowd to show the chaotic thrashpit that swirls nonstop over the whole half-hour. The sound, however, is what you'd expect from a camcorder mic. The guitar and drums are clear, but the bass, on the other end of the stage, is almost inaudible. The vocals are fuzzy and low at times, and the mix changes as the camera moves. My unfamiliarity with the material, the mediocre sound, and the straight-ahead, yelled hardcore style make the songs all sound alike, but I still dig the whole set. Flaws aside, the band plays dead-on and the audience hollers "One more! Out Cold!" repeatedly until they confer and pick some encores. The simple cover has a cool pic and a statement on the back as to the rawness of the footage, and the Russian show flyer is inside. If you're an Out Cold fan, pick this up -- you need it. Other fans of live hardcore videos should appreciate the energy here too. |
Pressing history:
| FORMAT | PRESSING | DATE | QUANTITY | DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC |
| DVD | 1 | May 2005 | 1000 |