DVD Review of Bert Reinders

In spite of my presence at the recording of this DVD and my close involvement with the band, hereby a short account of the DVD Mocambo Blues – Live in The Netherlands. First of all it’s pretty weird to spot yourself in the final product, but I guess that will be felt by many others who were present. Terrible to see yourself jumping around and swinging like a boorish fool. Pfff, sometimes I just had to fast-forward haha.
Further, there’s nothing wrong with the DVD. In fact, it exceeded my expectations. You can always modify images and sound, but that has not happened here. Okay, the sound has probably been improved a bit here, but that is the case with every recording. This DVD gives a perfect impression of what happened that night, April 28 2007, in Hoorn. Even the minor musical mistakes – which are, however, extremely hard to detect – have not been filtered out, which makes this DVD even more unique.
It’s a pity, though, that the shots that were made from the other side of the room – behind the audience – did not turn out as expected. For those who were in ‘Cafe Baas en Ko’ the 28th of April this will be understandable. The enormous lighting with light robots could not be placed at the usual stage, so a bit of improvisation was required. This resulted in a stage which was at the same level as the audience. Therefore the stage and the performers were difficult to reach from the other side of the cafe.
This is the only comment I can give on this DVD. The pictures are extremely dynamic, the lighting shows to great advantage and the sound is phenomenal. You cannot choose between stereo or another option, as the sound is set at Dolby 5.1 – sound on full power and enjoy!!
Highlights? Plenty! I won’t sum them up, as they will be different for everybody, but especially the song ‘Tin Pan Alley’ is of masterly beauty. The song ‘Tin Pan Alley’ is the thread running trough the different sets of the DVD. It’s beautiful and it sends chills up my spine every time.
Beside the splendid guitar play of Ed Hofstede, the sound of Hammond organist Bennie Veldman deserves attention. Bennie had rehearsed just one time with Mocambo Blues, but the way he contributes the Hammond tones to the songs is magnificent. If you can present yourself as a musician the way Bennie Veldman does it, I believe you are big!!
Although the DVD covers a complete concert of two hours and fifteen minutes and offers some bonus material, the disc costs only € 18,50.INCL.PORTO This price is way too low for such a professional product!!
The DVD can be ordered from Richard Keizer of manager Tona Burgemeester. Their email addres are or info@tb-bluesmanagement.nl.
The DVD can also be bought during one of the performances of Mocambo Blues.
http://www.tb-bluesmanagement.nl
http://www.mocambo-blues.nl