Many pop-punk bands, such as Northstar, are dreadfully bad live; it sometimes will give you a headache just to listen to them. Sure they can bring energy, but the crowd will not get into the action. In Northstar's The Uncomfortable Camera, the DVD documents Northstars trip to New York were they get the crowd into the action, the vocals are amazing, and the instrumental play is very good.
Amazing start to this as the crowd gets fired up to Northstar's fan favorite hit from Is This Thing Loaded? The crowd is in it even though Nick's vocals are a little shaky; I think it is a perfect way to start the DVD.
Another favorite from the Pollyanna album was the single "For Members Only", the song tells of a story of how Nick's girlfriend wanted to leave him. The song is about as energy filled in the normal song as it is here as it was on the original recording.
The Interludes
The Interludes on the main recording are what I believe nothing special, they just tell how hard it is to be on the road and how they want to be home. It's nothing we haven't heard from a live band before.
Back To The Music
Northstar kicks back in a mellow way with the song "The Accident Underwater", the song follows a hospital visit, and how they wanted to be healed of their pain and sickness. I guess this is in the right spot because the first two songs were so energy filled and beautiful. My favorite point of this song is the end when Nick and Tyler break out the guitars and start jamming, that's what, I think made this song special.
American Living is a kind of mellow song that has a lot of jam parts, which makes it a beautiful completion, so many times in pop-punk the bands are obsessed with if the song starts slow it has to stay slow, that it can't change tune. This is completely false. The best punk songs are the ones that can change rhythm like this one. Nick does the chorus perfectly in this song, "So Dance to some broken chords", and the crowd sings along joyfully, that is beautiful.
Trainhopping in Dixieland actually sounds better live than it does on the original "Is This Thing Loaded" CD. The song is packed with energy and has that memorable line "But I can't wait forever for you", which was eventually put to shame by the wannabe's at Hawthorne Heights.
Blind Crush is one of the best songs ever not to make an album in my opinion; the song has Nick singing his heart out and the crowd wondering, "Where can I Buy This?" I venture to say that this is one of Northstar's best songs as a whole, and the ending is beautiful as well. Northstar ends this song with a jamming guitar solo and the crowd screaming at the top of their lungs.
Pollyanna is the single that had one of the simplest video's I’ve ever seen, but in the live version you can see that the band's fatigue starts to kick in. They don't sing the end of the song, and let the crowd venture out to sing it and most of the people don't know the words, so it's kind of screwed up.
Cinderella is one of the top songs on "Is This Thing Loaded" and it was a smart song to sing as the live performance reaches a climax here. The song is yet another Northstar song that changes it rhythm in the middle of the song. The song reaches it climax when Nick screams "Like Cinderella", and the fast paced music that follows it, good times.
Northstar goes away. The crowd boo's frantically, as they want them back on stage. It's kind of like a dream as they come back on stage and play their best song "Two Zero Two" the crowd lights there lighters and Northstar is ready to go. This can only be described in one word: beautiful, because that's what it is.
Why is this a 3.5?
Well it's easy to say that I craved more, and more, and more of this, it was kind of short in length and I have to say I wanted to see some new songs.
Bonus Features:
Not much here just a few acoustic recordings and music videos, which are in my opinion not produced well at all. The best acoustic recording is "Taker Not A Giver", a song I think very highly of from the gheeco so I have to say that's the best.
Pros And Cons
Pros:
High Energy
Great Vocals and lyrics
Taker Not A Giver acoustic
Cons:
Pretty short
Music videos suck
Northstar broke up, but here comes Cassino.
The only place were you can buy this is the internet, but it is worth the 10 dollars I paid for it.
