Punknews.org | Armor for Sleep - A Comprehensive Guide to Touring DVD

Review Navigator

Features

Reviews

Armor for Sleep

A Comprehensive Guide to Touring DVD
2005
Equal Vision

Armor for Sleep - A Comprehensive Guide to Touring DVD (Cover Artwork)

Review by: Anchors
See others by this writer

Armor for Sleep (link)

Only registered users
can post comments

Published on February 17th 2006

Armor For Sleep had a real solid year. What to Do When You Are Dead marked a definitive step forward for the four-piece, and their relentless touring really helped to get their name and music out there. However, their DVD, A Comprehensive Guide to Touring, is a an exercise in how not to make a music DVD.

Point blank, it’s boring. If you’re going to buy this in hopes of catching some real good live footage of the band, I’ll tell you right now, save your cash. There’s virtually no live footage of the band, which is really pretty unfortunate, as they’re one of the more enjoyable live acts within their genre. One would infer that a comprehensive guide to touring would include a hefty amount of why you tour in the first place, which is to play shows, and that’s simply not the case.

What you have instead are a lot of candid moments of the band, individual interviews and general hijinks of tour and being out on the road with your friends. If nothing else, you do get a much closer look at the dichotomy and day-to-day dealings of the band than most other DVDs would show. The problem with going this in depth is that a good amount of the time, there’s nothing to really see. Bands can’t be exciting and entertaining all the time, so what ends up happening is a lot of shots of the band sleeping or driving in the van, sitting in hotel rooms, or just telling stories. Which would be fine, but the stories are really nothing that amusing. Each of the band's four members has plenty of time to share funny happenings, or the tough and fun times of the road and being away from home, but when it all comes down to it, they’re really not exciting people.

I will say though, the fight between two tall lanky men in girl pants that resulted in one of said men being drug down a hallway by their wedgie was one of the more entertaining things I’ve seen in a while. The rest of the DVD though, is rather uneventful; there’s some funny moments, and it’s not tough to watch or anything, but there’s just so little to truly grasp your attention that it becomes a problem after a while.

After the main portion is over, there’s a decent amount of extras to keep you watching. Three music videos, bonus footage, tours of each of the band member’s rooms, and a few other things that aren’t quite as interesting. It’s nice that they did throw a few extras on, even if the content is marginally entertaining.

When it comes down to it, you’ll have to really be a big fan of the band to get a lot of enjoyment out of the DVD. It’s well made, it’s got tons of content and extras, but the footage suffers from a severe lack of live performances. Even just a song or two would put the DVD in better standing than it’s currently in, but it was simply not to be. Huge fans of the band, pick this up, the rest of you, I’d advise just stick to the albums.

Login to rate this album

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-02-20 15:53:50

And Enkephalin.

Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-02-20 15:53:32

For the exact opposite of this DVD, buy Mara'akate's DVD. So much better. So less suck. Fer christ's sake there's even an Off Minor segment .. aka 3. Oh, and Yage. Thanks.

Old Dave Man Gloom Norman

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, February 19, 2006 at 5:30 AM (EST)

"Prevent Falls!"

forgot about that band. I liked their one record, and now that you mention it, and only mentioned it, they remind me of armor for sleep for people out of high school.

and, fear factory makes earth crisis seem like stephen hawkings.

wyzo

Posted by maverick on 2006-02-18 02:00:31

First record was a cure for insomniacs nationwide, but the new one has some really solid songs on it. This band was by far the most improved of 2005.

Haven't seen the DVD, though.

-Scott

Posted by Klonny on 2006-02-17 20:28:05

Armor For Sleep...This band is...Mediocre. If I were first listening to punk, I would probably like it, but from the point I'm at right now, it's nothing new.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 8:23 PM (EST)

Fear Factory sucks. I have a friend who introduced me to them and one of their albums was ok. They have this one CD where it's all this horseshit about "what if machines take over the world, blah blah blah". They once did a rap song with Cypress Hill that had lyrics "back the fuck up" and the singer is 100% nu-metal. I saw them with my friend and they had their stage dudes tune all their shit and took 40 minutes to come out and play. Fuck Fear Factory. What kind of name is Fear Factory anyways? Where they thinking that name would be cool?

How about you stop posting the same shit over and over just to get a rise out of people?

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 2:07 PM (EST)

Fear Factory sucks. I have a friend who introduced me to them and one of their albums was ok. They have this one CD where it's all this horseshit about "what if machines take over the world, blah blah blah". They once did a rap song with Cypress Hill that had lyrics "back the fuck up" and the singer is 100% nu-metal. I saw them with my friend and they had their stage dudes tune all their shit and took 40 minutes to come out and play. Fuck Fear Factory. What kind of name is Fear Factory anyways? Where they thinking that name would be cool?

STFU

Fear Factory was putting out amazingly brutal grind records before you were even born. Nu metal my ass.

Posted by skolarx on 2006-02-17 12:30:19

what the deal with the random fear factory comments in like every thread?

oh and this band... they have always seemed boring to me. the dvd sounds about like the fall out boy/ cladistine one. lots of "hi-jinks" little substance.which come to think about it, that dvd actually had some decently shot though boring footage of armor playing

Posted by dietcokeofpunk on 2006-02-17 09:46:53

The rest of the DVD though, is rather uneventful; there’s some funny moments, and it’s not tough to watch or anything, but there’s just so little to truly grasp your attention that it becomes a problem after a while.

funny, that's how i feel about their music...

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 8:36 AM (EST)

Prevent Falls!

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 2:50 AM (EST)

armor for sleep? nah. they just make me want to sleep.

ps. i write for leno.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 2:49 AM (EST)

Posted by colin on 2006-02-17 01:38:08

fuck this band

(personal reasons)

Posted by Sluggo on 2006-02-17 01:11:49

these guys are seriously badass. one of the best bands in music right now.

i have a recurring dream where i....you know, i can't think of anything clever and i don't see this joke going anywhere.

armor for sleep are really terrible.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 12:48 AM (EST)

dvd's are too cheap, anyone can make one.

armor for sleep is a guilty pleasure i have to admit, then deny admitting.

wyzo

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 12:32 AM (EST)

just another generic trendy band.
there should be some kinda mall-emo thunderdome.
where bands fight to the death
and the winner has the prviliege of being
sodomized by an oil derrick
for the enjoyment of the crowd

Features

Contests

Reviews

Armor for Sleep