Satan's Luau

I was never a huge Billy Idol fan while growing up, in fact in his heyday, I can think of many others that I knew who were much bigger fans than I ... but then as is now, I find his music to be one of a few guilty pleasures that I have in this life ... and I wonder why I've been away from his music for so long

When I think about it, the thing that drove me away from him was a lip synch performance that I gave during a student conference in Hilo in 1985 .... this girl from Waiakea High School said ok, as an icebreaker everyone has to come up with a dance and lipsynch to a song ... well, our group picked Rebel Yell ... and yeah ... I was Bill ... the funny thing was that I knew all his motions and faces so we won the contest ... but after that I felt so dirty and stupid -- vowed off him for life I said ... ha right

I've never owned a Billy idol album, cassette, or CD ... I suppose one should be proud to have escaped the 80s without that happening ... but I really did dig individual songs that he did ... but basically I put him away in 1985, never to be heard from again ... until an impulse buy a while ago

Ok, so as some background, VH1 Storytellers is usually a mostly acoustic set with the artists giving speaking on the songs or the times ... its a pretty cool concept, and kind of refreshed the getting stale, dead Unplugged genre

I guess what I notice about the 3 episodes I have seen, the stories are sometimes brilliant, sometimes just shut up and play --- I guess, what I am trying to express is that they are mixed in quality

The thing that I find most enjoyable about the series and this DVD in particular is that the artists will take their greatest hits and rearrange them or do a fresh take on them ... in general, it's very cool -- the Billy Joel episode is a good example of it ... and now that I've seen the Billy Idol ep. , I like his even better

Ok, I guess the selling point of the DVD is that it is 2x as long as the show that was on TV ... I didn't see it ... but some of the songs left off are ones that I really liked --- some vital idol ... ha

The set played was:
Cradle of Love
Don�t Need A Gun
Flesh For Fantasy
White Wedding
Sweet Sixteen
To Be A Lover
Rebel Yell
Kiss Me Deadly
Eyes Without A Face
Dancing With Myself
Untouchables
Ready Steady Go
Blue Highway
Mony Mony
L.A. Woman

Performance-wise, I guess I was surprised to see that spiky Ronnie Wood guitarist Stevie Stevens still playing with Mr. Bill ... Billy gives a nicely energetic, facially expressive, punch out performance ... at some points actually satiring the songs he's doing (refreshing) and the stories he tells are really great -- highlights are the Rebel Yell story and the Rolling Stones

Ok, so as some of you know, I've been goofing around with a guitar in my free time of late ... so one of the really cool moments of the DVD is watching Stevie Stevens play White Wedding ... it doesn't sound like a complicated guitar song, but to watch it played is like wow, there's this underlying complexity to the riff and the solo and the helicoptery sound

The song I really liked A TON on the disk is Sweet Sixteen and the story is really fROCked up, it's twisted but in a good way ... now I probably heard the song like 2x in my life previous because I wasn't around for Whiplash Smile Idol in 1986 ... but the song is so great and the story behind it makes it even better

One of the funny things about the DVD is watching the audience ... they are entertaining to watch ... let's put it this way, if you are ever caught on tape, will you look goofy? ... let's hope not, this is a totally happy ecstatic goony bunch

All the hits come off great ... Flesh for Fantasy, Eyes without a Face, To be a Lover, Rebel Yell, Dancing with Myself --- it's just so fun, so energetic, it reminds me about what I did like about Billy Idol when I listened to him during my forma-years

And you know what, it all sounds good --- if it sounds good on my minimal TV setup and computer at home, you know it will sound good on UnMatx's setup like 8000x better ... and visually its clean, you can see each wrinkle on the eighty year old Mr. Idol's face ... ha ... oh yeah, and flying spit ... watch and see ... ha

When I was doodling around with the extras, there is an option to cut the talking down to a minimum and get to the songs ... which is a cool option to have ... but I think the stories make the show GREATER ... so until I tire of them, I won't skip

So anyways, from someone who has just rediscovered that he really likes Billy Idol after all ... its a really great DVD to rekindle that love for that sneering pokey headed bastard and his damn catchy music ... it's really one for everyone who loved the music of the 80s or a great music and story performance