Kansas - Device, Voice, Drum
This exceptional DVD will convince you that the best American progressive rock band is still Kansas. Shot on Super-16mm film and digitally mastered,Device, Voice, Drumwas recorded before an appreciative audience in Atlanta on June 15, 2002. The two-hour concert finds Kansas in peak form, the band members now in their 50s, with thicker waistlines (except for trim vocalist-keyboardist Steve Walsh) and sounding better than ever in pristine 5.1-channel Dolby. "Just because they call you a dinosaur band doesn't mean you can't rock," says violinist Robby Steinhardt in the DVD's bonus interviews, and the group backs those words with a high-precision set of ballads and epic anthems. "The Preacher" includes a full choir; "Dust in the Wind" is still an all-time classic; and of course "Carry On Wayward Son" perfectly embodies Kansas's signature sound (even though Walsh now avoids the highest notes). Featuring a dazzling computer-animated music machine (illustrated on the DVD cover), this well-produced disc proves that the band is anything but fossilized.--Jeff Shannon