Disco de Dashboard Confessional: “MTV Unplugged”

first of all, i'm a huge dashboard fan, i worship anything and everything that comes from chris' guitar, mind, and mouth. that's partially why this album was a slight disappointment. first of all, most of the songs sound more 'plugged' than any of dashboard's studio work. second of all, the unplugged idea was that it would be a departure from the normal style of the artist. dashboard seems to be exaclty the kind of sound that would do this normally anyways.

okay, as far as the album goes, on several of the earlier tracks, (most notably, the kickoff track 'the swiss army romance'), you can barely hear chris over the crowd. i understand that it's part of the experience, but i guess the fans are just as rabid as me- they sing their hearts out on every note. it gets annoying.

that said, this album was absolutely a joy to listen to- many of the songs were masterfully done... 'places that you have come to fear...' is perfect live, 'hands down', possibly dashboard's best track, is climactic and absolutely wonderful.

if you can stand the sing-along qualities of the first 2 or 3 tracks, it's quite a listen.

Chris Carabba and the rest of DC do a very good job of recapturing their melodic and anguished tunes in this live performance for MTV Unplugged, covering a large amount of their best material. Perhaps they stay a little too true to the studio versions for my tastes; not because I don't like the original versions, but because owning them, I have no need for this live CD. For starters, these live versions add nothing to the originals in terms of changing the arrangement, pace or feel of any of the songs. Secondly, the fact that DC is "unplugged" all the time means that there is nothing unique about these performances other than a very, very small amount of banter and the human foibles of a live performance. DC is flawlessly tight instrumentally, Carabba goes off key very infrequently, and mix is on the whole very good. The problem is the crowd.

No, they aren't unruly and disruptive; they are absolutely enraptured, die-hard fans who sing every single word of every single song. How is that a bad thing? Because the producers chose to mix them at about the level of Carabba's own vocals, so they are intrusive and gradually become unbearably annoying. It's like listening to 150 people in a karaoke club sing "Screaming Infidelities."

Occasionally, Carabba works them into a song cleverly, dropping out to allow them to sing one punctuated line before joining them on the rest of the chorus. But more often, the arrangements feature nothing different from the album cuts, and the audience renders those cuts unlistenable.

At first glance, the fact that you get both a CD and DVD of the same MTV Unplugged show in one package seems to make this an irrefusable good value. Unfortunately, the CD is even less enjoyable than the DVD. Watching a live concert made my brain more willing to accept the singing audience, but in a CD player, out driving in my car, it just sounded like I had purchased some campfire sing-along CD... Camp Sakajawea Sings Dashboard Confessional's Greatest Hits.

All in all, DC fans will enjoy the opportunity to see the band perform live in what is undeniably a good performance; but the audience accompaniment will drive away casual listeners and grow annoying even to the most ardent fans, unless their own singing along keeps them from noticing.

Okay, I'll start this off by saying I'm not the biggest fan - All I've got is Places... and the track Hands Down (pure beauty...), but I have seen them live at Reading, and I was eagerly looking forward to this release (although Dashboard Confessional unplugged seems a little... pointless. Aren't they always unplugged).

I was rewarded - it's filled with brilliant versions of some of my favourite DC songs, plus it also has some ones I've never heard before. The sounds is great, the band is on fine form (I've never heard the drummer play as fast as he does in Hands Down!), and Chris is emotional and excellent.

However, the audience are not all professional singers, and they can be drowning out Chris at some points, which, while providing ambience, can detract from the songs a little.

On the whole though, cracking, and with the DVD - definitely worth it.

First off- Dashboard Confessional is one of my favorite bands along with some harder rock bands. This CD/DVD is probobly my second favorite concert DVD. The reason why it is in second? Because i certainly did not enjoy the people background singing. That is the reason i gave it 4 stars instead of 5, the Singing is loud at times and in my opinion partially wrecks the song. Not totally wrecked or anything, but it would be a lot better with the lead singer/guitarist only singing and not the audience.

overall very good

If I wanted to hear a bunch of heartbroken teens singing Dashboard Confessional I would go to an "emo" Karaoke night.

I could not even get through the whole CD, and this purchase will be sold at my local second hand store without even removing the DVD extra.

I like Dashboard Confessional, and I think this Unpugged would be great, if I could actually hear Chris Carrabba sing. I don't want to hear the extras from TRL whine along like they are in high school glee club.

If you want TRL meets "EMO" buy this unplugged. If not purchase another Dashboard Confessional CD.