Skate and Surf Fest was shot on location at Asbury Park, N.J in 2004, and is a three day festival with skating, biking, and, of course, music. With over one-hundred-fifty bands on five different stages it would seem perfect for a DVD, but they only put thirteen bands on here out of over one-hundred-fifty, however, only seven of those thirteen bands are really good.
I was in Hot Topic (I had a gift certificate okay?) and I saw this, looked at it and said I have to have this. If it has such great band like Senses Fail, Armor for Sleep, and Coheed & Cambria, some of the other bands have to be good right? Luckily I was right in the case of Andrew WK, MXPX, Hot Rod Circuit, and The Bouncing Souls, and most of the other bands on here are average to bad, with The Starting Line being pretty bad. The bands on here are (in order of appearance): Midtown, Hot Rod Circuit, Piebald, Andrew WK, Slightly Stoopid, MXPX, Senses Fail, The Early November, The Starting Line, Armor for Sleep, Boys Night Out, The Bouncing Souls, Coheed & Cambria. All of these bands have two songs, except Coheed & Cambria, Slightly Stoopid, and Boys Night Out, who all have one.
My second favorite band on here is probably Senses Fail.
Rum is for Drinking, Not for Burning is fantastic live and the crowd seemed to get into them pretty good as well, singing along when they hadn’t even released their full-length album yet in which the song belongs to. The best band on here, no doubt about it, is Andrew WK. The energy in which, he, and his band performance is amazing. They are the only band on here that let people get on stage, and at one point the lead singer lifts a fan into the air on his shoulders. The Starting Line’s music is okay, but then the guy starts singing and takes away any chance of this band being good. Granted, the sound on here is good (mostly), and the crowd does get into it, but hey, if this is the music they like okay, that’s fine, but the guy cannot sing.
Armor for Sleep does a good job on here, but the back-up vocalists mic was either not working or was turned down really low, and while the singer is good, his voice just is not as good live. One of my biggest problems with the DVD is that Coheed & Cambria only get one song and no interview. The crowd seems to respond to them the best (except for Andrew WK) and was singing along the entire time. The sound for them was probably the best on here of all the bands on here, with everything coming in perfectly, and I think Claudio’s voice is better on here than on the album. There are also interviews with the bands on here and some of them are pretty funny and add to the DVD and not take away from it, but some of the interviews are annoying and are a waste of time, with the best interview being done with the lead singer of Andrew WK.
The extras are on here are good and sometimes funny. Interview outtakes are funny and are better than some of the interviews. A Day at the Beach and For the Kids are stupid and should be avoided. A Day at the Beach is just some guys having a dancing competition, and a guy in Santa hat and some other people swimming, although it does have some nice shots of the beach and ocean. For the Kids is a recording outside of different people waiting in line or inside a building. It is short, and is really just a one-time watch. On the Phone is funny, with a cameraman going up and down the line messing with people talking on the phone. The funniest part of that is when he goes up to a girl on the phone with her boy friend and yells “no I will not have sex with you”. There is also a dog drool hidden extra also in the available section.
Overall this is a good DVD with good, average, and bad bands with good sound and some funny extras. 3.5/5
