Reviewed by Marc on 06 Nov 2012

In the mid nineties I had pretty much given up on Prog. I was still buying albums from the great 70's bands (Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull...), or their ex-members (Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett...) but their music had pretty much gone away from what had made them famous. Gradually I was turning to bands like Tears for Fears, Hogarth led Marillion or Talk Talk for intelligent rock music or to Jazz (that I still love to this day).

Probably in the summer of 96, I was browsing in the huge record store in the historic part of Québec City, when I noticed they had a very large Prog section with a number of bands I did not know of. The very competent salesman suggested Pendragon's The Masquerade Ouverture and Arena's first album  and I then discovered there was a bunch of new bands (Echolyn, The Flower Kings, Porcupine Tree... were soon to follow) making some of the music that I love. Even though I kind of slowly moved away from Pendragon since (their change of style not really doing it for me), for getting me interested in Prog again,  they still hold a special place in my music lover's heart.

When the chance to review their latest live DVD came, I was quite happy at the prospect of seing and hearing where they were as a live act. Only after a few minutes into it my excitement level had already gone down. The main reason for buying a concert DVD, in my opinion, is watching the band as they play their music (if not then a live CD will do). Well Pendragon has got to be one of the sorriest looking bands out there. Nick Barrett looks like a hung over Lumber Jack that hasn't washed his hair for weeks. Clive Nolan is so out of shape we could say that Rick Wakeman is the slim blond keyboard player to tell them apart. Clive's meter long blond hair and XXXL black pirate flag T shirt helps him in no way to achieve the dapper look. In fact, all the band members are dressed like they got their close at an Army Surplus store.

Now for the music... The band features a nice mix of their newer material with some of the classics. The filming is not spectacular but nicely done. Sound wise, it's not great. It's almost as if the microphones  were spread out inside the concert hall. Everything sounds muffled and echo. Nick Barrett's singing is low in the mix and Clive Nolan never takes his hands off the keyboards, so there is a constant wave of sound that almost drowns everything else. Even some drum parts are hard to pick up. Hey Mr. Nolan, let the music breath a bit!! Usually I watch a DVD a couple of times before I review it, but I could not find the motivation to do it this time.

On the positive side, the band really seems to be enjoying itself and the tracks are all interesting. I guess that in the concert hall most of the crowd probably had a nice evening. I don't want to be all negative about this DVD. It's certainly a much better concert film than even a very good bootleg recording.So if someone is really into this band, I'm convinced that Out of Order Comes Chaos can be a very satisfying purchase.

In conclusion, I would say that for diehard fans of the band this would be an good product to pick up. For others, it's probably not an essential purchase.