DVD Review: ‘Fountains of Wayne: No Better Place - Live in Chicago’ Captures Windy City Show

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DVD Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Fountains of Wayne have always put together light, breezy pop tunes, so a set in the Windy City seems the perfect location for their first ever concert DVD, “Fountains of Wayne: No Better Place - Live in Chicago”. The 16-song performance runs less than an hour and amplifies the band’s most notable weakness as the songs all kind of start to sound the same, but fans should be thrilled to finally own a piece of Wayne’s world.

The case for “No Better Place” describes FoW as “champions of power pop” and this October 2005 show certainly stresses the poppy hooks that made the band one of the more popular live acts of the mid’-00s. Personally, every time they played in Chicago in the mid-section of this decade, I feel like I heard about it. They have a loyal fan base here, making the location a great choice for a concert DVD.

Now, as someone who was a fan of FoW long before Rachel Hunter became Stacy’s mom, I don’t think this particular 2005 set represents the band at their peak. It’s a surprisingly routine set and the boys - Chris Collingwood on lead vocals and guitar, Adam Schlesinger on bass and vocals, Jody Porter on guitar and vocals and Brian Young on drums and percussion - look a little bored by their own material. The second half of the set kicks in a bit, but it’s a surprisingly dull first half hour.

Shot for broadcast in a widescreen format and recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound, “No Better Place - Live in Chicago” does recreate the experience of a live show as well as DVD can, but Fountains of Wayne is a better band than this particular show. In fact, an all-new, never-before-seen, five-song set of acoustic songs plays much better than the club show.

The acoustic set, recorded in December 2008, includes “It Must Be Summer,” “Someone to Love,” “I-95,” “Joe Rey,” and “Fire in the Canyon”. In particular, Chris seems really into this set list and excited by the material. When it comes to the full show, maybe they’re just tired of singing “Radiation Vibe” by now.

PERFORMANCES
“I’ve Got a Flair”
“Mexican Wine”
“Janice’s Party”
“No Better Place”
“Denise”
“Hackensack”
“Hey Julie”
“Valley Winter Song”
“Sick Day”
“Red Dragon Tattoo”
“Stacy’s Mom”
“Bright Future in Sales”
“Maureen”
“Radiation Vibe”
“Survival Car”
“Sink to the Bottom”

The final three songs are easily the highlight, but most of the versions on “Fountains of Wayne: No Better Place - Live in Chicago” sound nearly identical to their studio takes. For some fans, that’s all they’re looking for from a live show - a shuffled versions of songs with which they can easily sing along. It’s really hard not to sing along with “No Better Place”.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com