Orange County straightedge bruisers Throwdown have been filming themselves since their first ever show. Now, all of the footage has been artfully edited and interlaced with interviews to chronicle the band’s history in typical Jackass meets Behind the Music fashion. With footage from their first 1999 tour, Warped Tour in 2003, European and Australian tours, the 2000 US tour within Eighteen Visions and an entire set from a 2004 hometown show, there’s more than enough footage of ninja mosh pits, back flip stage diving and varying degrees of fist flailing, that most fans will become sweaty with one viewing. Throw in the video for “Forever,” in-depth interviews, bloopers and extensive gallery, you get the definitive look at life on the road with one the scene’s most respected acts, as well as some back ground into the scene itself. The package is well put together and well presented with decent, interviews, and you generally get a solid insight to being on the road with a group of young men stuffed into a van for weeks on end. Along with the grainy show footage, you get lots of amusing home video moments of tour insanity, that give you a glimpse of the utterly non glorious side of the road.The retrospective/documentary part of the DVD is actually fairly entertaining and presents the band as just a bunch of tight friends doing what they love, the home video footage of pranks, basement shows and mosh pit footage brings across the relative brotherhood of the scene and will amuse fans of the band.

The 2004 Orange County show is the bulk of the DVD, and shows the band in their element-surrounded by fans and in an enclosed space. However, while the picture is adequate, the sound of the show is atrocious and the root of Throwdown’s sound; burly breakdowns, is rendered horridly flat throughout the entire show. So the show ends up an exercise in watching various levels of hardcore machismo from the hoodie toting crowd. For a former guitarist with no vocal experience, shouter Dave Peters is a solid front man and had watched plenty of Hatebreed shows, with enough Jasta-isms, (including the haircut) to warrant investigations.

The “Fightclub” theme of the video for “Forever” is heavy on the testosterone but fits the music perfectly and is one of the bands most crushing and message-laden songs for the straight edge masses. The Cutting Room floor material is also pretty amusing, especially when the band pretends to be Slipknot “unmasked” at a fast food joint.

Overall, a pretty solid, well produced and put together DVD that’s a no brainer purchase for fans of the band, but the live set leaves a lot to be desired, as it doesn’t fully carry Throwdown’s massive sound.

[Visit the band's website]

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