Review - Live at Pompeii: The Director's Cut

It really didn't get any more stoned than Pink Floyd, circa 1972, vibing out in Pompeii. During the course of making "Dark Side of the Moon," an idea was hatched to put the post-Syd band -- and their gong -- in an empty, ancient amphitheatre and let 'em run through atmospheric jams like "Echoes" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun." It was surely thought of as "magical" or some such crap. Location aside, at this point the band was as potent as a fresh sheet of acid, having successfully rounded out their freakier edges into shiny bubbles of tripped-out spaciness that occasionally allowed prismatic glimpses of furious musicality and pop melodicism. No grand thematic statements or paeans to suicide here, just a bunch of greasy freaks on some really good drugs. The newly added bits -- more interviews and studio shots -- define it as a "directors cut," but the reputation this film has as a cult classic is built upon the sheer psychedelia of the music, a facet that's only enhanced by the DVD presentation.