Partly a marketing tie-in to his new tour (yet again called ‘Anger Management’) this summer, it provides another aspect of the Eminem phenomenon only available previously to those able to fork out 40-odd quid to see him live.

With a stage covered in slightly disturbing carnival paraphernalia, replete with giant ferris wheel, this is very much the Eminem show, and he puts on fine visual entertainment, keeping the stage busy despite the lack of a band. Soon the stage fills up, though, with his buddies from D12, who proceed to posture and fool around in the most egotistical way imaginable. If nonsensical swearing and endless jokes about your mother are your bag, this show’s for you. If you start to wonder just what the point of the sword-swallower and other novelty ‘magic’ acts going on during raps about totally different subjects is, the whole thing starts to break down.

Eminem’s trouble is that he sounds exactly the same live. You’d almost swear he was miming except for the occasional shout to the crowd. We can assume he’s not and is just really good at what he does (unlike the tragically off-key 50 Cent), but this leads to the inescapable feeling you’d be as well listening to the record.

The visual spectacle works for the live audience, who respond to the fairground antics enthusiastically, but from the wider perspective it’s just bizarre. The creeping feeling is that Eminem is trying to distract you with cheap tricks in an effort to keep you entertained.

This is not to say the performance isn’t very good indeed, but the fire and excitement of the live experience simply doesn’t come across here. You’re not likely to watch this more than once, and even then you’ll just feel like switching off and putting the albums on when another rap breaks off infuriatingly unfinished. This one’s for the true fans… but then won’t they have seen the real thing close-up already?

(2/5)

Release Date: 18 July 2005

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