Dashboard Confessional packed a brand-new, exclusive DVD with the first 500,000 of the band’s third album, A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar. Titled Far From Home Movies, the DVD combines stirring footage of Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba performing solo during his ten-date, two-coast acoustic “residency” this past May with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the band hard at work in the studio, crafting A Mark… with producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters). The performance footage – captured by Maureen Egan, Matthew Barry, and Nick Carrabba – is as raw and immediate as Dashboard Confessional’s earliest recordings. Also showcased are the “kids”: the dedicated Dashboard fans who pack the group’s concerts and sing every word and pause at every breath to every song at the top of their lungs.
Old, rarely performed favorites like “Drowning” and “Age 6 Racer” are transformed into remarkably uplifting sing-a-longs, while the stripped-down renderings of “Again I Go Unnoticed” and “The Good Fight” hearken back to the beginnings of the Dashboard Confessional phenomenon, when Chris Carrabba would take the stage at hardcore shows, alone with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a stool and convert a roomful of skeptics one at a time, song by song. It’s often said that it’s impossible to “get” Dashboard Confessional until one has experienced the live show, and the performance half of Far From Home Movies is an ideal way to do just that; it also serves as a thank-you to all of the fans who have stuck by Chris since the beginning.
The studio portion of the DVD captures the aspects of Dashboard Confessional that the fans never get to see: the band jamming and rehearsing in its Florida practice space, discussions over the minutiae of each song, and what the day-to-day recording of A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar actually looked like. Fans are given a rare peek into the working life of a band at the height of its powers – as well as another perspective on new songs like “Bend and Not Break,” “Carry This Picture For Luck,” and “Hey Girl,” among others.
Chris Carrabba has always said that his fans are equal partners in Dashboard Confessional. With Far From Home Movies he has given them an all- access pass to the making of A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar as well as a scrapbook of how far they’ve come together.
