when a new converge release is announced, my interest is awaken to say the least. this happened when i heard news of a new release called 'thousands of miles between us'. at first glance i thought it was a new record but with more information i could see that it was a new live dvd. i mean blu-ray, sorry for i am old. that alone didn't convince me but when i saw a pre-order going up on kingsroad merch europe concerning a boxset with the whole live set on vinyl, i started to think.
i mean, i don't like live albums. recorded material is for my turntable at home and live music is for the clubs or festival stages. i don't listen to digital music when i am at a show and the other way around i don't listen to live stuff at home. well, usually. but with converge it felt different. the urge to buy it was definitely there but the hefty price tag of round about one hundred euros put me off a little. i explained the dilemma to my girl telling her of all the things on the negative side and she replied that thus the only reasonable decision was not to buy it.
i could only answer that somehow i still wanted it and she said annoyed: 'so why you're asking me anyway?' and i said: 'yeah, you're right, i should definitely go for it. thanks for the help, babe!' so, she turned shaking her head and i ran to the comp to put my pre-order in. just in time as it seemed because after three days all the copies were gone. despite the fucking 100€ bill. in the over three months long meantime, i ordered myself a used copy of 'the long road home' dvd. it sweetened the wait a bit.
when the package arrived i was blown away by the amount of care, thought and craftsmanship that went into the result of the 'thousands of miles between us' boxset. the box comes with a gold foil print and houses the triple blu-ray digipak - two blu-rays full of collected live and rare behind-the-scenes footage, the double vinyl lp containing the whole philadelphia live set, a special lp-sized live photo book, a cover art patch and a lovely slipmat. i didn't watch all three blu-rays as yet but i did watch the live set standing in the living room and moving to the music hectically. 500 copies on orange and white merge vinyl for kingsroad europe. deathwish inc. 2016.
