Tom DeLonge – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar

David Kennedy – Lead Guitar

Matt Wachter – Bass

Atom Willard - Drums

            Angels and Airwaves, after releasing 2 albums, decide its time to release a documentary titled Start the Machine. The documentary introduces viewers to the band members and lets them into their private studio as they wrote and recorded the first album We Don’t Need To Whisper. The DVD also showcases performances of “The Adventure,” “The War,” “The Gift,” and more from their first headlining tour in 2006. There are also questions answered about the Blink 182 break-up and the effect it had on leadman Tom DeLonge. It also addresses his addiction to prescription medication. The DVD begins with band commentary. During this section they reveled that 90% of the We Don’t Need To Whisper was recorded right in Tom’s house. There he has an isolated sound booth and a pro-tool setup. During the writing and recording of the album the first single “The Adventure” was leaked when a kid hacked into Tom’s e-mail and spread the song all over the internet. There was such a response to the track that they decided to make it the first single. They introduce Critter on the DVD which is a close friend, engineer, and mentor to Tom and the rest of the band. They also include Ryan, which is the old guitarist that left the band but helped make the unique sounds on the album. Its really cool how they make some of them, you should check it out. For the reviews they have a slide show of a few reviews for the first album. They let you go into the studio to see how some of the music was made and the ideas come about. The discussion with Tom about his current band and former band is intense. “Distraction” live is very nicely done. The quality of the picture and sound is tremendous. The movie trailer is great as are the music videos and the short films. Overall this is an excellent DVD. Where most are this or that, Start the Machine is a little of both. It has live stuff, behind the scenes, interviews, making of the album and a view extras. It’s an awesome DVD to owe and I recommend picking up a copy. If you like any of Tom’s work at all, it’s worth having and taking a step into his life and profession.

Rating:  9 out of 10

DVD Content:

1.      Band Commentary

2.      The Reviews

3.      More From the Studio

4.      Tom talks about Blink 182 and AVA

5.      “Distraction” Live

6.      I-Empire Movie Trailer

7.      2 Music Videos

8.      4 Short Films

Website (s): www.angelsandairwaves.com, www.modlife.com