Now, for the first time, an enterprising company (Shout! Factory subsidiary Blaze TV) brings digital music fans a highlight reel of performances recorded in two “clubs” that were custom-built inside the Austin Convention Center specifically for filming this DVD.

For those music fans accustomed to seeing their favorite modern rock bands on Letterman, Conan or Kimmel Live, this will prove to be ideal—clean picture, superior sound and a live audience out of microphone range. For those expecting an approximation of the spontaneity and sweat of Austin during SXSW, please look elsewhere.

The first section of the DVD contains performances captured at the “Bat Bar,” which looks suspiciously like a trade show set. This seems to suit The Bravery just fine; the polished synth-rock of “Honest Mistake” is smooth enough for a PowerPoint presentation, yet powerful enough for the live stage.

The remaining Bat Bar performances are a bit of a mixed bag. Peter, Bjorn & John’s infectious “Young Folks” and The Automatic Automatic’s giddy “Monster” are definite keepers. Veteran LA songwriter Rickie Lee Jones pitches her “Nobody Knows My Name” somewhere between Patti Smith and Tom Waits to startling effect, while Aqualung’s ocean floor melancholy is well suited for fans of Radiohead and Snow Patrol. The Polyphonic Spree plays a disappointingly short version of “When the Fool Becomes a King” but look dapper in their matching black uniforms. Ozomatli walks the fine line between electrifying and unwieldy on “City of Angels” and the less said about Bowling for Soup’s “1985” the better.

The second section of SXSW Live 2007, captured at the Lone Star Lounge (which looks like the stage on Saturday Night Live decorated for a performance by ZZ Top), is stronger thanks in large part to sets that put the spontaneity and sweat back into live music.

Mando Diao’s garage rock stomper “Long Before Rock ‘N’ Roll” is nothing short of thrilling. Portland, Oregon’s Stars of Track and Field play “Movies of Antarctica” with reckless abandon. Joe Purdy’s “White Picket Fence” is a straight-up nitecrawler, mud-thick and pitch-black. Other Lone Star highlights include Dub Reggae pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry and a rock solid backing band and Rachel Fuller and Pete Townshend duetting on the lovely English folk ballad “Sunrise.”

Elsewhere, Marc Broussard’s “Home” is middling roadhouse blues; Annuals can’t decide if they are a jam band or a space rock outfit on “Complete or Completing”; Rocco DeLuca apes Jeff Buckley on the bland “Colorful”; Razorlight plays British indie rock by the numbers; Kraak and Smaak channel the Stereo Mcs on “Money in the Bag.”

Bonus features are limited to artist interviews of just 15 of the musical acts, including the priceless five minutes spent between party rocker Andrew WK and a rambling Lee Perry. Yeah Andrew WK kind of came and went from the music scene but he proves to be quite a good interviewer.

So if you are a fan of live music this is a nice collection of 90 minutes of 18 performances from SXSW this past March. Yet, if you are one of many that attends SXSW every year this might be a bit of a disappointment. The DVD is well made and well produced and in doing so, steals the ambiance that is delivered so deliciously from the plethora of dirty dark clubs.

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