1/5 run and hide from the trachtenbergs!!!!!!!!!!
  by Marie Marshall
i saw this family peform this weekend at 45 bleeker in nyc. please try and imagine 13 yr old rachel play a ukele badly while singing john bonham songs to the 4 yr olds sitting in the front row as ma-trachtenberg acted out the songs on a felt story board attached to a suitcase. i won't mention jason and his cast of friends that didn't really have a clue. the 4 yr olds really liked it but anyone over 5yrs old was so over it all!!! and if tina and jason didn't get it ... rachel is BORED with you all. she's your gimmick and she grown tired of you!!!

5/5 Fun Family Players!
  by J. Felice (Hollister, CA United States)
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are a great family band that is really different but really fun. If you are even looking at this review, then you probably know what I'm talking about. Rachel is becoming the star of the group as she is a teenager and cute. Really that seems to be the criteria now-a-days. But she still can play drums and has great timing. This DVD sort of spells out what the Family Players are all about and it defines their art in music. It is a very special collection and if you are looking for something from them that will fill your appetite for their zany brand of good clean fun humor in music, while still having a social message, then this is for you.

5/5 Nominated for Plug Awards "Best music DVD of the Year"
  by Audio File
Though I was familiar with TFSP, I didn't buy the disc until I saw it was nominated for best music DVD of the year by the Plug Awards, which is an indie award ceremony based in NY. This is the most unusual music DVD I think I have ever bought! DVD is definitely the medium for this band, since their narrative slideshow is integral to thier concept. Most music DVDs I own, I tend to watch once or twice, but often listen to without picture, since the video just don't hold my attention after that. This disc is sort of like a pop train wreck about to happen, and I can't look away.

My highest recomendation. (whatever that means)

5/5 Forward thinking family release overdue DVD
  by indie-rocker (Seattle, WA)
I've been waiting for this for years! I have seen them live and I have listened to their CDs. I must admit they are a visual band so the CDs don't do them justice. That is why I was so excited to hear they released this DVD. It's fun. It's quirky. It's a must have for any indie-vaudeville fan.

1/5 Pretentious And Over-rated
  by Emerson Shiff (Long Beach, CA)
I picked this up on the strength of seeing them perform "Look At Me" on Conan O'Brien years ago. They must have been really on that night because in this collection they're sloppy, not clever and waaaay too impressed with themselves. The hipster doofus factor is high, both in how others describe them and how they see themselves.

The father is an unwashed Rick Moranis/Robert Crumb hybrid, and if their daughter wasn't precocious, cute and stylishly bored they'd still be walking dogs and being act #7 at beatnik clubs.

Their political songs are the worst because Rick-Crumb finds so much horrible, incriminating (and of course artfully ironic) evidence in simple corporate slide show presentations he simply smirks and sing-songs the words on the screen.

It seems little effort was put into writing more than one or two awkward melodies, and then beating them into the ground. I write this as a fan of The Shaggs. Their whole act is look at us, dig our concept, love our thrift store fashions and envy our Bohemian lifestyle.

This was a big letdown. I wanted and expected to like this. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were great on Conan but besides that they're a pretentious, lazy mess. The DVD was filmed well and offers a lot of songs for the buck, but wow, this sucks.