THIS MIGHT GET LOUD directed by Davis Guggenheim (USA, 2009)This is a film that celebrates three well established guitar heroes – Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page.
See if you can match the following quotes with each;
Break like the wind!!
I love the flow chart of Heavy Metal band names.
I particularly like the ‘pleas for help’ and ‘adolescent poetry’ sections.
“I’m guessing this is more of a music salon than a teenage riot place” observes guitarist Randy Randall accurately.
Randall is 50% of LA’s Sub Pop phenomenon No Age. The other half is Dean Allen Spunt who sings and plays drums, neither one with any great aplomb but the fact that he does both together is pretty cool.
The band are playing the Bronson Club near Ravenna which despite being little more than a modest social club has an admirable track record of attracting a steady stream of rising stars and leftfield heroes from beyond the mainstream.
A ‘salon’ is a putting it a bit strongly, but the audiences do tend to be a polite, good mannered bunch and I suspect the No Agers are used to a rowdier reception.
They try gamely to create a rapport with genial chat and during the first number Randall makes a bold gesture to break the performer/punter divide by stepping among us while still playing his riffs. This might have succeeded better had there not occurred a Spinal Tap moment in which he fell flat on his face while re-mounting the stage.
Further attempts at genuine ice-breaking floundered in similar fashion. Realistically a Monday night audience numbering around 40, most of whom don’t speak Californian, is not one where there much hope of whipping up a party atmosphere.
Blunt and Randall impress as a likable duo nonetheless and sound like Psychocandy kids raised on a diet of drone-noise and punk rock. Imagine the music the offspring of Joey Ramone and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon might play and you’ll get the idea.
Their best songs – Boy Void, Everybody’s Down or Eraser to name just three – are spiky and snappy pieces with a refreshing absence of indie boy band pretensions.
It’s easier to imagine them busking on a street corner than playing bigger venues and this alone ensures that the DIY punk spirit has made it through to another generation.
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