Last night I was scrolling my Facebook feed and there was a link to the documentary trailer that mentioned the movie was playing in select cities for one day only (April 5th), followed by a live concert. I click the link to the theaters and to my surprise it would only be playing in five theaters across the entire state of Texas and one of them happens to be five minutes from my house.
(watch the trailer here...but finish reading the blog first)
My hubby is not a big fan of movie theaters. Let me rephrase that, my hubby is not a big fan of the people that populate movie theaters. We haven't been to a theater together in probably 5 years. We are Netflix people. However, he is a drummer and a big Dave Grohl fan (and Taylor Hawkins), so despite his disdain of the movie theater crowd, he was on board for this one.
He calls the theater first thing Tuesday morning to inquire about purchasing tickets. We were not sure if this limited, one day, one time only release would sell out or if anyone even knew about it. We decided to play it safe and get tickets early. The lady on the phone tells him they are having trouble with the projector and they are not even sure if they would be able to broadcast the show that night, so she wouldn't sell him the tickets. She advised him to call back at 2PM when they would have a better idea. My hubby is obedient and calls at 2PM, only to be informed that they have already sold out.
Luckily of the 5 showings in Texas, two of them are in Fort Worth. He calls the 2nd place about 30 minutes away and they let him purchase the tickets for $20 bucks a pop over the phone. Phew.
After rushing home from work, we head down to Fort Worth to catch dinner and cheat on our diets before the show.
(outrageous!)
It was scheduled to start at 8:01 PM.
It didn't. We wait. About 8:10 the theater employees show up to tell us that nothing is wrong, everything is working, that they are just waiting for the broadcast to begin. I assume this means that they didn't actually have a tape reel, but were streaming the movie and concert.
At 8:15 when the show has still not started yet, this lady gets up to leave and loudly announces that she is leaving because she already knows all about the Foo Fighters and she was alive when Nirvana was together. My thoughts were two fold. A. Who cares? B. Why did you come here in the first place? (OK, three fold) C. Wasn't everyone alive long enough to remember when Nirvana was together? This made me realize that I am officially old. You are old when you were around to experience something iconic that young(er) people can only hear about. Nirvana is a perfect example of that. I can tell the story of where I was standing when I first heard about Kurt Cobain.(i.e. grocery store, State College, PA). My great grand kids will be on the edge of their seat for that story someday. Guy in line at grocery store: "Did you hear that Kurt Cobain died?" Me: "No, Wow!". The end. Epic story, I know.
8:20 the movie finally starts with a message to save your 3D glasses for the live concert following the movie. The beginning of the movie gives the history of Dave Grohl and his experience drumming with Nirvana and his dealing with Kurt's death. He said he started Foo Fighters because he didn't want to be remembered as this guy who played drums in Nirvana.
Did you know he recorded the entire first self titled Foo Fighters album all by himself? He recorded all the instruments himself, wrote and sang all the songs. Impressive. Obviously he had guys to go on tour with him to play the live shows, but the recording is all him. In my humble opinion, it is one of the best.
The documentary mainly focused on the revolving door of band members. I didn't remember that the band members changed as much as they did. I didn't remember there was another drummer before Taylor Hawkins. I've always been a fan of him as the drummer (mainly because of my hubby's influence) and I didn't remember he was drumming for Alanis Morissette before joined the Foo Fighters.
Dave Grohl has a good sense of humor and is a good story teller, so he kept us chuckling throughout. At times, during some of the interview parts, he seemed less like a rock star and more like a nice, sensitive, Dad-type. I guess he probably IS a nice, sensitive, Dad-type these days, as illustrated in the movie with the family scenes with his wife and little girls.
This was definitely not a "Behind the Music" type documentary of sex, drugs and rock n roll. Besides a short mention of Taylor Hawkins' struggles with drugs and some talk about getting drunk before playing those huge live stadium shows, the rock 'n roll lifestyle was hardly mentioned.
Dave Grohl also talks about how they recorded their latest album using reel to reel tape recording. You know, analog. The old fashion way. In Dave's basement. Sound familiar? Sounds like another big name artist I know, who I wont mention (again). Maybe this is a new trend. Less Pro Tools, More real (no pun intended). Interesting.
All in all it was an engaging interesting story for any Foo Fighters Fan, even one like me who hasn't purchased an album since "One by One" (2002). Its not that I lost love for the Foo Fighters. I will always be a fan of that straight forward Rock 'n Roll style. You know, not quite hard enough to be classified as hard rock, usually classified in that mysterious "alternative" genre that begs the question..."Alternative to what"? I admit that they seemed to have lost their edge these past few years, but I love the melodic verses that bleed into the screaming chorus' with heavy guitars and drums, which is the Foo Fighters classic formula. For me, it is a winner every time.
(everyone looks super cool in 3D glasses)
The documentary is over and a message comes on the screen that the live concert will begin in 5 minutes. When it starts, I put on my 3D glasses, but this is not the concert I was expecting. It appears it is being filmed in a small studio. I found the 3D to be distracting and gimmicky. They had background images that came forward with the 3D glasses and this one shot of Taylor Hawkins side view where his crash cymbal was seemingly extending into the audience. It kind of gave me a headache and I eventually took off the glasses and watched a slightly blurry screen with more satisfaction. They played the entire "Wasting Light" album live. I have my doubts if it was actually live (as advertised) or a recording of live performance, but none the less it was mostly enjoyable.
I'll leave you with this quote from Dave Grohl. "Honestly, had I taken this whole career thing seriously, I would have named it something else. Worst (expletive) band name ever".
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