It Might Get Loud

First Hit: It doesn’t get loud, but for guitar players and fans of guitar players there is enough to be interesting.

This wasn’t a great film about rock guitarist, yet it was occasionally insightful, sometimes interesting, at times engaging, and in moments heartfelt.

Jack White (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs), The Edge (David Howell Evans of U2), and Jimmy Page (The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin) are the three guitarist featured in this 97 minute documentary.

The film attempts to bring these three together into a large warehouse, with guitars at close hand, hoping for a possible explosion of loud, amazing, and un-before heard of guitar music. What happens is some laid back conversation, each sharing a few of their famous licks, and a slightly interesting version of The Bands “The Weight” to end the film.

What makes sitting through the stuff in the warehouse is the archival footage and separate interviews with each of these guitarists. I’m sure that my age has something to do with it, but Jack White has a ways to go before he can be acknowledged in the same breath with The Edge let alone Page.

Page’s comfort with his legacy and the ease by which he moves through the film, his engagement with the others, and how he talks about his path through music made it obvious that he is a pretty centered guy these days. White still holds on to the belief that it all must be a struggle for it to be real (he says this multiple times in the interview).

Both Page and The Edge get that what is a struggle for one person is not a struggle for another, and one can only acknowledge what is real for them and they are fortunate enough to be able to express this truth through their gift of playing the guitar.

The Edge was clearly the eye opener for me. I felt his sincerity and gratefulness at being able to expand his understanding of the guitar and electronics (which he really incorporates) to share a voice, his internal voice to all of us. He works very hard at it.

Page on the other hand appeared to let it flow through him, as if he was simply the instrument of a larger calling. When Page plays in this film, I recalled seeing Led Zeppelin at The Fillmore West in SF and then, while the screen showed archival footage of these young lions of the rock scene, it reaffirmed that he was created to bring us these amazing songs and riffs which many of us will never forget.

A touchstone moment in the film was watching him doing air guitar of Link Wray’s “Rumble” because it was like watching everyman air guitar a Led Zeppelin lead guitar riff.

White also had his moments as well and his exploration into ways of making interesting sounds come from these six stringed instruments was revealing. His commitment to the instrument is obvious.

The title of this film comes from a moment when the filmmakers were in The Edge’s waterside studio, while flipping some of his many switches he says, “it might get loud”. I’m not sure what Director Davis Guggenheim had in mind when he came up with this idea to bring these guitarists together. Obviously he reached for three generations White 34, Evans 48, and Page 65 and looked for stylistic differences. Did he have any idea what would happen when he put them in one large room with all the equipment they would ever need to create fireworks, probably not. It reminded me of the numerous times of sitting down with other musicians and trying to find just one song we could all connect to so that we could begin to find a common language to begin exploration. This film was watching them begin a long slow attempt to find that common language.

Overall: If you are a guitar aficionado or like Zeppelin, U2, and/or The White Stripes, then you might enjoy watching this film. But what happens is that each of them shared a small part of their voice but little else happened.

Shine A Light

First Hit: Amazing film about one of the most storied rock and roll groups of our time.

I loved the first 15 minutes of the film because Martin Scorsese (the Director) is trying to get The Rolling Stones, more specifically Mick Jagger, to provide the song list for the concert. Martin even sends Mick his list as a way to prompt him.

Mick doesn’t totally ignore Martin’s request but isn’t ready to finalize it yet. In between these little flashes are some facts and interviews of The Stones.

There is meeting Former President Clinton and family, there are some old newsreel clips. All the while we keep going back to Martin getting more panicky about the set list. In his homework Martin has camera shots laid out for many of the songs and you see these piles of paper of this preparation.

Finally Martin gives up and says fine, all I need is the name of the first song so that I know where to start; either Keith on guitar, Charlie on drums, Ronnie on guitar, or Mick singing.

However, Mick tells him nothing. Martin is fit to be tied. As former President Clinton finishes his opening remarks to introduce The Rolling Stones, a man rushes into the control room and hands Martin a piece of paper indicating the opening song.

Martin yells out the camera and opening shot of the concert and from that point on we (the audience) are on our way.

The Rolling Stones came out when I was in my mid-teens, so I’ve grown up with them. I’ve listened to them through all the different genres of music they have tried. But in the end The Stones are about Rock and Roll. Their catalogue is immense and they could have done 10 of these concerts, played different songs in each of them and all of the music would all have been recognizable and a classic. On IMAX Mick (and The Stones) is big, way big. But it doesn’t really capture how much and how big of an influence they’ve been to rock and roll music. They are a working band. They play music in front of people and with all of them in their mid to mid-late 60’s, it continues to fascinate me how tightly knit and yet so independent their personalities are. The Stones brought in three others to do a song each with them. Jack White was forgettable and truly out classed, he didn’t belong. Christina Aguilera held her own and actually added to the performance and had some fun. Buddy Guy, however, was right there with them and when Buddy looked straight at the camera silent for about 30 seconds, he sent a message – I am here.

Overall: Besides being deeply touched how these four men stayed together, played together, and supported each other through a lot of ups and downs; the love and respect they have for each other is humbling. Martin did an outstanding job of bringing you The Rolling Stones. And even if you don’t really like their music, if you see the film you will experience an amazing event of togetherness with Mick having more energy than any man I’ve met that is under 70 years of age. It is simply amazing.