It Might Get Loud

I went to the Plaza Theater over the weekend to see It Might Get Loud. This is a blog about music, not about movies; but since this is a movie about music, I wanted to touch on it briefly. This is a documentary film about the electric guitar, and it features Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. I thought it was quite good, for the gear porn if nothing else. Here is the DOCTalk preview of it:



Some thoughts about the principals featured in this film:

I've never been a hater of the White Stripes, but I've never really been a fan either. I like some of it, I dislike some of it, I just never really felt like I got it. Or maybe it was the legions of piss-poor imitators that spawned from it that made me indifferent. I can definitely say I have a newfound respect for Jack White after seeing this. I still don't consider myself a fan of the White Stripes or the Raconteurs, but he is a very hardworking cat and a real scholar of blues and rock.

I was a U2 fan when I was a kid, but that gradually started to change when The Joshua Tree came out. I was in Junior High then and it seemed like a huge fuss about something that I didn't think was even close to being as good as War or Unforgettable Fire. I enjoyed bits and pieces from Rattle and Hum, but a significant portion of that record is total dogshit. Achtung Baby, and everything after that is awful, as far as I'm concerned and I have no interest in listening to it. The Edge talks largely about guitar effects. I think he goes way overboard with them (his pedalboard is the size of a small Congolese village), but that's probably why he was selected, because effects are a big part of the landscape. He is a fine guitarist, and seems like a pretty cool guy; I just don't care for his band anymore.

Jimmy Page goes on to steal the show in this film, and that should come to the surprise of nobody. Granted, I almost never listen to Led Zeppelin anymore, but that's only because I listened to it so much as a teenager that I made myself sick of it. He is still the man. There is some pretty neat footage of him playing in a skiffle band as a 14-year old, and watching him air-guitar along to Link Wray's "Rumble" is probably the coolest thing I've seen all year.

It's a good flick. You should definitely check it out while it's still playing on the big screen.