"It Might Get Loud" was featured in the Asbury Park Music In Film Festival 2016 (check out pics from the Festival here).

 

I'm a drummer, but I am totally comfortable in admitting that I have guitar envy. Drummers get stuck in the back, pushed away from the front of the stage, we have to sit the whole show; guitarists get to run around, they get to walk right to the edge, they get to see everything. I'm completely happy being a drummer, but I'm fascinated by guitarists. Singers are a whole other story, and no one cares about bass players (ZING!).

One thing I love about guitarists is how different they can be. Jimmy Page is a strange wizard/mystic that can shred. The Edge builds these soundscapes, layering effects and echoes and making one guitar sound like many. Jack White is a dirty blues player, a foot-stomper, sometimes too serious, determined to be unique so much it almost becomes obsessive. Three guys all play the same instrument, but none play it the same.

This documentary took the three, spent time looking at the respective backgrounds, how they rose to fame, and then brought them altogether for a summit. Page started off in skiffle bands on the streets of London, became a well-respected session musician, then obviously took over the world with Led Zeppelin. The Edge and U2 started playing high school dances, moved up to local punk shows, and now sell out arenas all over the world. Jack Black spent his childhood in a room with two drumsets, a bunch of guitars, and no bed. He's spent a career doing what he wanted, zigging and zagging and doing the unexpected.

I was a bit disappointed in that the time spent with all three wasn't a majority of the movie. It was cool to see Jimmy Page going back to Headley Grange and talking about recording there, it was cool to see The Edge talk about how he builds a riff from just a basic skeleton while adding layers and effects to create something epic, it was cool to see Jack White burn holes into everything with his eyes. The thing is, I'd rather just watch a documentary focused on Led Zeppelin, or U2, or the White Stripes. If the hook of this movie is to have three guitarists connect, the director just didn't show it enough. I was hoping to watch an hour and a half of three peers shooting the shit with each other. The amount of time I actually got that was less than satisfying.

My favorite part of the entire documentary was when the three were sitting together, and Jimmy Page started to play "Whole Lotta Love."  Jack White's stern face cracked into a childlike smile, The Edge stood and walked around the stage to get a better look and the smile reached ear to ear. It was so fun to see these two millionaire rockstars revert back to kids, both thinking "oh man I can't believe Jimmy freaking Page is playing right in front of us!"  It was a perfect example of how music is universal, how music is connective, how music can make everything else fade away.

 

 

On the [Celluloid Hero] scale, "It Might Get Loud" gets a 6 out of 10.

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