24 May 2013 (Day 144) – More DVDs

Woke up.  Got out of bed.  Ran my hand through my head. 

Why, I don’t know but the pain was still there in my stomach/bowel region.  Got back into bed and made an appointment to see my GP.  He provided me with a diagnosis that made sense, a prescription and an order of more rest. 

Back home, I tucked myself in for an afternoon of viewing whilst “M”napped and attended to some modest tasks downstairs starting with:

(AV 16) Supersuckers – House Of Blues, 19 September 2007 (released 2008)

Yesterday, a copy of the Supersuckers 2008 album Get It Together finally arrived at my house.  I’d bought this particular edition of the album mainly to see what was on the bonus DVD which the online seller had described as “90 minutes of raw archival footage”.   What I got was a professionally shot disc of an entire Supersuckers gig that took place a mere year prior to the release of the album.  Not that I’m complaining mind you.  Anything that shows one of the great American rock bands of the last 15 years in full flight is more than welcome particularly with the mix of greatest “hits” and  unrecorded songs destined for the album presented here. 

(AV17) Anvil – The Story Of Anvil (2008)

After all of the (well deserved) praise  surrounding this documentary, what surprised me is just how much of this turns out to be a real life version of the fictional comedy This Is Spinal Tap.  There’s a focus on the two creative mainstays in the band, the depiction of a disastrous tour, the influence of inept female “management” that eventually marries into the band and a triumphant ending with a gig in Japan.  And that’s even before you remember that one of the mainstays in Anvil is named Robb Reiner.  But The Story Of Anvil is more than this.  It is about the power of music to sustain dreams and friendships despite numerous obstacles and setbacks.  Like Metallica’s Some Kind Of Monster, what started out as a documentary about a metal band has turned out to be something much much deeper.

(AV18) Soulwax – Part Of The Weekend Never Dies (2008)

This is a documentary film about a world tour undertaken by Belgian band Soulwax and their dance alter egos, 2ManyDJs and Soulwax Nite Versions.  After a seriously strange animated introduction, the footage is of your standard tour with sequences set onstage, in hotels, at airports, etc.  Some of the footage though is quite breathtaking, particularly a sequence showing the outside world from inside the tour bus.  But what I really liked was the performance footage included in the extras.  Titled “Live At 120 Places”, it is a concert recording from footage shot at 120 different venues from the same tour.  The venue changes with every single cut/edit and you can keep track via the subtitles which identify the particular venue at any given moment.