A lesser known, pre-Stop Making Sense post-punk/new wave concert doc—that Demme apparently almost directed, and thus receives special thanks in the credits—featuring some of the biggest acts of the genre alongside a few delightfully obscure ones, and that feels ripe for a nice Blu-ray and rediscovery. This is exactly the kind of movie that I will move my entire week around in order to see projected on film with a sold-out crowd just to soak up the energy that this raw, sweaty, colorful era was able to generate, so thanks to Brendan at the Revue for programming it. Because this is not a one-night show experience but a whiplash compilation edit suddenly changing bands (and venues/cities) between every song this review would make a lot more sense as a series of stream-of-consciousness highlights in no particular order: - Lesley Woods and Paul Foad of Au Pairs doing the very lively portion of 'Come Again' that is just them having essentially a conversation on stage together that is then smash-cut interrupted by an insanely wet Lux Interior of The Cramps in the tightest, lowest leather pants in the history of rock music testing the physics what it takes for pants to tear/fall to their limits while he leaps around the stage and has oral sex with the microphone. - The guy rocking the triangle during Wall of Voodoo's 'Back in Flesh' (who received lots of applause for his contribution).- Gary Numan who got the biggest crowd response (in the theater) for his bizarre synthy, foggy neon light show act where he refuses to stand up/get out of his sci-fi buggy that looks like Palpatine's Death Star chair and just sternly stares while it rolls around the stage and spins around for the entire song. (He eventually parks into a garage on stage to exit.)- Toyah Willcox killing her vocal performance of 'Danced' while essentially doing a full aerobics routine. - Steel Pulse who was probably the biggest "how have I not heard these guys before?" moment for me personally, and whose 'Ku Klux Klan' is one of the coolest, chillest roots reggae calls to do violence on racists I've maybe ever heard. (Complete with jump scare reveal of the band member dressed in the full white hood.) - DEVO! - Andy McCluskey (of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) and Danny Elfman who, if you like this kind of thing for the wacky, dorky white boy moves/facial expressions, are the clips you probably want to look up on YouTube. The amount of moshing to Oingo Boingo lol. - The transition from Jools Holland doing spare piano blues to an unenthused audience looking for something heavier straight into the shirtless roadie who appears to be zoning out in the background during the entire XTC set. Big laughs for this man!- Great live recordings of The Go-Go's 'We Got the Beat' and Joan Jett's 'Bad Reputation' which due to broad pop culture reasons I've never really personally associated with acts like the Dead Kennedys so it was a blast to watch them sandwich Jello Biafra screaming and profusely sweating in his plastic murder gloves here. - The entire Klaus Nomi performance of 'Total Eclipse', whose general look/aesthetic I've always described as sort of like if Pee Wee Herman had been invited to be part of the finale of Rocky Horror.- The impromptu extended hangout version of Roxanne, which, look, I get it, I'd be all for more Gang of Four or X instead of three(!) Police tracks which is too many... but it was a genuine blast to hear the crowd get into this one to finish out the night. [35mm]
