What rock flick do you most wish you’d seen while it was in the theaters?
A simple enough question, no? I never got around to catching Rust Never Sleeps while it was on the big screen. I bought the album upon its release and dig it to this day, but I never made that extra effort to see the film. Likewise, I wanted to see that Neil Young concert film from a couple of years ago, the one with him being an old guy and contemplating death alongside his Harvest bandmates. That sounded real touching, but I never even made the effort to rent it.
The thing is, I don’t know if I care to rent these films. I like watching rock films on the big screen, with the occasional whiff of some dude’s joint wafting up from the back row. How about you? Is there a rock flick you regret missing while it was in theaters? A rock flick that played in theaters long before you’d come of age?
While you’re hard at work on your answer, for those of you who’ve seen Rust Never Sleeps on the big screen, did I miss anything?
I would love to have seen The Kids Are Alright on the big screen.
I have a ton of rock movies on my Netflix queue. Even for bands I’m not that fond of.
I consider myself lucky to have seen “Soul to Soul” — with my Dad! — on the big screen. I also saw “Gimme Shelter” and “Kids Are Alright” that way, and both were choice, of course. Can’t think of any movies I wanted to see that way, but didn’t. Oh, wait: “Hard Day’s Night,” when it was released. That would’ve been fun.
i was JUST youtube-ing some of that “rust” stuff last night!
amazing coincidence.
that IS a film i would’ve loved to have seen on the big screen.
i saw “song remains the same” in theaters twice, as well as “kids are alright” and “year of the horse”.
along with “rust”, i think the documentary about hendrix, with all its great performance footage, is the one i would cherish seeing on a big screen, nice and loud.
The Kids Are Alright was WELL worth seeing on the big screen, Oats – like a dozen times! I feel for you.
A Hard Day’s Night…man, that’s a great one! I would imagine it would have been akin to seeing man land on the moon for the first time.
Saturnismine, I would have pegged you for a guy who’d seen Rust… a half dozen times.
Keep ’em coming!
Has anyone seen a rock film on screen and had a less-than-great time? I saw Stop Making Sense when it was re-released in ’99 and I think the audience couldn’t quite acclimate to the idea of watching a concert in a movie theater. The people I brought with me did not get it, but I think they thought it was going to be a Talking Heads doc with interviews and stuff.
Mr. Mod, the most recent Neil Young film you mentioned is Heart of Gold and it’s really worth renting.
Mod, it’s funny how I snuck out late at night to see “song remains the same”, and spent all my allowance money to see the “kids are alright” multiple times, and went back for “quadrophenia” twice in that great year of ’78, but somehow, totally missed out on “rust”.
i’m saving it.
oats, “stop making sense” came out in ’84 / ’85.
i *highly* recommend ‘year of the horse’, the jim jarmusch film. the only drawback is jarmusch’s occasional presence on screen (basking in the glow of neil’s cool) and his choice to use too much of his own footage from the 90s as opposed to the vintage stuff he shows in spots. we get a great backstage fight from the ’86 tour, but we never get to see them perform on that tour. still, it’s very very good stuff.
oats…forgive me…i didn’t see the “re” before the word “released”. please fuhgeddaboudit.
I would have said Hard Day’s Night, but I imagine you wouldn’t be able to hear it through all the screaming girls.
Mockcarr, were you with me when I saw “Help!” on the big screen at the AFI? I’d never seen it before, so I got the real new-movie thrill that only comes from seeing something first on a proper, really big screen. I still remember being completely wowed by the opening number, when the colored darts fly into the screen. I was completely unprepared for color — probably like a bunch of The Kidz who saw it when it came out! That, and “Soul to Soul,” were probably my fave in-theater rock film moments. Mind you, I also saw “Phantom Of the Paradise” on the big screen…
Last Waltz…i know, it’s much maligned here, but…i dig it.
‘1991, the year punk broke’ has some GREAT nirvana footage, some great SY, and some not-so-great lesser bands.
main drawback: you have to wade through some awkward scenes where thurston has a bullhorn and is doing his damndest to seem like an unselfconscious, crazy, psychobabbling, font of visionary proclamations in the mark e. smith mold. these scenes make clear the exact opposite, however: thurston looks like an unclever self-conscious boob who would’ve been hell to hang out with.
I did see “A Hard Day’s Night” on a big screen – but it was well after the fact (mid-80’s).
I went to Penn State and although I did not take this particular class, I found out about a class called Film 180 that showed “AHDN” every semester. They showed it in an old theater on-campus (Schawb Auditorium).
For my entire PSU adventure, I would get the Film 180 syllabus and attend each screening of “AHDN”. It was a great treat and I loved seeing it on a big screen and had decent sound.
Of course, I wish I could have seen it as a first-generation fan. I bet the excitement level was crazy. Altho mockcarr has a good point – the screaming girls might have caused a problem. 🙂
I wish I’d seen “Yellow Submarine” on the big screen *without* the company of three idiot freshmen who were tripping for the occasion. Is there anything more irritating than someone who’s dropped acid?
I wish I’d *not* seen “The Wall” on the big screen. Yawn!
I wish I’d *not* seen “Song Remains the Same” on the big sreen as an impressionable 14 year-old. Far too many dreams were shattered that day. I walked out of the theater feeling cheated — because I was!
I’m glad I saw “Spinal Tap” on the big screen when it came out — pure luck!
I’m glad, in a perverse kind of way, that I saw Prince’s “Graffitti Bridge” on the big screen the day it came out. I was one of maybe three people in there, and with good reason.
I saw Purple Rain on the big screen and it was amazing. I saw it on TV and I couldn’t stop laughing at it. Of course, the passage of years might’ve had something to do with it.
I saw The Kids Are Alright on the big screen and got astonished all over again. I also saw A Hard Day’s Night, second-generation of course, and left thinking that that was a world I wished I lived in. What else can you ask of a movie?
I could not sit through that 1991 movie. The camera work was literally nauseating.
Rick: “1991 movie”? Vas?
Seeing “A Hard Days Night” or “Help” on the big screen would be cool.
Instead of going on my senior trip in high school, a friend and I spent a weekend in NYC. While some classmates got busted for drinking and what-not on the school sanctioned trip, my buddy and I had a great time in NYC seeing a double bill of “The Kids Are Alright” and “Quadrophenia” at the 8th Street Playhouse, checking out the Electric Ladyland studio entrance nearby, and drinking beer and catching some jazz in Greenwich Village…
I won a radio call-in thing and got tickets to see the New Orleans premier of A Hard Day’s Night. Mockcarr is exactly right — the screams never stopped and I was pissed about not being able to hear the movie.
Not much time to contribute here, because I’m on my way out of town to a job interview in Kansas City (!) and my laptop is in the shop. But I will say that one disadvantage to seeing rock movies in the theater is that they’re never LOUD enough. At least with a DVD you can crank it.
I think I’d rather see Help! on the big screen than A Hard Day’s Night, even though the latter is technically better. I’d like to have seen Head in theaters when it came out, partly just to experience the post-traumatic stress of the crowds filing out as it ended.
I’d like to see PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and HARD CORE LOGO in the theaters (fat chance at this point). I was able to see most of the great concert films in the theater, although I’d be game for PINK FLOYD LIVE AT POMPEII.
Lesser bands like Dinosaur Jr, The Ramones and Mudhoney? Regardless, I saw this movie in a theater, but only a few years ago. There just happened to be a screening of it at MoMA. I found the scenes with Thurston rapping and what not kinda funny and silly, though it did get a bit tedious after a while.
This reminds me of when I saw the Radiohead documentary Meeting People is Easy with a friend when it first premiered at the Angelika Film Center in New York back in the spring of 1998. It was a midnight screening and I just remember being disappointed (while I love Radiohead, they really come off like a bunch of crybabies in that movie) and my friend being tired since it was so late and all (I think it was on a Friday night and she was working full-time and in grad school at the time). Plus, she didn’t really have an interest in the band or the movie and I kinda dragged her along.
Sorry, I forgot to add that I really wish I would’ve seen Rude Boy on the big screen.
I saw Kids Are Alright, Rude Boy, Rock Show (the Wings tour movie) all on the huge screen at The Tower. I also saw “The Doors” on a huge 70mm screen in Chicago.
I saw Let it be, Qudraphenia Urgh, Spinal Tap….in movie theatres
matt, i forgot that dino, mudhoney, and co. were in “1991”. i saw it when it came out and haven’t seen it since. when i wrote “lesser bands” i was thinking of “babes in toyland”, who just weren’t all that good.
So did no one see Rust Never Sleeps? All these years I’m thinking I missed out while all the cool guys and girls were blowin’ bones in the back of the theater? I’m dyin’ to know if I missed anything.
I saw it on the big screen but it was so long ago I’m not going to be much help. Rust may never sleep but it does coat my memory.
I do remember liking it a lot but outside of those roadies coming out in the beginning I don’t remember too many details.
I saw Rust when it came out. I liked it, but I’ve still never bothered to go see Neil in concert (one reason bieng he plays a venue I hate more often than not). It was a long time ago, but I remember that being a great time, and the old theater I saw it in cranked it up real loud.
I saw The Stones At The Max on the old Cedar Point Imax screen. That was unreal. their screen was the huge, square one. It covered your entire field of vision. It cost evtra and they showed it like five times a day, so we went at about three (for air conditioning). Since it was so long, they let you bring in beer and food, and there were only about ten people at the screening I saw. I got the dead center seat and had plenty of room for my beer tray and really lounged. They played it really loud and I loved it.
The one I wish I had seen is Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones. The bootleg DVD’s available now are much better than the high gen VHS I originally saw, but I wish I had seen this in genuine qudraphonic sound. I think the 72 Stones were the best live rock n roll band ever, and that’s a swell concert film.