It Got Loud

Well, the Large Hadron Collider started up today without a hitch. Everyone still here? Good. I love this headline from National Geographic: Large Hadron Collider "Actually Worked". 14 years and $8 billion later, I would hope so. Today was the first attempt to send a beam of protons around the 27 kilometer tunnel. I'm told it takes one ten-thousandth of a second for a the proton beam to circle the ring, so I can only imagine how anticlimactic it was to push the "on" button. In any event, scientists were ecstatic. Apparently Stephen Hawking bet $100 that the elusive Higgs boson will not be found, but it may be a few months before we find out who's right.

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So I'm back from the big T.O. and I'm extremely thrilled to report that indeed I was able to attend the world premiere of the rock doc It Might Get Loud at the Toronto Film Fest last Friday night. Yes, it got loud... as it should, considering the film's subjects JIMMY PAGE, JACK WHITE, and THE EDGE were all in attendance! They received a rousing ovation from the audience as they entered, shuffling down the rows to their reserved seats-- not far behind me! Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) was there to introduce the film, thanking the guitar virtuosos, the film's producers, and his wife Elizabeth Shue(?!). Utterly surreal watching a movie alongside these guitar greats.

The film kicks off with a shot of a cow. At a farmhouse in Tennessee (if I recall), Jack White hammers together a homemade instrument out of some blocks of wood, a coke bottle, and wire. Plugging it into an amp, he rips through some invented riffs. "Who says you need to buy a guitar?" he quips, as the opening credits roll. Central to the film is an epic Summit meeting of the three guitarists at an L.A. soundstage, which is interspersed with the subjects telling their own stories through individual interviews, revisiting locations of personal significance, and messing around in their own studios including the recording of unreleased new songs.

Some highlights include Jimmy Page playing a record of Link Wray's Rumble from his extensive home collection and goofily air strumming along with a huge grin on his face; The Edge revisiting his old school in Dublin where he once answered a leaflet posted by Larry Mullen Jr. advertising for bandmates, which would eventually become U2 (he ponders if he hadn't seen that ad and says maybe today he'd be a bank manager); and Jack White teaching a 9-year-old incarnation of himself the folk-blues standard Sittin' On Top of the World. At The Summit, all three swap tales and ideas about the electric guitar... of course, we're all eagerly anticipating their jamming together. They take turns leading the others through their own songs: The Edge on I Will Follow, Jack White on Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, and Jimmy Page on Whole Lotta Love, though on the latter Jack and the Edge merely watch with big grins as Jimmy plays. One of my favourite parts of the film is the three of them trading solos on In My Time of Dying in their distinct styles. AWESOME. It's curious to watch the Edge here because a completely different thought process seems to apply to his guitar solos while Jimmy and Jack clearly have their roots in the blues. If you're a fan of any of these bands, this film is pure gold.

After the film, all three guitarists, the producers, and the director went up on stage for a brief Q&A. I recorded the last couple questions:

For the cover lovers, it must be noted that their Summit ends with them getting together to play The Band's The Weight with Jack and the Edge swapping verses. Jack agrees to take the high notes on the chorus while Jimmy mumbles something about not being able to sing at all. Man, they have got to release an official soundtrack to this film.

My top three covers of The Weight:

Tok Tok Tok - The Weight [originally by The Band]

Aretha Franklin with Duane Allman - The Weight [originally by The Band]

The Moog Machine - The Weight [originally by The Band]

Led Zeppelin, U2, and the The White Stripes as you've never heard them:

Nuspirit Helsinki - No Quarter [originally by Led Zeppelin]

Nossa Alma Canta - Desire [originally by U2]

Nostalgia 77 featuring Alice Russell - Seven Nation Army (Grant Phabao Remix)
[originally by The White Stripes]

I had hoped to have an amazing postscript to this night after I was by some stroke of luck able to score a ticket to the fabled It Might Get Loud after party as a media guest (don't ask). But the party was a total bust. Clearly there was an exclusive party within the party for special people only, so I was out in a jammed room with the other schmucks and party fillers. Pure Hell. Utter shallowness on display in full force and free drinks! I held on for 2 hours in hope of a rumoured jam session, though obviously this wasn't going to happen or at least not for us peons to hear/see. The only person of interest I saw was Richard Branson (or a look-alike) cutting through the lobby to the hotel elevators. The next day I read a small blurb in the paper that 2 of the 3 guitarists played (doesn't even say who) and those in attendance included Michael J. Fox, Bryan Adams, Geoffrey Rush, ex-Leaf Tie Domi, probable ex-Leaf Mats Sundin, and some Blue Jays. Yep, completely different party.

Other tidbits:

• A clip I had seen previously on YouTube of a teenage Jimmy Page playing skiffle guitar on a TV show in 1957 appears in the film and the crowd erupted in laughter when they heard young Jimmy's career aspirations. Check the full segment here.
  
  
• With Jack in T.O. for this and Alicia Keys also promoting her own film The Secret Life of Bees, producers took advantage of the opportunity to film the music video for their James Bond theme duet Another Way to Die somewhere in Toronto on Saturday. By the way, did you see the new Quantum of Solace trailer released a day or two ago? Check it out. And a surprising Bond tidbit from It Might Get Loud itself... The Edge asks Jimmy Page if there are any recordings they'd recognize from Jimmy's stint in the 60's as a session guitarist on numerous recordings. His answer: Goldfinger. Wow, news to me!
  
  
• The other film at TIFF I saw was a midnight screening of JCVD, a new film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as himself. A meta look at Jean Claude Van Damme's life surreally crossed with Dog Day Afternoon. A surreal, funny film and Van Damme shockingly delivers a riveting confessional monologue. Again: Van Damme and riveting in the same sentence. And I just have to mention that the JCVD end credits also roll with a cover song-- Bowie!
  Marie Mazziotti - Modern Love [originally by David Bowie]

I Might Get Loud

This is Last Friday Me writing from the past. Little did you know but I've been on vacation in Toronto since last Friday, in fact I leave in a couple hours... I hope I'm having a good time. If all goes according to plan, Current Me should be having a GREAT time at the World Premiere of a new documentary at the Toronto Film Festival called, It Might Get Loud.

Let me break it down: this is a documentary from Davis Guggenhiem, the director of An Inconvenient Truth, about the electric guitar as filtered through the fingers of Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. KaBOOM--exploding head! Mind blown. Longtime readers should know my affinity for Led Zeppelin and the White Stripes, so when I heard this was premiering at TIFF and I just so happened to be in town, doing everything in my power be there was a no-brainer. And hey I like me some U2 too. Plus get this: all three guitarists will supposedly be in attendance. SPLOOSH!--headless body melts into puddle of goo. Now that would be an after party for the ages. According to the official site, the film "weaves together their stories to reveal how each of them developed a unique sound" and brings the three virtuosos together for a jam session. This is so gonna rock. Current Me had better be there.

DJ Zebra - Icky Thump (Whole Lotta Funk Remix) [White Stripes vs. Led Zeppelin]

U2 3D

Saw U2 3D the other day. The 3D is quite spectacular but the show didn't exactly blow me away. I just couldn't shake the feeling that these were the umpteenth time these songs have been performed, though at the same time I didn't want to hear their newer stuff too much either. So basically there wasn't any way this movie was going to work for me, though some more Achtung Baby may have helped. I love Sunday Bloody Sunday but honestly how long must they really sing that song? The best part was seeing the massive crowds in South America. There's a fantastic bird's eye shot of a solid mass of people jumping up and down during Where the Streets Have No Name that looks like a human earthquake. I was surprised to see that one of the co-directors was Mark Pellington who directed the underrated Arlington Road then hasn't done much since. I'm a casual U2 fan at best, so it never really occurred to me that the high-pitched background wails common to many a U2 song are sung by The Edge and not, as I had previously assumed, an overdubbed Bono.

The best U2 cover is by the Pet Shop Boys, but here a few others:

The Smashing Pumpkins - Stay (Faraway, So Close!) [originally by U2]
James Eric - Stay (Faraway, So Close!) [originally by U2]
This is my favourite U2 song, so I was excited though ultimately disappointed to discover cover songs of it. Billy Corgan with James Iha performed this stripped down acoustic version at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit Concert in 1999. James Eric used to have a bunch of his covers on his site including Stay (Faraway, So Close!), though you have to do a little digging to find them now. Apparently trumpeter Al Hirt performed a cover on the 1994 Brit Awards compilation and I can't even begin to imagine how that sounds, though I'm definitely curious...*hint, hint*

Jarvis Church featuring K'Naan - One [originally by U2]
I can always find an excuse to re-post this wonderful cover by Jarvis Church, the alter-ego of Philosopher Kings lead singer Gerald Eaton. The song, from the War Child compilation Peace Songs veers nicely into gospel territory and even gets a shot of hip-hop courtesy of guest K'Naan.

St. Fiachra's Junior School Choir - Sweetest Thing [originally by U2]
Liza at Copy, Right? posted this once and it's a great discovery. It's from the U2 tribute album Even Better Than the Real Thing, Vol. 3 and oddly enough I do like it a lot more than the real thing. The original kinda makes me cringe with its repeated "Oh-oh-oh, the sweetest thing", but this children's choir makes it sound adorable and charming in a Langley Schools Music Project way.

U2 - Sweet Caroline (Live in Edmonton) [originally by Neil Diamond]
[**UPDATE: I've been informed that this is, in fact, The Edge (not Bono) singing karaoke. Same goes for Daydream Believer the next night. So is it a cover? Kind of, not really. This goes to show that we were so far from the stage it was like watching ants perform.]
This bootleg is from a concert on June 15, 1997, the second of two nights they played in Edmonton at Commonwealth Stadium. My mom had gotten tickets for my sister and I to the previous night, which was one of my first big rock concerts ever. Though we didn't get Sweet Caroline, Bono The Edge led us in a round of Daydream Believer. The only other thing I remember is that there was a giant lemon on stage and we were very far away. Three songs from this show were featured as bonus material on the PopMart: Live from Mexico City DVD released last year. Also, With or Without You recorded that night appeared on the officially released Please EP.