![]() Thrice - If We Could Only See Us Now by Travis Becker
The Rock documentary is a slowly dying
beast, like a woolly mammoth caught in a tar pit. Once upon a time,
a Rock film could be artistic and engaging in its own right. Movies
like �Don�t Look Back� and �The Last Waltz� gave Rock fans a rare look
into the lives and personalities of established acts and stars that was
mostly unavailable at the time. In today�s music world, where you
can tune in to any one of half a dozen music only television channels,
choose from a hundred music-oriented magazines, or try to swim the veritable
ocean of music information that is the Internet, is there really still
a place for the Rock documentary? A segment of the record industry
would like us to think so. A limited edition DVD, for example,
�adds value� to a release, but if we�re being totally honest about things,
they offer an opportunity to widely distribute promotional films on bands
and make the unwary listener want to buy more records, more tickets and
moret-shirts. The new release by Orange County�s Thrice, a stop gap
between the release of �Artist in the Ambulance� in 2003 and the summer-slated
release date for their new record, is such a promotional film. There�s
value here, but it certainly is not destined for a place in the annals
of Rock movie history.
For devoted fans of the band, this is your
ticket to all aspects of these four guys� lives, some of which I could
have lived without-toilet scenes come to mind. The film is well put
together, no doubt by the best marketing people major label money can buy,
and the mix of live footage and interviews feels pretty good, with the
scales tipped slightly in favor of interviews unfortunately. A really
cutting edge video artist would have spiced things up and lent some much
needed �film for film�s sake� type material to the proceedings. The
live performance tracks included on the DVD make up for any deficiency
in cinematography, although annoyingly enough, there is no way to play
all of the tracks back to back. A couple of music videos round out
the DVD portion of the package.
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