RTP-area local music and culture

[Kevin Darbro <kdarbro AT nc.rr.com>]

I bought "Fearless Freaks" for my younger brother this last holiday season,
and he proceeded to watch it and then loan it to me to watch while I was in
town. 

It's actually rather dark, and worth seeing. I don't recall checking out the
extras though. If you are at all interested in the Flaming Lips "behind the
music" so to speak, it's worth seeing. Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd are
shown in incredibly real, human ways, and it is sometimes very unsettling.

It's not a typical "Rocumentary." As for being too long, it's as long as it
needs to be if you are interested in the band.

Also, if I recall correctly, this movie was made over several years, so
there's more than enough decent material in it that doesn't consist of
worthless footage.

Even the scene of Wayne at the old Long John Silver's where he used to work
is amusing, although it was no longer a Long John Silver's.

- Kevin


On 2/13/06 11:00 AM, "grady" <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

> Oh dear god. I may change my mind about coming, then. I'd forgotten that
> "Instrument" was a solid 2 hours long, and it was excruciating. And
> Fugazi are still one of my favorite bands. But how many minutes of Ian
> pumping gas, or checking into another Super 8 Motel, does anybody need
> to see?
> 
> Other things I think we've seen enough of: sitting around backstage
> looking bored. Sitting in the studio looking bored (and/or engaging in
> wacky band-in-studio hijinx). Footage of highway signs out the window of
> the van.
> 
> I suppose it's possible that "Fearless Freaks" manages to avoid all
> these cliche's and still winds up at 110 minutes (and yes, I know I can
> leave anytime anyway) but I'm not holding my breath. It's bad enough
> when feature films start routinely climbing towards the 120-minute mark
> -- at least most of them have plots. But "rock movies" really don't need
> to be any longer than a good rockshow, which for most bands isn't much
> more than 70 minutes. Actually, for most bands it's about 28 minutes,
> but we'll assume that [hopefully] if somebody's making a movie about
> you, you've got at least an hour's worth of decent material.
> 
> I mean, shit, even Jason's Dead Moon documentary is under 90 minutes,
> and it covered Fred's entire 40+ year career.
> 
> xo
> 
> Mr. Cranky
> 
> matty wrote:
>> The runtime for "Fearless Freaks" is 110 minutes, the DVD extras take it to
>> 185 mins - we may opt to show some depending on the crowd/demand.
>> 
>> -Matt 
>> 
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene