Canadian metal band Anvil graced the Billboard album chart just once, hitting #191 in 1987 with their fifth album, Strength of Steel. Yet 20 years later they—or at least the core duo of singer-guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner—plod on.
With limited commercial success, staying together means having day jobs, recording low-budget albums on tiny labels, and traveling on trains, not tour buses. This is the story recorded by longtime fan Sacha Gervasi (a screenwriter on Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal). Notwithstanding his having followed Anvil for so long, the documentary barely covers their history; past members go unmentioned, and the current ones other than Lips and Robb have mere bit parts, aside from the musical segments. There are interviews with family members and a few associates, but no narration.
Mainly what the movie is about is the love-hate bond between these two middle-aged men and the drive than causes them to continue despite the practical difficulties and meager financial rewards. There definitely will seem to be a few Spinal Tap moments for those familiar with that mockumentary, whose director, Rob Reiner, is apparently unrelated to Anvil’s Robb Reiner. Gervasi follows Anvil on a European tour that includes a dismal gig at the hilarious-sounding Monsters of Transylvania show. Robb shows off his paintings, which include one of a toilet. Lips and Robb bicker over who-knows-what.
Although the documentary begins by establishing the band’s bona fides, with such figures as Slash (Guns ’n Roses), Lemmy (Motorhead), and Lars Ulrich (Metallica) testifying to Anvil’s influence and significance, the movie barely touches on the process of making music, and there are no full-length performances. To my ears, a lack of truly memorable melodies might have been as responsible as anything else for the group’s lack of a breakout hit, despite obvious instrumental prowess and power. (In the MTV age, the lack of a telegenic lead singer may have also been a liability.) With a sound that was once modern but doesn’t appear to have changed in the decades since, a significant expansion of their audience seems doubtful. But the movie made me root for them to at least find the means to stay afloat for another decade or two.
IMDB link
viewed 3/18/09 (screening at Ritz Bourse) and reviewed 3/18 and 3/23/09
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