Long Live Rock…Celebrate The Chaos, produced by Crowd Surf Films and directed by Jonathan McHugh, is a music documentary about the movingly symbiotic relationship between hard rock bands and their fans. The 83-minute film depicts the restorative power of music — that common thread between the performers and their devotees.
While there are impressive clips of some of rock’s biggest bands performing at Ohio’s Rock on the Range festival (now called Sonic Temple), it is the footage that takes place off the stage that really is the essence of the film. Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Rob Zombie, Duff McKagan (Guns ‘N Roses), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) are among the many personalities interviewed for the film. Each commentary invariably emphasizes the binding element of community at the huge gatherings where the multitudes return year after year. Clips illustrating this sense of community include one of the packed fans lifting a woman in a wheelchair from the back of the crowd, up and over the crowd and onto the stage. More than once. This documentary focuses on the ethos of rock and the people who love it.
The demographic that attend music festivals with hard rock and metal bands — which often exceed 70,000 people on an average day — is too often misrepresented. Radio personality and music historian Eddie Trunk, who appears in the film, affirms: “I’ve never liked the clichés and stereotypes that come with this music. People think you can pick out who is and isn’t into this music by how they look.” Long Live Rock…Celebrate The Chaos does a great job of showing both the super fans as well as the more casual fans who don’t spend their days wearing black Slipknot t-shirts. Interesting vignettes of these fans (e.g., a dentist working in his office, a woman fishing in a river) support Trunk’s perspective.
A notable segment touches on the tragic deaths in 2017 of singers Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and Chester Bennington (Linkin Park), who had both died by suicide, and the impact it had on the music world and community of fans. Because depression and other forms of mental illness are too often stigmatized, the film brings forward the comments from Morello, Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots), and others who speak of the brilliance and sensitivity of the two artists, as well as their disturbed and anguished nature that became so intolerable.
Work hard, play hard is the attitude of masses of people (surgeons, correctional officers, rehab nurses, teachers, your aunt Patricia) who look forward to the three- or four-day festivals where they can party, enjoy the music with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the chaos. Long Live Rock…Celebrate The Chaos, with powerful performances of the bands and images of the massive crowds of fans, helps to dispel that tired belief that rock is dead. For more information, visit the longliverockmovie.com.
~ Charlie Steffens
