What Drives Us

Before I get completely torn apart with my review - "Sound City" was one of the best documentaries of all time on the subject of modern music. It was perfectly sculpted to tell the story it set out to and was just filled with all the nuances and the mystique-to-revelation pacing that comes from a well-done documentary. I know Dave Grohl has the passion, experience, connects, and the drive to make a great film on anything rock music.

This one - not so much.

Granted...this was a very bizarre time in the world to put out a documentary that is about touring when not even a single band has been on the road for the better part of 15-18 months. Yes...it dives into van touring...some trials and tribulations from the road, and the indelible craziness of every single musician that despite all signs pointing elsewhere that touring in a van is a complete and utter nightmare to most people's standards, the passion for playing music trumps all. I toured the US with a band in late 2013 and I agree with this statement. But this documentary wasn't nearly as visceral as it *shoud've* been. It really doesn't make the point it sets out to in the title. I'm sure that there was a lot more that Grohl + Co. Would've liked to put into this film, but it just was rendered impossible or impractical because of COVID where this documentary sort of turned into a mishmash of the who's-who of alt-rock products of the last 30 years coupled with following a newer band into the doldrums of van touring (which kind of turned into a half-assed attempt unfortunately towards the end).

The takeaway on this documentary which is not what I was expecting at all...D. H. Peligro needs his own documentary. That dude has been through the ringer with his own struggles, not to mention he was a very early and underrated part of pretty much every SoCal punk-funk-alt-rock band worth their salt in some capacity throughout the early-mid '80s and he's got the best personality of all the interviewees by a long shot. He clearly had a very real, heavy experience insofar as the documentary felt the need to spend 10 (very well-deserved) minutes on his life alone.

Last personal, very subjective note...I would have given this one another star if Lars Ulrich was edited out.

This film is a must see for fans of rock bands, and aspiring musicians alike. Comments from Slash, St. Vincent, Brian Johnson, the guy from Slayer, Edge, Ben Harper and Ringo.

How cool is that ?

Rented it with CODA Collection free 7-day trial on Amazon. Can't wait to purchase on Blu-ray. Dave never fails to stir the right mix of emotions in his documentaries. Loved hearing Violet sing with him at the end. Like the point of the movie - connecting with your audience is living!

It all starts with the love of music, a van and a spirit of adventure. Some move on to a luxury tour bus, some a jet plane and some just end up down by the river, but some never leave that van and keep on rocking' down the road decade after decade.

I really enjoyed hearing all the artist talking about touring in a van and how important it was for them, and fun. It's like that crazy road trip you took with your friends, even the things that went wrong are still good memories, fun times. But this is like that trip never ends, I'm sure some band members didn't enjoy it as much as others but it really does bond a band together. This is not complete history of the touring van, but it sure does cover a large aspect of it and how it impacts the artist. It has a good mix of artist with some nice interviews and lots of old footage and photos, but it was a little all over the place. Overall it was a fun watch, they talked to veterans and even a new band, Radkey, I listened to their last album and it was good, so that was a nice bonus.

I would like to see more on the history of touring, not just the early van years but how the evolution from van to tour bus, to private jets, and how that changed the bigger bands.

Someone needs to do a road stories series, I'm sure there are a ton of crazy stories that could be told, and some that can't.

Dave grohl is the soul of present day rock and roll. I find it interesting he doesn't talk about nirvana anymore. I guess he realizes nirvana is just bigger than everything.. Dave grohl is being a foo fighter rock star wearing a Lacoste shirt. Really! He's cooler than that now. Ha!!