I recently caught "Rage" at the Red Vic theater on Height street in San Francisco. While a documentary on Punk is always a welcome form of entertainment, the show was hardly a history lesson of 20 years of West Coast punk, at least not one that spreads to the present day. Interviews, especially the ones with Jello of the Dead Kennedys and Jack Grisham of TSOL, give the viewer a better understanding of how and when punk hit the West Coast, but little is mentioned of anything beyond the initial hit. What are bands doing now? What have they been doing since the early 80s? The film fails to say. It is also a little fuzzy as to exactly who these interviewees are. Unless they are familiar to you, or you already know a bunch about the scene, it is unclear as to why exactly you are listening to these people or even what bands they are from. However, if you have a love of music and an interest in punk in general, this film will serve to fill a niche, a nook or cranny, in the overall story. Plus, hearing from Jello and Jack is priceless.
For more information on punk, view the Sex Pistols documentary, The Filth and the Fury, or the punk installment of the History of Rock video series. And go buy some punk discs, for crying out loud!
