A loose, informal-looking document of a time and place and the idiosyncratic music they served as backdrop to, "Meet Me in the Bathroom" is a glimpse into the Rock music scene of New York City at the turn of the century. Amidst the reality of Y2K, 9/11, Napster and George W. Bush Jr. The film shows how long dead Rock n' Roll came to life in the Big Apple when bands like The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a host of others kept a dying genre in life support by creating some of the most eclectic and compelling music in all of music.
Filled with interviews from the bands themselves and their associates and archival footage this takes one back to that cold, chilly and impersonal time. From the sensational hype-driven attention given to the scene-igniting and influential Strokes to the rare female-fronted act of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Dance-Electronic punkisms of LCD Soundsystem and the soulful experimentalism of TV on the Radio, on to the Anti-Folk quirkiness of The Moldy Peaches to the rocking danceability of The Rapture and the cool distant approach of Interpol the movie features a constellation of young hopefuls whose talents coalesced into a particular age and era when NU Metal and Hip-Hop dominated the global music scene, music that were the opposite of what they were doing, these underrated luminaries toiling and creating in a time that neither cared about them nor gave them their due.
While watchable the film lacks perspective on what truly matter. A good chronological backdrop on the history of the New York Rock scene would have fleshed this out more and would have given more of an understanding on what the bands featured have done and what they accomplished. And most of all and what the filmmakers glaringly missed which is what the film is basically about: the music! Too much emphasis is given on the personalities involved that the main reason why they even got to be featured here is sidelined and how good even great the music actually is.
Based on journalist Lizzy Goodman's tome of the same name, "Meet Me in the Bathroom" is a celebration of Gen X's and New York Rock's final hurrah before fading into the eventual eclipse of time and memory. A tribute to a great artistic legacy and a great city this is one Rock fans should see.
