Back in November I saw a piece of news that a Descendents rockumentary would be coming to VA Beach to be screened in an actual movie theatre for one night only. This excited me highly and I secured tickets the same day. Why was I excited? From my high school freshman year on, The Descendents created a permanent dent (pun intended) in my musical ideology. I had heard plenty of pop punk, but these guys really stood out because their attitude seemed very over the top in their humor, sarcasm, and emphasis on their own private jokes. And farts. All this along with swooning over women and some of the strongest songwriting and playing I've ever heard in the wide punk genre was a formula that resonates and influences me till this day.
As the screening date drew closer I became more excited that there would be a short tribute set after the screening by the one-off band No FB (name based on the Descendents song, which stands for No Fat Beaver). Cinema Cafe in Pembroke was hosting the event in two screening rooms and everything went off without a hitch.
(apologies for the crappy photo guys!)
The film was a treat. It told the whole story as expected, and filled in gaps that I had always been curious about. For instance, my first Descendents tape was Somery, a sort of "greatest of" compilation. I noticed that the liner notes were huge because there were so many different players credited to so many different songs. But somehow most of the songs sounded like the same band. So, roughly 25 years later, as I watched Filmage, the lineage of those players (I believe the total was 11) was spelled out and the story of the band was finally clear to me. And, I realized that for most songs, the principal or co-songwriter was Bill Stevenson, the band's drummer. The film also went into great detail about the band ALL, which is basically the same band as Descendents with a different singer, and questioned the reasons why it never found the legendary status of the same band with the same songwriting when fronted by Milo Aukerman. With plenty of interviews, live performances, anecdotes, and everything else you'd expect from a rockumentary, Filmage left me satisfied with the backstory of one of my all-time favorites. I will be looking out for this DVD release because it is worth another watch and several loanings to buddies.
(Video footage by Paul Unger)
Immediately following the screening, No FB began setting up in front of the screen and took the stage within 10 - 15 minutes. The band was fronted by Charles Glover (The Larchmont Trash), the same man who arranged for the film to be screened in VA Beach (with help from Hardcore Norfolk queen Debra Persons). On bass was Forrest Lucien (Unabombers) and on drums was Hoyt March (also of The Larchmont Trash). They played a fairly short set consisting of Descendents crowd pleasers "I'm not a Loser," "Silly Girl," "Clean Sheets," and of course the one chord/one note anthem "ALL." The band was rowdy and blew through the songs as if second nature, and the large standing audience in the cinema responded fondly.
Big props go out to Charles, and all the others that I don't know about behind the scenes for making this happen. There were two screenings last night and both were sold out! We could stand to see more special events and screenings like this in Hampton Roads. Keep your eyes and ears open!
Descedents Website:
http://descendents.tumblr.com/
All Website:
http://all.tumblr.com/
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