Sunday, February 8, 2015

Movie Night: Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back aka The Quiet Riot Movie



Are you ready to feel the noize, Friends?

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley! 

Tonight we're watching a surprisingly good documentary on the heavy metal band, Quiet Riot!




Produced by Showtime and directed by Regina Russell, Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back, gets us caught up to speed as to what the band Quiet Riot has been up to for the past, um, 30 years.

The documentary is a Spinal Tap-esque tale of the rise and fall (and rise again?) of one the 1980's top metal bands who in 2007 lost their longtime lead singer and songwriter, Kevin Dubrow, to an accidental overdose after a night of dancing with the white lady. The film chronicles the struggles of best friend and Riot drummer, Frankie Banali, as he tries to put the band back together without the iconic Dubrow as frontman.

To be honest, we haven't really thought too much about Quiet Riot since around 1985, but this film really does a great job showing how a band is much more than four guys playing instruments together.  Its about egos, and friendships, and fun, and frustration, and being on the road, and quitting, and drugs, and groupies, and families, and swallowing your pride, and paying bills, and knowing when to give up.

It just goes to show you that you gotta be nice to folks on the way up because 20 years later when you're playing a County Fair in Minnesota, those are the people who'll stick around! 

FUN FACT: Hey kids, did you know that Quiet Riot will forever be known as the first heavy metal band with a Number One record on the Billboard charts?   1983's Metal Health.

Bang your head!

(And speaking of banging, it seems that Banali and the film's director got engaged at some point during filming!)

Anyways, we give this one two raised cocktail glasses!  




We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

No comments:

Post a Comment