If you had bad hair and taste in the late 80’s (like me) you are well familiar with the mainstream breakthrough of metal acts like Metallica and Slayer. What you may not know is that for one brief millisecond in those heady days of high tops and long locks, a band of hard rock hosers in Toronto were poised for similar stardom. Or were they?
“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” is a documentary that tells this tale of this little band that couldn’t – and still can’t. But that’s not for lack of trying as here we are 20 years after the band’s greatest moment, their ‘hit'”Metal on Metal“, and the band is still alive, still making the kind of classic head-banging clatter that even folks in the depths of eastern Europe have ‘moved on’ from.
The film begins with a who’s who of Metal luminaries – Slash, Lemmy, Lars Ulrich from Metallica, and Tom Araya of Slayer – all professing their debt and touching respect to Anvil. While the presence of Ulrich has drawn the obvious comparisons to Metallica’s “Some Kind of Monster,” the film is more like “American Movie” meets “Spinal Tap.” Anvil are essentially the real life ‘Tap. Lead man Steve “Lips” Kudlow and childhood-friend drummer Robb Reiner (the irony man!) are now married, with kids, working dead-end jobs, playing half-empty holes in the Toronto suburbs yet still talk of ‘making it’ like they were 15-year-olds. It’s deluded, and kinda sad, but also so damn inspiring.
It’s hard not to root for these lovable losers as we follow them on a disappointing and disastrous tour of Europe. At one bar, the camera pulls back to reveal an near empty room and one solitary dude kicking back in a recliner, shaking his fist – yet the band plays on like they’re rocking Roskilde. Backstage at some 3rd Tier Euro fest, like a kid on Christmas morning, Kudlow chases down aging rocker Carmen Appice (Vanilla Fudge anyone?) – “Remember us? Anvil? (He doesn’t). And when Lips starts reminiscing with the wide-eyed reverence about Appice putting the moves on his girlfriend, it’s awkward and hilarious.
The half-empty halls, missed trains and scuffles with promoters pushes Rob and Lips to the brink, and their Troggs-ian blow-up in the streets is one for the ages. Licking their wounds, coming back home, the guys decide to pour everything into a new record, with predictable results – one record exec, in the understatement of the century, says “finding an audience for this would be a challenge” – uhhh, no shit.
We can’t imagine being able to sit through one of their albums either, but on screen, I can’t get enough of them because Anvil! isn’t really about the music – it’s a story about a friendship. Goofy, sweet and naïve, Kudlow and Reiner are like the kids in “Superbad”…only in their 40’s. Director Sacha Gervasi’s history with the duo – he was teen ‘roadie’ for the band for a year in the 80’s – earns him a trust that gets them to open up about their families and their friendship in a way that makes you hurt every single inevitable time that musical door is slammed in their face. And although Girvasi stage manages the whole thing with perhaps a little too much mock, and too little doc for purists, there’s something triumphant about the idea of Lips and Robb finally getting something akin to the ‘Hollywood treatment’ – hell, who needs a slot at Isle of Wight when you’re the toast of Sundance?
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This review was written by original Playlist member Angelo Colussi who attended a screening at the recent Toronto Hot Docs festival. Once such example of the Playlist music email-zine can be read here if you want to get nostalgic.
Watch ‘Anvil’ Clips: AnvilMovie.com
Watch: Anvil – “Metal On Metal”
Watch: Sundance ’08 – My Premiere: Anvil! The Story Of Anvil
