Bring On The Mountain

構成数 : 2
合計収録時間 : 00:00:00
One can almost forgive the average American consumer who, when faced with Danko Jones' impressive-looking, career-documenting DVD, Bring on the Mountain, will wonder if these seemingly globe-trotting, festival-conquering rock gods are in fact a real band or some clever movie director's Spinal Tap-like fabrication. After all, DJs go through drummers like nobody's business, seem thrilled to play music -- not for fame and fortune, but for the pure love of it (quite the foreign concept these days) -- and eponymous bandleader Jones' Jekyll and Hyde duality -- which sees him sober, reflective, self-effacing, and polite off-stage; impetuous, filled with swagger, borderline sexist, and even prone to violent blood-letting on-stage -- only blurs the lines between rock & roll fantasy and reality even further. And yet, despite these confusing signs, Danko Jones -- both the man and his band -- are very much for real, and their single-minded passion for rock & roll, through endless trials and tribulations, is ultimately the raison d'etre for both Bring on the Mountain and this Canadian hard rock trio's considerable success in Europe, Japan, the world, and elsewhere (if not the U.S., where they've shifted a mere 30,000 albums in 16 years). And it should be since the documentary's feature-length 90 minutes, exhaustive detail, and lengthy dialogue spread amidst extensive concert footage are really not as suitable an introduction for neophytes (lots to digest) as they are rewarding for die-hard fan consumption. Chances are only the latter group will have enough of an appetite for this, along with extensive booklet liner notes, complete videography, live performances, and even a short film called "The Ballad of Danko Jones" (a more complete version of the Diamond Brothers-directed "Below the Belt" trilogy), whose celebrity cameo list says it all about the band's fanatic appeal. Having said all that, it's precisely all of this well-kept-secret stuff that makes Bring on the Mountain so simultaneously exciting when it comes to Danko Jones and depressing for what it says about rock & roll's poor health in general: that a hard-working, creatively consistent band has to content itself with minor celebrity in some quarters while flying under the pop culture radar in others. A can't-miss for the diehards, and an educational experience for bystanders willing to take a plunge. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia