WACKEN 3D - A Movie

Wacken 3D - The Goethe Institut of Washington DC is in the midst of its Neu:2015 film festival. I would encourage everyone to take a look at what they do there, both at this film festival and throughout the year. I always find a few interesting events to take in. But a 3D movie of Germany if not Europe's longest running and biggest metal festival is what attracts me there today.

The coverage is of the 2013 festival and the filmmakers give a positive airing of the crowd and the bands for the most part, with a good mix of music and the drawing together of people and bands from around the world. The story could be even more developed as they cover fans from Asia, North America and Europe who are quite intelligent and interesting to hear from. They spend some time talking to Motorhead's Mikki Dee, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Alice Cooper, and Henry Rollins. All of these bands are featured live, except for Rollins, which is just as well, as he has not done anything musically of interest for me in 31 years. Instead, he does his usually talking head routine, where he adds enthusiasm and shows a keen grasp for the obvious. I will never understand the appeal.

Bands that fare well are Sabaton, Anthrax, Deep Purple and a segment on various champion bands from something like 29 countries competing for a record contract at one of the smaller stages. There was a great Mongolian band that mixed traditional instruments with electric guitars and such, that came in a frustrating second place. But the attitudes of all bands were good and it the positive vibe stayed, even through rain, mud, and trash pile-up--all the expected festival results.

This is a fun movie with 3D excitement that will hardly replace Woodstock, but is a nice minor exploration as to what makes live music work.