It Might Get Loud

It Might Get Loud is a rockumentary that brings together 3 generations of iconic axe-wielding poster boys.

There is Jimmy Page, who banged out vicious riffs with the then cock-strutting Tolkien warbling of Robert Plant, the groove crunching bass manoeuvring of John Paul Jones, all revved up by the immaculate power drumming of John Bonham, in what was the monolithic Led Zeppelin.

Then there is The Edge (played by David Evans), who has created a brand of sonic timbre-loving delayed guitar playing, along with the homunculur, phalacrophobic prophet The Bono (Paul Hewson), master of fills and drum rolls Larry Mullen, and Adam Clayton, in what is the soundtrack-to-RTÉ’s Reeling In The Years band U2.

And finally, there is Jack White, the troubled Zero Coke-advertising highfaluterer along with his sister Meg playing the drums like the offspring of T. Rex’s drummer MickeyFinn and The Muppets’ Animal, in what is every indie kid’s dream pop-combo, The White Stripes.

All three are brought together to offer their various opinions and personal histories of the guitar. As they each begin to describe what the guitar means to them, it becomes obvious how each of their own particular styles of play developed. Page wants to make love to it; White wants to fight it; and The Edge wants to splash it with make-up and dress it up right fancy.

White and The Edge come from opposing corners – White berating technology for killing the soul of music, The Edge embracing it in an effort to see how far he can push music. Page lies in the middle and comes from that school of thought that there are only two types of music: good and bad. The heart of the film is really their individual stories and the point of the film (i.e. bringing them together) is surprisingly quite muted and makes for the dullest sections. But, despite their differences, there’s no doubting the mutual respect they have for one another as guitarists and (probably to the detriment of the film) they don’t come to blows. I’d say The Edge would surprise you here and kick seven shades of shite out of the other two.

During the course of the film, there are individual moments of reflection on the guitarists’ memories of music. There’s a great moment where Page goes through his vinyl collection and the camera catches his unfettered pleasure as he puts on Link Wray’s 1958 blues instrumental ‘Rumble’ – you see his passion for the guitar as he can’t stop smiling as the distortion and feedback kick in and build. Beyond being a musician, he is first and foremost a lover of music. White comes alive talking about the blues musician Son House; and anyone familiar with him knows exactly where White is coming from.

The Edge’s best scene is where he strips himself of all the technology and shows you exactly what he’s playing that gets that amazing sound when its sent through the myriad of effects. I warmed much more to the man at this point. His sense of humour deserves more exposure. It’s always admirable when an Emperor is comfortable in his nakedness.

As a piece of cinema, the film lacks a coherent narrative and suffers from a rather superficial examination of its subject. Nevertheless, It Might Get Loud serves its purpose well enough. There's enough moments to make this a worthwhile piece, and it’s good to see this type of documentary extend its scope to cinema. Guggenheim, its director, avoids falling into too much of the muso trap, so there’s enough good stuff here for the layperson to enjoy as well. Yet, throughout it all, although it is interesting to hear them talk; rather like the FatherTed ‘Song For Europe’ episode, you keep finding yourself roaring, ‘Just play the fucking note…play the fucking note.’