MY KIDS REVIEW "DO IT AGAIN" BECAUSE I SAID SO

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Try taking children aged 8, 12, and 19 anywhere together. Go ahead. I dare you. Fit them all in the back of a small SUV, too. The oldest has to drown out the endless chatter of the youngest (chatter which provides this site with some of its funniest and most surreal content, admittedly) by turning up his iPod, and the middle one complains he is getting squooshed in the middle, a nicely-played visual pun. You have to have a really good reason to do this, or it's useless torture for all. My good reason last Thursday was that --finally! -- the documentary "Do It Again" (produced by and featuring my fellow glasses-wearing writerly pal Geoff Edgers) would be playing for one night at the Northwest Film Forum. I was very happy to finally have the chance to have all my kids see something that I have been involved with for some time now, and I knew they would enjoy anything Kinks-related, because that is how we roll in my house. After a mad dash down the rush-hour freeways to make the first screening time, the family popcorn/candy/beverage situation was patiently sorted out by some nice NWFF staff and we took our seats.









































I had already seen the film on the big screen in Los Angeles, and was excited to "See It Again." (I'm sorry. That was terrible.) Anyway, if you want to read my review of that night and of the film, you can "Do It Here," but this time I'm going to let the kids give their short summaries of the film, in order of their appearance on Earth. All little Eberts, I swear.

Couch Teen: It was an interesting concept, trying to bring back an older band that was taken apart by circumstances that don’t seem controllable by any source or intervention. Throughout there were good flashes back to the band and all that stuff and it was entertaining seeing all the musical guests giving their opinions of the Kinks as well as playing various songs with Geoff. There were some problems for me with congruity between some of the switches between what he was saying and what he was doing. The correlation of what was happening in the movie and what was going to be understood by the viewer might have been a bit cloudy. For example, out of nowhere there’s very long clip of Sting playing with no transition. Like, all of sudden, OK, there’s Sting. But you know overall, that doesn’t make or break the movie. Despite the small problems, it was an entertaining movie.

Mr12: Well, I thought it was really great because there was a friend of ours in it and he put a really great effort to bring the Kinks back together and also it showed me a little bit about what England looked like. I think it’s really nice to see that there were loads and loads and loads of Kinks fans still out there, and that they could all get together like that. It was also a funny movie. The people he was playing with must have been professionals! They must’ve played in bands because they made really good music. I liked all the songs. I think the story turned out well.  

MissEight: I thought it was cool. I was surprised that your pictures were in there. The funny part was when Geoff was drinking something and he put it down and the glass fell. Ha ha! Lobster is good.  

I'm hoping Geoff adds "LOBSTER IS GOOD" as one of the press quotes. 

It was very nice to share the movie experience with them, to see them engaged throughout the film, laughing and smiling, and smiling at me. But BE GONE CHILDREN!, because you must get to bed on a school night and Mom gets to stay and watch the film again for the 9PM screening and THEN gets to see local Kinks cover combo The Quaifes --  Kwab Copeland (guitar, vocals), Bill Herzog (bass, vocals), Chris Lefebvre (guitar), and Dan Peters (drums) -- play a 30 minute set! I had really loved seeing these guys play at the Sunset Tavern last July and they did not disappoint, playing several songs from "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" and a few more, with great edge and energy, worthy of that old crunchy in-your-face Kinks spirit. The film audience loved it; it was a real treat to end the night. Here are the Quaifes performing "Victoria." 













































Many thanks to Northwest Film Forum and Easy Street Records for bringing "Do It Again" to Seattle, and of course to the Quaifes for playing a killa set! And thanks, kids, for the reviews and no one throwing up Coke and popcorn on the way home.