Concert movies have always been a niche topic.  You’re choosing a topic that mainly appeals to fans of whichever band you choose to cover. It’s unlikely that people who weren’t already fans of the bands will see that movie. But I would argue that concert movies are the perfect way to introduce someone to a band. A concert movie can be a simple but effective way to show off your favorite bands in a way that isn’t just saying “Can I play you a song?”. With a concert movie, it’s all the best things wrapped up into a concise bundle with a two hour run time. You have the music, the movie, the experience of seeing a concert in all its glory and all from the comfort of your home (or a theater). But as of late, the “classic” concert movie has been lost to time and here I am, reminiscing about an era I never got to experience so as a result, here’s my plea to bring back the concert film. I want to be able to sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch and listen to all of my favorite tracks on a widescreen! It’s also a great way for new fans of these old bands to see concerts that they may not have even been alive for. The concert movie has some strong contenders as to why it’s one of the best genres and I hope that showcasing them will make you see why the concert film should be brought back to its original glory.

The Last Waltz is a combined documentary and concert film, directed by Martin Scorcese and released in 1978. This movie follows the Canadian-American band, The Band. It also features artists like  Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, and Neil Young, just to name a few. The movie contains interviews with members of The Band as well as concert performances. This movie covers The Band’s farewell concert which was held Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. This is hailed as one of the greatest concert documentaries and directed by one of the greatest directors, Martin Scorcese. Scorcese already had Mean Streets and Taxi Driver under his belt and was seen as the perfect person to direct this movie. This movie did face some production delays due to Scorcese’s commitments to New York New York and  American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince and ultimately released in 1978. This movie received high acclaim. Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Wilmington calls it “the greatest rock concert movie ever made – and maybe the best rock movie, period” and Terry Lawson from Detroit Free Press comments that “This is one of the great movie experiences.” While this film isn’t strictly a documentary or strictly a concert movie, it works as a creative way of melding the two genres together.  In 2019, this movie was preserved in the Library of Congress national film registry as it was found to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Stop Making Sense, directed by Johnathan Demme and released in 1984 is a movie centered on Talking Heads and the concert they performed to promote their newest album at the time, Speaking In Tongues. The concert features music from their entire catalog of music until that point including Genius Of Love by Tom Tom Club, a side project for two members of the band. The movie holds cult status, revered as an example of quality filmmaking, film critic Leonard Maltin called it “one of the greatest rock movies ever made” and  New Yorker critic Pauline Kael dubbing it “close to perfection”. The title is taken from a lyric off the track ‘Girlfriend Is Better’ which appears at the film’s climax. The entire film was shot over a three day period at the  Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. The film is composed with majority shots of the band performing and the only shots of the audience being shown at the very end. As a result, there was a lack of audience energy and lead to insecurity from the band which led to what was regarded as “the worst Talking Heads performance in the history of the band’s career.” The movie itself is simple, it’s an entire talking heads concert, start to finish. David Byrne has great stage presence and doesn’t rely on Bright costumes or light shows. What he does use is the big suit which is exactly what you’d expect. A big suit which is worn during the performance of Girlfriend Is Better. It’s weird, it’s fun, surprisingly effective and shows off that Talking Heads weirdness that the band is known for. Just like The Last Waltz, in 2021, this movie was preserved in the Library of Congress national film registry as it was found to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. After watching Stop Making Sense, I’m inclined to agree.

Concert movies are a bit of a lost art form. There have been a few major attempts at modern concert film but the thing is, they’re not that easy to make and they’ve just fallen out of fashion. The concert has to be filmed and refilmed over the course of a few days, there are stylistic choices that can make or break the band’s performance and the movie’s final cut. As mentioned, due to a lack of audience energy, Talking Heads struggled to perform. On top of that, the cost to produce a concert movie can be quite high with the possibility of low returns. A risk that many studios don’t want to take. I however am in favor of a return to form. I would love to be able to go into a movie theater and get the next best thing to a concert. A movie. With bands doing reunion tours or final tours, capture those tours on film! Archive them, make them into an experience that everyone can have. A concert film is the perfect way to encapsulate and archive a band’s legacy in a way that can be seen for years to come. I vote that people take the risk and bring back concert films.