It Might Get LoudDVD REVIEW

It Might Get Loud

[Sony]

It Might Get Loud is presented as a summit meeting among Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White, the guitar greats converging on an L.A. soundstage to trade anecdotes and licks. Unless you actively despise music, you’ll thrill to these three teaching one another “Stairway to Heaven,” “Until the End of the World” or “Seven Nation Army.” But one of the documentary’s great pleasures is that it also spends solo time with each on his home turf, emphasizing their differences as much as their similarities. White is seen griping about how the growing ease of recording has helped to kill rock—not long after a segment showing how gearhead Edge has a different computerized setup for every song in the U2 repertoire. Director Davis Guggenheim has said that Page “just doesn’t get U2,” even though the Led Zep legend is too polite to say so in the film. Given their philosophical dissimilarities, maybe these three really should have been filmed in mano-a-mano combat, not a lovefest. Revelatory moments range from Page’s galvanizing solo version of “Ramble On” to the Edge uncovering a box of cassettes that contains the jam in which “Where the Streets Have No Name” came into being. Best of all may be a scene where Page retreats to his vinyl library, plays his favorite childhood record, “Rumble,” and just grins conspiratorially. These three aren’t just the most brilliant musicians of their respective generations—they’re fans first and foremost. –CW

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