On this very website, a brief two years ago, I disagreed with former rock nyc scribe Todd Leibowitz who loved the Broadway hair metal where, surrounding a story of sex and metal at a Whiskey A Go Go wannabe in the mid-1980s, played out to hits by the likes of Journey and Poison. I hated the movie and fidgeted through the show. Todd, who loves metal, loved it. And so did just about every other person who saw it.
How they will feel about the Tom Cruise as metal god Hollywood musical is another matter. But three days after experiencing a reunion of a real rock club, Max's Kansas City, I can just about guarantee you that "Rock Of Ages" will have nothing to do worth clubs and less to do with rock and roll. I'll admit that when it comes to music I expect there to be a certain spirit that is hard to fake. I was talking to a guy who wrote a rock novel 30 years ago and was sorry I remembered it. He thought it sucked but he was wrong. He attempted something very very difficult. "Rock Of Ages" sucks because it has no real interest in its subject matter
From Manchester's "Electric Circus" to "CBGB;'s" , great clubs spearheaded great movements in a Tolstoy like mix of history, a meme that caught fire with almost no pre-condition. It just happens because it just happens and it grabs people, all of us, and steamrolls history, the past Catching a second tier rock Lower East Side anomalies like the Stumblebunnys, it is an almost incomprehensible mix of yet another great musician (Chris Robinson) and he is just in the midst of it.
"Rock Of Ages" is just rubbish,. The club is not the way the clubs are and the fight to close it is beyond belief. Nothing that happens is for a second illuminating or intelligent or real. All anybody wants to do is be a rock and roll star.
The reviews have started coming in and the feel is already contagious. A major dog.