Documentary – No Room For Rockstars

When I got into the punk scene, the Vans Warped Tour was all the rage. Some of my all time favourite live memories are from the tour as I would run from stage to stage for hours on end – never stopping and just devouring all the music around me. It was bliss.

However, I’m jaded and old and the beauty of The Vans Warped Tour has slowly evaporated in my eyes. The bands that play it no longer attract me and while the core beliefs are still there, I feel like an outcast looking in on what was once mine.

Parris Patton’s No Room For Rockstars documentary unfortunately serves as yet another reminder of how I’ve outgrown the style that Warped now promotes. Worst than that though, No Room For Rockstars falls flat on two counts. One, it focuses on all the wrong acts that are already questionable to be apart of the Warped bill; and two, it’s all been done before.

With three hundred hours of footage captured over the 2010 Warped Tour, you’d think there’d be something new here but there really isn’t. These are the same stories I’ve heard countless times before, but just from a different storyteller. With sixteen years under their belt, The Warped Tour has a lot of documentaries about it. The first few I saw were interesting and fascinating but I slowly grew tired of them. You can see it in my reviews as they became more critical. Every one tells the same old tale. Kevin Lyman’s ideals of supporting live music, introducing kids to new bands, allowing them an escape and giving them a safe haven where everyone is an “outcast” in one way or another. They have bands saying how great an opportunity it is and how excited they are for it. Bands list the reasons why it’s so much fun but also drive the point home that this is work. Like hard work and by the halfway point it can be so tiring, you just want to quit. I’ve heard these stories a hundred times before; I don’t need to hear them again.

Now, Patton does succeed in crafting a rather unique story by focusing mainly on three participants of the tour. Yes, they dive into family matters through Suicide Silence and show the behind the scenes life of the road crew but their main focus is three drastically different bands: Christofer Drew of NeverSayNever, Joe from Forever Came Calling and Mike Posner.

By restraining the narrative to the three main storylines, they’re able to craft a fluent tale of the ups and downs of the tour more so than if they simply talked to all the bands. In fact, around the halfway point, Patton starts to drive an emotional bullet home as both Christofer and Joe begin to break down over the gruesome schedule as they see that the Warped Tour isn’t all punk rock ethics but also more of a business structure. It’s a poignant realization, but one that has been realized countless times before and seems rather second nature to me at this point.

Perhaps if the viewer isn’t so knowledgeable about the tour, this could come as a surprise but for someone who has been to it numerous times in the past – it’s just kind of like “well, d’uh.”
That means for non-punk fans, this could be an interesting glimpse into the tour. Sadly, that’s where my first problem comes rearing back as the selection of bands seem to truly misrepresent what I consider to be “punk” bands anyway. Now, I’m not saying that they don’t have a place on the tour – but Mike Posner is not representative of the tour and even he says that. The R&B/pop singer should not be the main focus of the documentary. Yes, the tour has had some rather unorthodox bands on it over the years (Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Eminem, K-os, Kid Rock all come to mind) and they add to the diversity; but they are not – and should not – be the main focus.  The same can be said for NeverShoutNever. As for Forever Came Calling – they seem like good fellows and would be suitable for the tour; but they’re not even on it. They’re a band from the middle of California who followed the tour and sold CDs in the line-up every day. A commendable feat for sure and one worthy of a note; yet it still seems disconnected from the quote/unquote “real” Warped Tour.

No Room For Rockstars has a strong narrative – better than most other Warped Tour documentaries and they accomplished that by narrowing their scope. Sadly though, I’ve heard it all before and this time it’s from the mouth of a people who, to me, don’t make me think Warped.