Overheard in a bar....

Last night I heard the live version of "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (w/ gospel choir) from U2's Rattle & Hum for the first time in years. I remarked to a (younger) friend that it was from U2's "movie" (the Rattle & Hum documentary) and she didn't know what I was talking about.

When the film came out post-Joshua Tree, U2 was at the height of their pseudo-Messianic period, before Bono had even asked for a single nation's debt to be forgiven. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan. But the late-'80s were the height of the group taking themselves (and us taking them) way too seriously.

Haven't rock docs gotten better in the last few years? Great films have come out about Wilco, Metallica, the Pixies, and more. I'm sure others have written more astutely on this subject than I, but I think the rise in rock-related cinema is due to :

the fact that technology makes it easier to make films on the go and to follow bands

and

a post-Kurt Cobain interest in vulnerability from musicians....