Who hasn't wanted to be a rock star, join a band or play electric guitar? Music resonates, moves and inspires us. Strummed through the fingers of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, somehow it does more. Such is the premise of It Might Get Loud, a new documentary conceived by producer Thomas Tull. It Might Get Loud isn't like any other rock'n roll documentary. Filmed through the eyes of three virtuosos from three different generations, audiences get up close and personal, discovering how a furniture upholsterer from Detroit, a studio musician and painter from London and a seventeen-year-old Dublin schoolboy, each used the electric guitar to develop their unique sound and rise to the pantheon of superstar. Rare discussions are provoked as we travel with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White to influential locations of their pasts. Born from the experience is intimate access to the creative genesis of each legend, such as Link Wray's "Rumble’s" searing impression upon Jimmy Page, who surprises audiences with an impromptu air guitar performance. But that's only the beginning. While each guitarist describes his own musical rebellion, a rock'n roll summit is being arranged. Set on an empty soundstage, the musicians come together, crank up the amps and play. They also share their influences, swap stories, and teach each other songs. During the summit Page’s double-neck guitar, The Edge’s array of effects pedals and White’s new mic, custom built into his guitar, go live. The musical journey is joined by visual grandeur too. We see the stone halls of Headley Grange where "Stairway to Heaven" was composed, visit a haunting Tennessee farmhouse where Jack White writes a song on-camera, and eavesdrop inside the dimly lit Dublin studio where The Edge lays down initial guitar tracks for U2’s forthcoming single. The images, like the stories, will linger in the mind long after the reverb fades. It Might Get Loud might not affect how you play guitar, but it will change how you listen.
If you love the guitar — and who could doesn't? — then It Might Get Loud is worth seeing for many, many reasons. Not the least of which is the chance to see Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, white-haired and suave, grinning as he puts a 45 of Link Wray's "Rumble" on the turntable. Check it out as Page, the man who has probably inspired more air-guitarists than anyone in existence, gives in to the temptation and starts air-guitaring to Wray's vibrato-soaked chunk of '50s cool. He's a guitar-crazy kid again. A guitar nerd - just like the other two guitarists featured in this affectionate though never quite incendiary documentary. The guitarists are, in theory, well chosen. The Edge, from U2, is a minimalist player who favors maximum technological effects, while Jack White from the White Stripes is a rootsy guy who likes cheap old guitars with bent necks. And Page? Well, he's Jimmy Page, the elder statesman. It Might Get Loud hums along as it tells how each of the guitarists got to where they are. Each has great stories, as you might figure, and each is humble and engaging. And there's priceless video of young "James Page" being interviewed after strumming through a skiffle tune (his voice not even broken, he says he doesn't plan to be a musician; he's more interested in "biological research").
Still, It Might Get Loud has a nice central idea that doesn't quite work: Get the three guitarists in a room, talking guitars and jamming together. Trouble is, their chemistry's a bit off: They're all too diffident. Too nice. It looks as if The Edge and White are intimidated by Page, as genial as he is. And so when they do jam, it's really not much beyond what you might hear in the corner of a noisy guitar store. It is fun, though, to watch the little admiring smiles that creep onto the faces of The Edge and White as Page turns his Les Paul to 11 and starts blasting out the riff from "Whole Lotta Love." They're big rock stars, but all of a sudden they're 14 again. This gets a 3 on my "Go See" scale.
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