The thing that struck me the most was the footage of the Minutemen, and D. Boon in particular, mainly because if I were hard-pressed I’d say that the Minutemen are my favorite band of all time. There’s a lot of archival footage of the band performing both in the desert and on a boat, and there are current interviews with surviving members Mike Watt and George Hurley. On the same token, there is footage of the Gila Monster Jamboree, which took place in the Mojave, and featured the Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, Redd Kross, and Psi Com, which featured a young Perry Farrell, who if you’re young or have lived under a rock forever is the lead singer of Janes Addiction. The Gila Monster Jamboree was Sonic Youth’s first west coast performance, and it tied in perfectly with the song that they had recently released called “Death Valley 69”. Thurston Moore comments that everyone seemed to be in a good mood, but “I didn’t know everyone was dosed,” because Curt Kirkwood’s girlfriend had given everyone acid. It’s nice to see Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Bob Bert, and Steve Shelley talk about Sonic Youth. Glaringly but unsurprisingly missing are current interviews with Kim Gordon. I could talk about both Sonic Youth and The Minutemen all day, so let’s move on.
“Thurston Moore comments that everyone seemed to be in a good mood but ‘I didn’t know everyone was dosed'”
Desolation Center captures an amazing period of time where punks were creating truly unique music, and it seemed as though anything was possible. The desert concerts laid out a framework for people like Perry Farrell, John Law, and Gary Tovar to create huge outdoor festivals such as Lollapalooza, Burning Man, and Coachella, respectively. It’s also bittersweet, as the Desolation Center shows were far more wholesome and scene-oriented, which was what the bigger festivals started out as but then blew up into huge commercial enterprises that are far less inclusive than Desolation Center’s events were. If anything, Desolation Center might make you harken back to the days of when there were more opportunities for new things to happen, but you can also get inspired to start your own thing by watching the film, which I have to imagine director and Desolation Center organizer Stuart Swezey would greatly appreciate.
Before I go, I’d like to list everyone that speaks in the documentary just no one is left out in the credits section. I think this is important because all scenes exist because of the people involved. So here goes: Alexander Hacke, Stuart Swezey, Maw Shein Win, Sen DeLear, Linda Kite, Don Bolles, Curt Kirkwood, Carmel Conlin, Ron Athey, Chuck Dukowski, Gary Tovar, John Tottenham, Bruce Licher, Perry Farrell, Bev Mendez, Mariska Leyssius, Kristine Kryttre, Mike Watt, Ed Cirino, Joy Abbott, Ken Abbott, Mike Guerna, Mark Chung, Mark Pauline, Boyd Rice, Anthony Ausgang, Courtney Davies, Steve Gerdes, Lisa Derrick, Skip King, ML Compton, Blixa Bargeld, Adam Wolf, Bertell Ferguson, Matt Heckert, Deborah Exit, Nancy Steiner, Janet Housden, George Hurley, F.M. Einheit, Aaron Sherer, Chris Morris, Suzi Gardner, Simon Reynolds, Thurston Moore, Dave Markey, Bob Bert, Lee Ranaldo, Maria Montgomery, Cris Kirkwood, Sandy Glaze, Robert Hecker, Steve McDonald, Jeff McDonald, Michael Gira, Steve Shelley, John Law, Joseph Bien-Khan.
Lastly, I just implore fans of the bands involved to absolutely see the movie, but even if you’re not into the bands, maybe you could be after you watched this movie? Who knows? Maybe this movie can change your life? Let it!
"…who knows? Maybe this movie can change your life? Let it!"
