SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/129115
New Docs Explore Different Aspects of the Green Day Juggernaut by David Menconi PA U L K O L N I K G iven the fact that Green Day released three new albums over a three-month stretch last fall, the venerable California punk trio of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool is comfortable working in multiples. So it is fitting that two separate Green Day documentaries will premiere at South By Southwest. Broadway Idiot, directed by Doug Hamilton, chronicles the process of turning the band's 2004 rock opera American Idiot into a Broadway musical; and Tim Wheeler's ¡Cuatro! documents the work that went into Green Day's 2012 triumvirate of albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre! Despite the timing, there was never a plan for the films to emerge in tandem like this. But that is part of being a band as prolific as Green Day, which has become a multimedia juggernaut in recent years thanks to American Idiot. "That just speaks to the band and how hard they work," says Wheeler. "As articulated in the film, Billie Joe Armstrong in Broadway Idiot they're the hardest-working people I've ever encountered. They love what they do, they do it well, and was just the music, playing small clubs with songs that had never been they really care about it. They put the time in, where a heard before. It was back to the idea of keeping it raw and real and lot of people don't. Even if they know a song well, they're still rehearsing authentic, very honest and true to who they are. There's more of a natand practicing to get it down to where they know it like the back of ural flow and beauty than you might get from more of a staged setup. their hand. That's how they are about everything, and they never do There's no structure or narrative, just showing this moment in time for anything small. It always seems to end up turning into something epic what it is." even when they're trying to do small. Billie's a machine, and the other Broadway Idiot also documents an artistic process by somewhat two are right there with him keeping up." unconventional means. Hamilton, a veteran of the CBS network's ¡Cuatro!'s beginnings go back to the aftermath of Green Day's 2009 60 Minutes news program, ignored the "making-of " angle to focus album 21st Century Breakdown. Wheeler notes that Green Day doesn't on Armstrong as he gradually warmed to the idea of appearing in the like taking time off and likens a band to "a race car: you either keep it Broadway production of Green Day's 2004 operatic opus to teen angst tuned up, or it just sits there and starts to rust." So Armstrong set up a (which he did in the fall of 2010, playing "St. Jimmy"). studio and commenced to writing a torrent of material. As part of the "He didn't expect to be involved," Hamilton says. "But he found process, the band members began filming themselves as they worked on himself won over bit by bit as he found a true creative collaboration songs before enlisting Wheeler, whose credits include 2009's The White with this other community of artists. The experience he had actually Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights. kind of blindsided him, which was the story I tried to tell. Not many The band was more interested in capturing a slice of life than making people's first acting experience is on Broadway, which he was scared a traditional rock documentary, so ¡Cuatro! is rather non-linear and about because it's pretty high-risk. You couldn't pick a much more visfeatures no formal sit-down interviews. One key element of the film's ible venue for trying something new than Broadway." creation was a series of club shows where the band worked on the new Despite the glitzy Broadway setting, however, Broadway Idiot is as songs in front of audiences. much about Green Day's original punk roots as ¡Cuatro! "They were writing and recording all over America while trying the "In the early years of Green Day, they were part of a group of bands songs out live, too," Wheeler says. "So there were shows that were literwho were friendly and played gigs together, learned the ropes with a ally 20 new songs and nothing else. It was interesting to watch them sense of community," says Hamilton. "Then Green Day blew up and process how that went with the new material, what they got from fans, they lost some of that, which was something I think Billie Joe really thinking that through. It's a view of the creative process you don't usuwanted without knowing. He found it again with this new company of ally get, which is the arc of the film. actors, and he totally got into it." ■ "You know, a lot of their albums have had a sort of persona," he continues. "There was a look and feel to American Idiot and 21st Century Broadway Idiot and ¡Cuatro! will screen back-to-back on Friday, March 15 at Breakdown, which kind of determined how they would tour. But this the Paramount Theatre, with the band in attendance for a special introduction. 32 SXSWORLD / MARCH MUSIC 2013