A Night With Punk Rock Legends Descendents/ALL

Screening Q&A Panel, Left to Right: Moderator Mark Hoppus of Blink 182; filmmakers Justin Wilson, Deedle LaCour, and James Rayburn; Descendents/ALL members Karl Alvarez, Bill Stevenson, and Stephen Egerton; recording engineer Richard Andrews; and ALL vocalists Chad Price and Scott Reynolds. Photo: Joe Lester

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On the final Monday night in September, I was sitting in Los Angeles’ Downtown Independent watching the great Bill Stevenson ingest coffees back-to-back-to-back like he had something to prove, and the big lug started sweating profusely as all that caffeine snaked its way through his system. Mark Hoppus was presiding over a tight Q&A with Stevenson and his bandmates, so we fans could geek out about gear, or ask when the next Descendents record was coming out. But really, there weren’t that many questions to ask; everyone had been thoroughly filled in over the past 90 minutes, and we were all ready to get out of the theater and go rock out. Especially the jittery coffee man.

We’d just watched Filmage: The Story Of Descendents/ALL, an excellent documentary about an excellent band (well, two bands) which was being officially released that very night, and anyone with a brain was heading over to Los Globos afterward to celebrate with a very special ALL concert, featuring both Chad Price and Scott Reynolds on the mic.

Chad Price belts out the tuneage with the Bassmaster General by his side. Photo: Joe Lester

As you walked into the club (“Hey, there’s Matt Skiba”) and took a look around (“ooh, and the guys from Pennywise”) and grabbed a beer (“is that Lee Ving??”) and walked through the crowd (“and that cutie from The Bombpops”) and got in the pit (“oh my God, I’m moshing with Davey Havok”) it dawned on you that this night was going to be a pretty memorable one.

Milo Aukerman was nowhere to be found amongst this who’s-who of punkers, and no one mentioned why, but if you can believe it, this was such a great night that everyone was more or less okay with it (I think we’ve all gotten used to Milo disappearing now and then). Immediately following ALL’s set, a steady stream of special vocalists took the stage for “Descendents Karaoke,” each one of them belting out a song or two with a Bill Stevenson/Stephen Egerton/Karl Alvarez backing band. All of it was incredible, and it was exactly the kind of release party that Filmage deserved.

People have tried to sum up Descendents’ appeal for a long time with some pithy variant of “honestmelodicangrynerdsinlove,” but at long last, we’ve got a full-length film to help us delve much deeper into what these guys are all about. While your average band doc doesn’t offer much more than the stock chronological retelling paired with celebrity talking head praise, Filmage is loaded with little nuances that make for great storytelling — relentless humor and jarring emotional revelations, peppered with quirky animation and quoteable moments, and tons of vintage footage. All these tales of how Descendents came to be, and disappeared, and returned, and morphed into ALL, and returned again and then coexisted with ALL is guaranteed to make you feel something, regardless of whether you’re super into the band or you never knew a damned thing about them.

So Filmage finally had its wide release on that memorable September night, and is now available for purchase at your choice of online retailers (but don’t give your money to iTunes, you sheep). But if you’re in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend that you get over to Downtown Independent right now to catch one of the final showings, and share in the enhanced experience with your fellow man. I am certain that you would laugh and it is not out of the realm of possibility that you would cry.

So go.

For updates, and future screenings, and to have a copy of the movie for your very own, go here, or stalk them on the social media.