The Chemical Brothers have now been around for more than fifteen years. I remember hearing them as a teenager (back when my response to all dance and electronic music was a glib ‘just a load of beeping, isn’t it?’). My opinion began to shift about five years ago, when I discovered the Swedish band The Knife, and since then I have been listening to electronic music to the increasing exclusion of all else. Part of that process has been the rediscovery of the dance music of my teenage years, including The Chemical Brothers, so I was, even though I’m not one of their biggest fans, pretty excited by the idea of Don’t Think, their first concert film, being released to UK cinemas (albeit for only one night; February 3rd in the UK).
Live electronic music has always been a slightly odd proposition: how do you render this kind of music and not have it simply be two blokes playing records very loud in a field? Along with Orbital, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons have been leaders in making dance music a live, arena sized, experience. They insist that the tracks are mixed live on the night, and while Director Adam Smith often has his focus elsewhere, he does capture a few moments during the set between Rowlands and Simons that suggest they are playing off the audience at Japan’s Fujirock festival in their mixing (especially the way they seem to delight in holding them in the palms of their hands just before Rowlands hits a key marked HBHG).
Don’t Think captures The Chemical Brothers in front of a rapturous (and massive) crowd, but Smith often turns his focus away from the musicians and on to the visuals that accompany them, and the reaction of the crowd. Their live show (which Smith has long been the lead designer on) has always featured a spectacular light show and graphics, and here those things take centre stage for much of the roughly 85 minute set. Smith essentially uses his 20 cameras to gives us the view of a privileged crowd member. For the most part he’s content for us to share the crowd experience; watching as the Swoon graphics swim over their heads or the neon suited Hey Boy Hey Girl dancers seem to reach out over them. This is not a 3D film (happy days), but at times it sucked me in to that crowd experience in a way that 3D wants – but consistently fails – to be able to do. Sometimes we can see behind the curtain; watch as Tom and Ed (Tom is on camera a lot more, and seems more shackled to his specific spot, while Ed sometimes is able to get out from behind the decks and rile the crowd up, not that they need the help) make the tiny adjustments to the myriad buttons and dials that drive this show. It looks fiendishly complicated, and gives you an appreciation of just how much of a live undertaking this must be.
On a pure filmmaking level then, Don’t Think is impressively crafted, and particular kudos is due picture editors Mark Whelan and Jono Griffith, and obviously the sound mix, by Rowlands and Simons themselves, is another key component, and one that works entirely immersively. That said, the filmmaking isn’t the whole point here, and this is really as much a gig review as it is a film review. As someone with a great fondness for this band, but who is hardly a superfan, I thought it was largely excellent. For me the highlight came early, with a joyous version of Swoon (lead single from their latest album, Further), but the whole show is packed with great stuff from Hey Boy, Hey Girl to Believe, from Don’t Think to Out of Control, and with many more tracks besides that may not have been as instantly familiar to me, but nevertheless helped transport me to a field in Japan. The only slight downers came after Out of Control when Setting Sun (a personal favourite) was rather thrown away, and there was much more extended segueway than during the rest of the show, which cost it some momentum and from the fact that the fantastic Let Forever Be doesn’t appear. Smith also indulges in a few more extended linking sequences as the film runs on, exploring the festival grounds, and this slightly undermines some of the crowd shots, because the same faces keep cropping up, making you wonder if Smith has slotted a few actors into the crowd. However, any and all problems are blasted away with a closing one two punch of Leave Home and Block Rockin’ Beats.
Ultimately, you already know whether you’re going to like this film. Do you like The Chemical Brothers? If you said yes… GO, it’s a fine film of a great gig. If you said no… well, you haven’t even clicked on this review, but if by some accident you did, and if my rambling has somehow kept you reading, knock two stars off the grade above, because I can’t see Don’t Think changing any minds.
