Anvil! The Story of Anvil won the audience documentary prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival last weekend, the very honour it fell short of at the Toronto band’s Hot Docs homecoming in April, where it only placed sixth despite earning accolades at every level.
“I could tell we weren’t going to win based on the number of ticket stubs I was signing after each screening,” says Steve “Lips” Kudlow (pictured), back home from yet another film fest. “No one wanted to hand theirs in, which was the way they tabulated the vote. The system worked against us.”
And, consistent with the theme of the documentary, it wouldn’t be the first time.
But a new wrinkle in the evolution of Anvil! is a decision on exactly how the film is going to be marketed.
“The distributors all want it,” says Kudlow. “The problem is no one wants to pay for it. And, if they do, it’s for a fraction of what it’s worth.”
Screenings in May at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and last Thursday night at the Ford Ampitheatre in LA offered greater clarity as to how best roll out the movie across the continent. The plan is now to go on tour with the movie, which features little actual Anvil music, followed by a mini-concert from the band.
“The whole strategy will focus on the fact that what’s good enough for the band is good enough for the movie,” says Kudlow. “The message throughout is ‘Fuck the System’, so it makes more sense to have consistency.
“The less corporate intervention involved in getting the film out there the better.”
Since there’s no evidence of anyone not adoring Anvil!, this might be crazy enough to work – a roller-coaster of onscreen emotions, followed by a bludgeoning set of speed metal, followed by a Q&A session with director Sacha Gervasi and his stars.
They’ll do it all over again in a few weeks at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, where the screening will be followed by a Berkeley club concert where the ticket stub is worth something: a dollar off draft and well drinks.
Prior to that trek, though, Anvil are scheduled to perform on more familiar turf. Their highest profile downtown Toronto gig is set for July 12 at the Velvet Underground (510 Queen Street W.) – with drummer Robb Reiner’s son Tyler’s band Invermier as opening act -- followed by shows at the Perth Metal Meltdown at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall, and then at Copperfields bar in Belleville.
Media momentum for The Story of Anvil means its reels can’t be closely guarded forever, but the next stage of distribution will involve as many of these live events as they can justify booking. Kudlow explains a strategy that starts with an invitation-only screening in each town to build buzz, then a visit by the band, which will develop further momentum for the DVD release.
In fact, of the 1,000 people who caught the LA Film Fest premiere, about one-quarter were employees of online rental service Netflix, where it’s expected to be a blockbuster. That queue began back in January, right after Anvil!’s unveiling at the Sundance Film Festival.
But how many times can Kudlow tolerate watching himself on a giant screen explaining his and Reiner’s tenacity at age 50 and beyond?
“I’m seeing it from different perspectives now,” he says. “For one screening in Los Angeles, I watched it from the projection room where I cold see the entire audience – at one point, everyone was wiping their eyes in unison. And when Robb’s mother talks about his father surviving the Holocaust, I could see everyone just squirming in their seats – it looked like a room full of jellyfish.”
Anvil still have a musical legacy to perpetuate, however. Next stop for Kudlow is actually Ireland, where he’ll meet with The Verve’s manager Jaz Summers to hash out a plan. A remake of their 1982 album, Metal on Metal – with cameo appearances from celebrity Anvil fans -- are among the ideas being considered.
Kudlow, while audibly tired after having to jet back home to his office day job, is nonetheless far from jaded many premieres later.
“We had the singer of the band Hirax once fly us out there for a show,” says Kudlow, “and he was the only one in the audience. Last time we played LA there were 40 people there, and we just returned from playing for a thousand.
“It’s the movie that has the greatest psychological effect, though. The feeling from anyone who sees it is that we deserve all this. It’s an unusual and magical effect that the movie has on people, even if I can’t explain it.
“What are the chances that a 15-year-old roadie like Sacha would grow up to work in Hollywood, and that we’d be together as a band after 30 years? The odds of all this are so crazy that I can’t stop thinking it was meant to happen this way.”
“In the end, we want people to feel like they’ve contributed to the story of Anvil.”
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