A tribute night to a fictional band? Sounds like more hipster antics, right? Not at all. The band in question is Hard Core Logo, in which case a tribute night is more like a celebration of the very spirit of Canada’s independent music scene — after all, Hard Core Logo are possibly the most archetypal punk outfit to never actually spit in the face of an unruly scuzz-bar audience.
So when online music website JUICEBOXdotcom’s Ashley Carter and Sam Sutherland came up with the idea of screening Hard Core Logo, Bruce McDonald’s 1996 cult classic mockumentary on Thursday, August 14 as a fundraiser for the reopened Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles) and its budding film school for kids, it only made sense to bring the dysfunctional Vancouver punk band back to life, sort of.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it (shame!), the film chronicles Hard Core Logo’s brief reunion for a dubious benefit concert and a cross-prairie tour where old wounds are opened up like ragged safety-pin piercings and grown men begin to realize that gobbing on each other just ain’t what it used to be.

McDonald himself has endorsed the event, lending the Revue his personal print of the film and agreeing to appear for a Q&A. Much to Sutherland and Carter’s surprise, convincing the director was a piece of cake. “He’d actually heard about it before we asked him,” says Carter. “We kind of lied our way into the press junket for Pontypool [McDonald’s new film, which screens at this year’s TIFF] so we could talk to him, and he was, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I heard about that, totally.’” While McDonald isn’t sure exactly how he found out, he was definitely delighted at the idea. Especially since such an event has never taken place.

This is an odd fact when you consider the small but righteous collection of tunes Vancouver punkers Swamp Baby and Hard Core Logo frontman Joe Dick (a.k.a. Headstones singer and Flashpoint actor Hugh Dillon) brought to the film. Created out of the lyrical sketches from Michael Turner’s 1996 novel, on which the film was based, songs like “Rock ‘n’ Roll is Fat and Ugly” and “Edmonton Block Heater” could almost pass for out-of-print SST singles. Consequently, the music’s authenticity is a huge part of the film’s (and the band’s) mythmaking mysteriousness.

Besides, Hard Core Logo has always occupied a strange space between fiction and reality. “I think we always liked the idea that people perceived this as a real documentary,” says McDonald. “And I’m sure there’re still people who believe that, in pockets, you know. But when it first came out I remember even journalists — I won’t name any names — but they were kind of floored when they realized after doing an interview, or after doing a review even, that this was not a documentary.”

Cinematic subterfuge aside, the ideological tensions and tumultuous relationship at the heart of Hard Core Logo have had a lasting impact. “It’s really very touching,” says McDonald. “You know every once in a while you do something that seems to, I don’t know, inspire people. And not just in reactive ways. People go out and it kind of gives them courage to play music or to make a film or put on a tribute night and bring people together. The fact that it inspires people into action is pretty remarkable.”

Understandably, the singers and secret guests who will be joining the Bovine’s Hardcore Karaoke band (featuring members of Maximum RNR, Dayglo Abortions and Dirty Chinese Thieves) have been jockeying for position on the handful of songs. Even McDonald hints at a possible impromptu performance, saying: “It’d be great to do a song, to learn some lyrics and be able to do ‘Son of a Bitch to the Core.’” Let’s hope it doesn’t degenerate into the kind of final gig that Hard Core Logo made infamous.

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