YouTube Jukebox – Tour Videos

Is there much better, in the minds of fans and unknowing distant observers, than the life of touring bands? The girls, the booze, the adoring fans: living one long party where it’s always your birthday. And the music. Of course. Always the music.

Bands will always say they love touring. And you would imagine that to be true. Performing what you have created for people who are fanatical about your work must be a great experience.

But touring brings its own pressures. Bands split, musicians go off the rails with drugs and alcohol, the tedium and tiring nature of constant travelling wears down even the most hardy and enthusiastic of performers. And that was just the good old days. Now, the need to perform repetitive and inconsequential media events tests a bands ability to give a serious answer or to even give any answer at all (see Sigur Ros conduct what must surely be in the top five of the worst music interviews ever to have had the misfortune of happening to an unsuspecting music journalist and to the listening public).

So which is more accurate, living the dream or the nightmare? Those of us not blessed with musical talent will never find out. Thankfully, bands throughout the history of popular music have given an insight into the life of a rocker through the ‘rockumentary’. There are uncountable numbers of full length films, some absolute masterpieces, which detail life on the road, but the little cousin, the tour video is the pure distilled form. Months of touring packed into three minutes for you to view from the comfort of your own home, Youtube Jukebox brings you some of the best examples of the genre.

Japandroids

 

First out of the gates is a video which celebrates the music. Japandroids have a reputation for being a joyous live experience and their video accompaniment to the song ‘The House That Heaven Built’ certainly does nothing to attempt to dispel this. This is good ol’ rock n’ roll, just two boys rocking up in a van, setting up their gear and rocking out. The black and white shooting style harkens back to older days, just as the band seem to. A simple set up of one guitarist and one drummer, playing in small-ish venues to small-ish but fantastically enthusiastic crowds whose enthusiasm is matched by the band members who then do their own roadie work before moving on to the next show. The image is of having an uncomplicated good time both on the stage and off it, whether that be necking Gentleman Jack and roasting chickens or skeet-shooting Molotov cocktails thrown by your demon-like sound man. This is truly a celebration of the touring life, though one as experienced by a band closer to the bar-room than the arena.

Justice

From the first shot, as a jet flies over a brilliantly clear and bright blue sky, this video sets out firmly on the party side of the tour life. Justice, a French electronic duo of considerable popularity in the house music scene, are shown enjoying the fruits of their successes. They play to arenas of euphoric crowds, stay in the finest of hotels and party with only the pert-est of scantily clad women. Throughout the video it’s unclear how far they are lampooning their status or how much they are celebrating it, their touring life is rock and roll almost to cliché even down to the them being arrested for assaulting a fan. The pair come across as being far too cool, fans look overawed to even be able to touch them and the shot of Xavier de Rosnay planking looks as contrived and stupid as all shots of planking do, and also aware of just how cool they are.

Frightened Rabbit

It is quite possibly unfair to criticise Justice for appearing to be living like rock and roll stars when that is actually what they are, perhaps they can no more help living it large than a jelly can help fitting the mould. But it does come across slightly badly when compared to a viewpoint of a smaller band on tour, such as Frightened Rabbit. Though a name in their chosen field, playing indie-pop folk-rock is not generally the launchpad to international stardom and their commercial success and recognition outside of knowledgeable muso’s has been modest and the tour video that accompanies ‘Dead Now’ is similarly self-effacing. There are shots of fans enjoying show in intimate venues, which are often sold out, but the tone of the video is of the members wandering around America as tourists unbelieving that they have been allowed to play outside of Glasgow. There are numerous shots of US cityscapes, often shot from below from the viewpoint of a tour bus or a wide-eyed sightseer and the overall feeling is one of pleasure at just being there. Frightened Rabbit have become a, albeit it moderately, successful band but they still give off the impression of being five Scottish teenagers living a moment they think can’t last.

The Kills

The least rockumentary of the videos presented here, and the most rockudrama. Although to describe the action, duo play live on stage interspersed with shots of them travelling to or resting between their next performances, would suggest no difference from any other video on this list there is a definite staged style. All the shots of lead singer Alison Mossheart and guitarist Jamie Hince offstage are shot in a despairing blue tint and include the band members. And no one else. In hotel bars, on foreign streets, in aeroplanes and even on the set of a talk show, they are alone. But even together, they are apart as they sleep across from each other in tiny bunks on their tour bus or in single beds in their hotel room. A duo, apart from everyone else, but also apart from each other. This video is rockudrama in that all the others appear natural, as though a band member or a roadie has turned on a camera every so often and just observed what is occurring. In contrast, The Kills video cannot be anything other than a well planned and choreographed performance. But even for that, it is an inspired reflection of the nature of touring upon a pair of artists.

The Killers

While the offstage action is carefully choreographed in The Kills video, the planning for their similarly named peers The Killers comes in the performance. They put on quite a show, as the phrase goes, with fireworks and confetti accompanying the crescendo of their big hits. Even those who are not adoring fans of the band would find it hard not to enjoy the wholehearted effort that goes into their arena gigs. Which makes it odd that from their most recent album they chose ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ to soundtrack a touring video. Though diehard fans see the song as the natural sequel, or possibly counterpoint, to their breakthrough track ‘Mr Brightside’, it lacks any of the energy and innovation of the original. This is reflected in the video, which shows the band performing at half speed and makes them look sluggish, which in no way reflects how they actually approach playing live. There are few scenes offstage and so to show the band, who clearly love what they do, in such a passion-less style is to misrepresent the commitment they give to each show. A rare case of a touring video tones down a band.

Queens Of The Stone Age

There could be no toning down of QOTSA. If the Japandroids video showed a small indie-rock band rocking out, the video to First it Giveth shows how the pure rockers do it, balls out. Literally. The video is a myriad of quick cuts which emphasise the energy of the band, but no better summary can be given than the shots of then-bassist Nick Oliveri obliterating his guitar with great prejudice and then hurling it into the vast maul of the crowd all whilst covered only by his many tattoos.

The National

Rounding out the list is the alternate version of ‘Terrible Love’ by alternative music poster-band The National. This is possibly the most comprehensive of the videos as it covers so much of the touring life of a band, particularly the media events that bands undertake. The shot of Matt Berninger and Scott Devendorf riding an escalator up into darkness is both elegant and possibly quite symbolic of the themes most often undertaken by the band. They are undoubtedly an intellectual act, best visualised in the video by the sharp suited Bereninger turning glasses in mouth away from a panorama of a mountain range, and their social conscience is shown in their rallying for the 2010 midterm elections. The segments which show their actual performances show that they have a physical as well as cerebral side, particularly lead singer Matt Berninger’s tortured movements show the intensity they put into their much-loved shows. Behind the scenes there is a real community feel to the packing dressing rooms, unsurprising perhaps in a band of five members, of which four are brothers and two twins at that, and a genuine humour and friendliness to the backstage hijinks. When bands form and dream of what their future tours might be like, this video might not be far away from what they imagine.