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SXSW live: ‘Lemmy’ rocks the Paramount
Motorhead frontman Lemmy arrives Monday at the Paramount. (Photo: Chris Garcia)
“How exciting is THIS?” asked Janet Pierson, SXSW Film producer, as she introduced the much-anticipated world premiere of the rock doc “Lemmy” on Monday night at the Paramount. The crowd, as it would a lot, roared.
From the black-garbed throngs waiting outside to see Lemmy and his Motorhead bandmates arrive at the theater to the actual movie and the post-show Q-and-A, this event was a prolonged rock ‘n’ roll fangasm. Adding to the rock-concert aura was a schwag table in the lobby offering “Lemmy” movie posters ($10) and an array of black Motorhead t-shirts ($35).
It was a packed theater of salivating devotees. Directors Wes Orshoski and Greg Olliver joined Pierson on stage, and one of the burly men boomed into the mike: “Who wants some rock ‘n’ roll! Lemmy’s in the house!!” Crowd roars. Hands making the devil sign rocket to the roof.
Fun as it is, the movie is unapologetic hagiography, too long at 123 minutes and fashioned for the die-hardest fans who don’t mind riffling through the Motorhead singer-bassist’s vast collection of antique war weapons, watching him hang out on an old German tank just for fun, or hearing (incessantly) what an unimpeachable, Olympian deity he is from ground-level fans and sycophantic musicians (James Hetfield, Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, Slash, Joan Jett and, from a more sober peer perspective, Ozzy, Alice Cooper and others).
To be fair, Lemmy cuts an impressive, even intimidating, figure, and, full disclosure, I’ve been a fan of him and Motorhead for almost 30 years. An authentic rocker who began in ‘60s British band The Rockin’ Vickers, worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and fronted influential space-rock group Hawkwind before founding seminal speed-metal outfit Motorhead, Lemmy has never wavered or compromised from a bedrock integrity. Times and tastes have changed. He hasn’t.
A speed freak, chain-smoker and functioning alcoholic, he’s a survivor, stomping forth in his self-designed cowboy boots to his own thundering beat. As someone in the film notes, if a nuclear bomb drops, only Lemmy and cockroaches will remain.
Lemmy, who looks part-biker, part-pirate and all-outlaw, lives in a small, shabby apartment complex in Los Angeles. His homely pad is a mountain-scape of gold records, action figures, memorabilia, weapons, posters, trash and, disconcertingly, walls of Nazi regalia, including swastika banners. (He’s asked if he’s a Nazi. His denial is too simple-minded to be taken seriously. He doesn’t seem to get it, and the filmmakers and Monday’s viewers seemed to give him a pass, because, you know, he’s Lemmy. It’s bothersome.)
Lemmy, visibly indifferent to all the attention lavished upon him in the movie and at the Paramount, says he lives in the tiny apartment because the rent is fixed at $900 and is located one block from the Sunset Strip, where his second home, the legendary Rainbow room, resides. There, he will sit for hours, alone, playing a video game at the bar and drinking rounds and rounds of Jack and Cokes.
There’s plenty of energetic concert footage in the movie: Lemmy playing with Motorhead, Lemmy with Metallica, Lemmy with The Damned and Lemmy with his rockabilly pals in The Head Cat. But after all the excitement, an almost elegiac portrait of a solitary, aging man emerges. Lemmy lives alone. He’s never been married. And he erects ramparts around himself to keep people at a safe distance. He declares he has no regrets, life’s too short for rubbish reflection. But he doesn’t seem especially happy. (Then again, who really is?)
The official “Lemmy” tour bus, outside the Paramount.
During the Q-and-A, Lemmy, in trademark cowboy hat and black skinny jeans, indulged the audience with directors Orshoski and Olliver, and was eventually joined by Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee.
Someone asked Lemmy what it was like to have cameras following him around for three years “I thought it was ridiculous,” he rasped. “But I think it turned out pretty well. What about you?” (The house exploded.)
Asked who he’d want to play him in a movie, Lemmy croaked, “Helen Mirren.”
Motorhead plays tonight at Stubb’s and Wednesday night at the Austin Music Hall.
“Lemmy” screens again at 9:15 p.m. Friday at the Paramount. Details and trailer HERE
Lemmy, the man, will be interviewed on a SXSW Music panel at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABC. Details HERE.
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