The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame Annex Soho

I guess Rock is really dead. Maybe it died with Jack Black's "School of Rock" movie where Rock 'n Roll got reduced to a historical recreation club for kids. Rock seems to have splintered down an endless series of niche markets. To mark the death of Rock and to water down what Rock is, we have the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, where you can see old guitars, shoes, and scraps paper like you are touring the ancient Egyptian wing of your local museum. And is worth it? Is it worth the $26 dollar price of admission in these harsh times? Well, frankly NO.

You can see more interesting Rock n' Roll memorabilia at your local Hard Rock Cafe, where $26 at least gets you a burger, fries, soda, and salad.

The annex seems like it is based on the Holocaust museum. You walk into a hard room with your other guest, like you do in the Holocaust museum to simulate what it would be like to be sent to a concentration camp, except this time you where snippet's of music, then you see a film.

OK, I have to admit I liked the film. The sound was great and it hard to want to sing along. After a pretty cool film you are given a headset. There are images of bands, like the Beatles and U2 that light up and the head set plays their most popular song. Like, "I can't get no satisfaction" for the Rolling Stones. No history. They make sure you don't learn anything. Then you walk and look really non-interesting items that the rock stars just gave away. There are some hard written song lyrics, but it is unclear when these were written. The assumption is that they are written at the creation of the song, but it never says that and they look too neat to be made in the throes of creation.

There big exhibit was of the "The Clash". I mean I like a some of their songs but not enough to look at 12 pairs of there boots.

At other times, as awesome as Rap is, is it really Rock n' Roll?

Isn't Rock n' Roll suppose to be anti-establishment? This place thinks a nose piercing and a tattoo is really sticking it to the man.

The whole thing could have been a Morgan Stanley corporate event.

Shine a light (2008)

Stones
This is the IMAX Rolling Stones concert film directed by Martin Scorsese. Should this film have been? No! I’ll tell you why.

The Stones are too old and ugly to look at them for two hours so close and so large that you can see the dust collecting on their copious wrinkles magnified across a huge screen in a crisp digital image.

Another thing, it is shot at the Beacon theatre in New York City. The Beacon is beautiful but small theatre. The seats are practically stacked right on top of each other. Since it is so tight, the cameras don’t have much flexibility, and they certainly cannot to take advantage of grandeur of the IMAX format.

The film starts of with some drama about Scorsese not having the set list, it needlessly takes up 20 minutes of dead time.

Mick Jagger is the only member of the Rolling Stone with any charisma, and he is barely in it outside of singing.

Now let’s get to the actual performance. The Stones will always be the Stones, but now they are a band held together by a daily schedule of medicine to keep them going. Although the Stones are a five piece band, a whole other band supports them and almost carries the entire rhythm. The geezers do their thing and Mick Jagger has more energy than he should at that age.

They are a flickering flame. Sometimes they sound good, often they are flat like a stale soda. It’s really sad, but it’s been this way for a while. I remember going to the Stones concert in the 90’s with my sister, and it was the same way. You wished that they didn’t play an old favorite just so that you didn’t hear them murder it, but as my grandmother used to say “You murder it, but you can’t kill it” – so all of the Stones standard were performed and pleased the crowd.

They brought in some fresh blood to add plasma to the supply. Jack White of the White Stripes and Christina Aquilera join them, and old blues man Buddy Guy. Jack White looks like the happiest guy in the room to be playing with Mick and company. Maybe he understands that his moderately successful band has just been knighted by a band with a stature only lower to the Beatles with a singer as Rock ’n Roll as Elvis Presley.

Scorsese does mix clips of them current Stones with vintage clips of them, which reminds the audience that these guys were once young.

Although, they are in a more nature environment of a theater, which where they got there start, like the Beatles. A better IMAX concert film is U23D whose stadium presence fits the format comfortably. Shine a light is not worth the money.