You may already be familiar with the Give ‘Em The Boot ‘brand’ – formerly appearing as a series of compilation discs paying homage to various punk acts at a low, low price. After notable success with the former, and a few years down the track, Tim Armstrong (Rancid frontman and Hellcat Records co-founder) has jumped into the director’s chair and lovingly spliced together a punk doco of sorts featuring several Hellcat headlining bands.
Since his announcement of the plan to put the DVD together three years ago, there’s no doubt many of the insanely loyal disciples of Rancid have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on a few precious moments of handheld footage. All of the film, incidentally, was shot over the past five years during various Rancid and Hellcat Record bands’ tours.
And overall, it’s really quite a nice chunk of viewing – even if you’re not a rabid fan of every band on the bill. Obviously, Rancid hold the reigns as far as footage goes (most of the other headline tour bands receive one snippet of live footage, while Rancid dominate with nine or ten clips plus a pseudo-commentary from Armstrong). Generally though, it’s an eye opening peek into the impact many of the Hellcat bands have had overseas, and a testament to the inclusive nature of the top-level punk, rockabilly, psychobilly bands.
Though planted squarely in the spotlight, Rancid are depicted as likeable oddballs in the midst of a seemingly uninitiated swarm of worldwide admiration. Much of the footage of them touring documents their apparently humble responses to countless leather-jacketed and mohawked young fans virtually bowing at their feet in every corner of the world. Rancid clearly aren’t above some hero worship of their own however – during an a capella version of No Fun with Iggy Pop, it’s obvious from the band’s tentative pauses that the punk veteran is still holds the position of ringleader. Later, Armstrong teams up with AFI’s Davey Havok for a genuine, if directionless, duet of the Operation Ivy track Knowledge. But the pinnacle of the DVD’s tribute flavour is reached during a surprisingly touching ode to Joe Strummer in which a mural is painted in his honour. Yes, it’s kind of typically American-corny, but the segment really touches on the hugely widespread influence the late Strummer had on all aspects of the punk scene.
The live performances of Rancid are peppered with clips from Nekromantix (Gargoyles Over Copenhagen), Transplants (One Seventeen Guitar Joe) and Dropkick Murphys (Good Rats), as well as Rancid side project Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards (Skunx). Tiger Army’s performance of Never Die is one of the better clips – not only is the camera work above par in comparison to most economy-packaged punk docos – the crowd energy of the gig is perfectly captured. The Horrorpops’ Julia is a great perve-fest but the dubbing is absolutely terrible, and just before frontwoman Patricia begins to speak, the clip is cut. Similarly, all of the other live performances are your standard meat and potatoes track performance and not much else. The colouring between the lines is all taken care of by the Rancid crew.
When you get down to the nuts and bolts of Give ‘Em the Boot, though, it’s not about having the most technically and performance-adept collages of band antics. It’s about recapturing the maniacal energy of these bands on tour. Of course, this raw energy is what becomes the essence of the disk, and despite some clunky editing and cringe-worthy moments of bands’ generous heapings of self-appreciation, it’s totally engaging to watch.
