Stuff You Gotta Watch: Desert Age
Biblically, the desert is a place to get lost or seek truth. The Palm Springs rock scene of the '80s and '90s birthed bands doing both. Desert Age shows the influence of the desert on this scene’s imagination and sound. In the film, bands lose themselves in jams as long as the sky is wide. They find their musical identities at chaotic generator parties in the pitch-black desert. They are Darwin’s finches, combining genres and evolving outside industry influence.
Desert Age is packed with exemplary punk doc archetypes: the charisma machine (Sean Wheeler), the scene glue (Mario “Boomer” Lalli), the inexplicable success (Kyuss), the beloved venue (an empty pool at a defunct nudist colony), and the Dave Grohl (Dave Grohl). Directors Jason Georgiades and Jason Pine explore the scene’s birth and influence. They focus less on its decline, which involved arson that caused a 1200-acre brush fire. Desert Age is a story of loneliness and boredom. It's a story about a bunch of townie skateboarders making some of the most unique American rock music.
Review by Dave Maher. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.