It Might Get Loud

Rockguitar gods were a product of the 1960s and Jimmy Page, who went on to reignover much of the ‘70s with Led Zeppelin, was an original member of thepantheon. By the time the Edge gained acclaim, punk rock had already questionedthe efficacy of guitar gods. But if the ‘80s had a presiding spirit of guitargrandeur, the Edge defined it with U2. When Jack White came up in therap-ridden ‘90s, even a guitar heromuch less a godseemed anachronistic. Butwith the White Stripes and other groups, White has kept the restless ghost ofrock'n'roll rattling at the edges of pop culture.

Whatif you brought these three together for a little conversation and a jamsession? That was the idea behind ItMight Get Loud, the fascinating documentary by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), but the scope ofthe concept broadened to embrace nothing less than the search for creativityand the meaning of artistic expression. Aside from the wide generational span,these three definitely do not look like they belong in the same band. With hislong coat and ruffled sleeves, Page plays the Edwardian dandy; his watch cappulled down over his hard features, the Edge resembles an enforcer from thedocks; with his rumpled hat, vest and necktie, White suggests a Depression eravagabond. What they share is a love of music, specifically the electric guitar,and a sense that music saved them from a life without meaning, giving them thepossibility to connect and share with the wider world.

Theydon't actually play much together in ItMight GetLoud, and the three-waydiscussions are widely spaced within an intelligently conceived zigzag betweentheir separate histories, crisscrossing between their home environments,recollections of times past and archival scenes of bygone days. Most revealingis footage of Page as a wee lad in a skiffle band and an early, snarky new waveincarnation of U2.

Theydon't share the same roots. White, the youngest, is most committed to oldentimes with the terrifying, dark force he finds in Mississippi Delta blues ofthe 1930s. Page, an omnivore, also loves the bluesand a hundred other things.The Edge has no discernable musical roots, but built U2's vaulted cathedral ofsound from a painterly sensibility, picking emotional colors from the vastpalette of the electric guitar and an endless set of effects. In contrast,White disdains advances in technology, “the destroyer of emotion and truth.”

Punk,which rebelled against Led Zeppelin, was a spark for both the Edge and White.But that cultural struggle seems as distant now as the Crimean War. Despitetheir disparate past, the three guitarists prove to be amiable companions,trading riffs and reflections and finding at least one common point oforiginthe will to escape from bleak places at bleak times into a world ofcommunity and creative expression.

It Might Get Loud opens Friday, Oct. 9  at the Oriental Theatre.