Brisbane's Crowbar has landed the Australian premiere screening of the eagerly awaited documentary about seminal US punk outfit Jawbreaker, Don't Break Down.
The venue will hold the screening on Thursday 2 November from 8pm, and we're not kidding around when we say tickets are likely to evaporate pretty quickly for this event.
Don't Break Down has been in the making since 2007, when filmmakers Keith Schieron and Tim Irwin convinced the band's members to meet for the first time since their break-up 11 years earlier. The pair were still shooting new footage for the documentary at least until 2011, and it finally saw light of day in August this year with screenings in San Francisco and New York.
It features interviews with several renowned punk and wider music figures, including Billy Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters, ex-No Use For A Name), Steve Albini, Jessica Hopper, Graham Elliot, Josh Caterer (The Smoking Popes) and more.
The New York trio are regarded as key influencers in the late-'90s punk and emo movements. Their roots were firmly planted in the raucous, raw, heartfelt scenes of the time; they toured with Nirvana and were contemporaries of Green Day. Their third album, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1994), routinely appears on lists of essential listens in the punk and pop-punk canons, while their fourth full-length (and major label debut) Dear You (1995) has outrun its early negative reception — largely a result of its higher production values and cleaner vocals — to assume a similar position of reverence among their fan base.
The band's initial decade-long, but tumultuous, run somewhat infamously came to an ignominious end in 1996 as internal tensions came to a head following Dear You's then-critically unsuccessful launch and tour cycle. The band had briefly broken up once before, following the release of 1990's debut effort Unfun, but reconvened in San Francisco in 1991 before releasing their second album, Bivouac, the following year. However, their 1996 dissolution appeared to be the final nail in the coffin for the three-piece.
The members remained at a distance in the years that followed despite their posthumous increase in notoriety and fan interest — not least because of vocalist Blake Schwarzenbach's belief that he wasn't "physically capable" of performing the material — but finally reconvened earlier this month for a reunion show at Riot Fest in Chicago and, for the first time in more than 20 years, there are inklings that there may be a future for Jawbreaker after all. Either way, the film is sure to be a fascinating insight into one of the most revered cult bands of the late 20th century.
Tickets for Crowbar's screening will go on sale through Crowbar this coming Monday, 2 October, at midday.
Check out the trailer for Don't Break Down below.
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