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Another State of Mind is a documentary that follows two pioneering punk rock bands as they embark on their first cross-country tour. The documentary captures the hardships and the high points as Social Distortion and Youth Brigade load themselves onto an old school bus and make their way across the United States and Canada.

This documentary is great in parts and lacking in others. The real meat of this documentary is the footage of the bands making their way cross-country. Unfortunately, more than half of this documentary is dedicated to the early punk rock community and some of the characters that populated the punk rock landscape in 1982. Many of the people that the documentarians focus on are vapid and bland. It’s as if most of the people that went to the punk rock shows were fashion victims and spent most of their time justifying their look, rather than talking about what punk actually was. Don’t get me wrong; there are some good punk rock philosophers in here, but the majority of the people just seem empty and stupid, from the French-Canadian girl who tells how she stays at peoples houses until they want sex to the girl from Washington D.C. that grows a uni-brow and cuts herself, we see a good reason why the punk movement was commercialized and downplayed. The fans of the music are clearly the reason to blame for today’s punk that is all bark and no bite. The original punks were movers and shakers that could do it themselves and had something to say.

Nowhere is this idea more clear than in the footage of the bands. Youth Brigade was clearly a band that had some purpose and a reason for its punk music. They wanted to make a social change; they wanted to elicit some sort of positive response to the punk movement. Social Distortion, in particular lead singer Mike Ness, comes off as a good time fun band that really has nothing to say. They are punk by association, and even though their music sounds better than Youth Brigade, they are lacking heart. As Social Distortion withers under the pressure of a low-budget road trip fraught with hardship, Youth Brigade manages to stick it out until the end because they had heart and they had a message.

All of that aside, if you’re just a fan of punk music and its history, you won’t find a more compelling document or record of the early punk rock community. The interactions between the bands are interesting and almost tragic to watch as they devolve from a group of happy comrades into a bickering pack of dogs. The scenes with Mike Ness are by far the most interesting to watch. He is truly a deep individual that seems to hide behind make-up and beer.

As a fan of punk rock music and its true roots beginnings, this DVD is one of the prizes of my collection and it’s just fun to watch. Some of the musical cuts on this DVD are dirty and grimy, the way that I like it. The live performances are sick and at times pathetic, as there are only a few people at the shows.

Final Synopsis: This is a great documentary for any punk rock fans, but there is a very limited audience for this documentary. If you’re a DIY band, then you should check this out. This should be required viewing for any aspiring musicians that want to try and make it on their own. Some of the extraneous segments that deal with punk rock fans are painful to watch as the people are simply boring and uninteresting and have nothing to say.

Points Lost: -1 for the poor editing of the documentary, it’s very choppy, -1 for the poor audio, it is a documentary and some of the speech is drowned out by background noise, -1 for the boring punk rock fans talking about nothing and being boring while doing it, I’m pretty sure that the filmmakers put some of these girls on camera just so they could get in their pants

Burning Question: Where is all the footage of Mike Ness after he drank a bunch of beer?

Another State of Mind
7/10

Tags: 1984, documentary, latest movie review, punk rock, social distortion, youth of today