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February 10
Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis( Our Friends)
Directed by Colin Hanks Unrated at Press Time
Colin Hanks directs this documentary that follows American rock band Eagles of Death Metal as they recount their experiences before, during and after the tragic terrorist attack during their concert at Le Bataclan Theater in Paris on November 13, 2015 – a heinous act of violence that claimed 89 lives, including one of the band’ s crew members. Financed by Live Nation, this is the first film project from that company’ s Live Nation Productions film unit.
According to the official synopsis, the film spotlights the deep bond of friendship between co-founders Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme( Queens Of The Stone Age), as well as the intensely personal connection that EODM have always had with their devoted fans. That relationship, coupled with a profound sense of responsibility to help the Bataclan survivors cope with their physical and emotional wounds, inspired the
band to return to Paris: first to perform with U2 at a rescheduled concert three weeks after the attacks, and later to finish the ill-fated Paris show for their fans- many of whom survived the Bataclan massacre. Hanks has been friends with Hughes and Homme( who was not at the Bataclan that night) for over 10 years and wanted to do something to help the band and their fans heal.“ It’ s about that first step in trying to put life back together,” said Hanks in a November interview with Deadline. If you can’ t catch this in limited release at a theater near you. It also premieres February 13 on HBO.
L toR: Jesse Hughes, Josh Homme and Colin Hanks
February 16
The Great Wall
Directed by Yimou Zhang Rated PG-13
The first English-language production for Zhang Yimou( Hero, House of Flying Daggers) tells the very complicated story of European mercenaries( Matt Damon, Pedro Pascale) searching for black powder that are captured and imprisoned within the Great Wall of China. They meet others who have been imprisoned far longer( Willem Dafoe) and
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there we moved on working with him on numerous things, not just DevilDriver records but also a lot of the one-off stuff that we did like the Iron Maiden cover. Working with him this time around we got to experience different emotions from each other. And it was definitely interesting for sure.
IE: On Trust No One, Dez Fafara DevilDriver sounds like DevilDriver. Did you keep things organic or did you want to experiment with different elements? Dez Fafara: It’ s kind of weird in DevilDriver. We’ ve got seven records, but every one of those records are so different from one another. For us, we don’ t stay true to a formula, but we do what we’ re feeling. As long as it’ s aggressive, it’ s got groove, hooks and it’ s hitting hard, that’ s what we go for. This record was all about keeping it heavy and not going the route that a lot of bands are going right now as far as trying to get radio air play. We wanted to do what felt natural. It’ s the highest-charting record we’ ve had. And that’ s a pretty interesting thing to say after seven records you charted the highest you did after changing two members. So something is working incredibly correct within DevilDriver at the moment.
IE: There’ s some great guitar solos throughout the album. Mike and Neal really let loose on this one. Dez Fafara: Neal’ s been playing guitar since he was four years old. He’ s one of the most accomplished songwriters I’ ve come across. Not only that, but we hung out for two or three years before he joined the band and a lot of people don’ t know this but I had a side project with Neal that we were working on under cover. So just that open candle, we slotted him into DevilDriver and he was happy. And Mike( Spreitzer), that guy is incredible. And his sense comes from a real dark atmospheric feel. Some of the best solos I’ ve ever heard from these guys are on this record for sure.
IE: Any news on Coal Chamber? Dez Fafara: No, no news. We got together and we did a record and it did well for us for being gone 13 years. We did a tour that was basically sold out all around the United States, and all the shows in Europe were sold out. But there’ s nothing on the table as of now. The inner workings of that band is very particular and we’ re dealing with it one thing at a time. That band doesn’ t work like normal things. So we’ ll see.
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38 illinoisentertainer. com february 2017