Backstage with Anvil

Poked my head backstage just before the Anvil show -- the Canadian metal band whose 30-year story of career frustration has been told in a documentary by director Sasha Gervasi that has been screening to shockingly emotional response.

"Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner, the long-suffering duo who have kept the Anvil flame alive since the early '70s despite decades of near-total obscurity, seemed almost lost in amazement at what they had been experiencing since attending the doc's festival screenings.

Reiner, sitting quietly on a folding chair in the dressing room, reflected that "it's been pretty surreal. I saw people moved by our lives."

Noting that the crowd of festivalgoers won over by their film includes few of their core head-banger constituency, Reiner said that Sundance was a strange place for the band to play, "but we'll do anything.  We have done weddings, bar mitzvahs, anything.  We can play here too."

Reiner attributes much of the emotions the film has garnered to people's reaction on seeing Kudlow's passionate devotion to the band and insistence that even after decades in the wilderness, their day will come. "They say, this man means what he is saying."

Kudlow, hyper-kinetic over the impending show, describes his Sundance experience as "a moment of pure bliss... It's the longevity and dedication of this band that these people are drawn to." However, after so great a trip after so many years, he says, "I wonder what the downside is going to be."

Whatever the downside is, it did not come last night. At the close of the band's set, which was cheered with wild enthusiasm throughout, Gervasi took the mic to announce: "There's some guy here who would like to play with the band," and summoned to the stage none other than Metal Deity, Mr. Slash himself.

-- Richard Rushfield