Picture My Face: The Story of Teenage Head - Canada's best "almost famous" band gets its closeup in the worst timeslot of the year
By Jim Slotek
Rating: B
It’s ironic that Picture My Face: The Story of Teenage Head is debuting on TVOntario on the night of the U.S. Presidential election. While the latter is hardly an act of God, it seems like yet another case of fate conspiring against the band’s close-up.
More’s the melancholy in this tale of an almost-famous band and the 40-years-later determination to play again.
Frankie Venom at Heat Wave.
Rock/punk fans of a certain age knew and loved Teenage Head, high school pals from Hamilton, who seemed poised to become, at the very least, Canada’s version of the Ramones. Their sound was unmistakable - Can-con hits like Picture My Face and Let’s Shake were as much rockabilly as punk - with a frontman, Frankie Venom, whose high energy informed their entire live experience.
That live experience included a set at the fabled 1980 New Wave “Heat Wave” concert (with marquee acts Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and The B-52's), the memorable “Last Pogo” concert at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern (which ended in a riot) and an infamous 1980 show at Ontario Place that also turned into a riot (less because of the band’s bad-assery than the fact that the show was oversold).
Other artists were already fans of Teenage Head, a record deal was lined up, as was U.S. exposure. Then a car accident left guitarist Gord Lewis with a broken neck and a year of intense physical therapy before he could walk again.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
That was a year a band on the verge of breaking big couldn’t afford, and the film’s contention is that the hiatus condemned Teenage Head to a lifetime of bar dates.
The film, directed by Douglas Arrowsmith (the Ron Sexsmith doc Love Shines), skims over a few things on the way to telling today’s story – including the period where guitarist/record producer David Bendeth replaced Lewis, or Venom’s attempts to carry on various side projects. In 2008, having returned to Teenage Head after a long time away, Venom was diagnosed with throat cancer and quickly succumbed.
Picture My Face: The Story of Teenage Head picks up in the present, where the band-members are leading their own lives back in Steeltown. Lewis, who may already be carrying the burden of guilt over the crash that wrecked the band, suffers severe depression since his best friend’s death, at one point requiring institutional care.
An ad hoc plan is hatched by the others, to put a version of the band back together for a mini-tour (including a date in the high school where they started), for the express purpose of giving their friend Lewis a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
Much of the narrative comes from bassist Steve Mahon, who has taken it upon himself to be the keeper of Teenage Head’s legacy, and from the sometimes confused Lewis himself.
Side comment comes from various corners, including The Tragically Hip’s Rob Baker, who talks at length about his paralyzing devastation after the death of his own frontman Gord Downie.
If Picture My Face: The Story of Teenage Head is reminiscent of anything, it may be Anvil!: The Story of Anvil, which revisits another almost-famous Canadian band decades later. That was a more redemptive story, with lighter moments and something more resembling a happy ending.
Still, if fans look past the effects of age on the faces, bodies and performances of these veteran road warriors, Picture My Face is a touching look back and a moving tale of lifelong friends still having each other’s back.
Picture My Face: The Story of Teenage Head. Directed by Douglas Arrowsmith. Starring Steve Mahon, Gord Lewis and Frankie Venom. Debuts Tuesday, November 3 at 9 p.m. ET on TVO and tvo.org