Pavement’s Gary Young gets his cinematic due at last Credit: Courtesy photo
Weird elders are an important, if rarely discussed, part of the indie band ecosystem. That gray-haired lady at the show wearing a 40-year-old Sonic Youth T-shirt, that dude with the cane whose band toured with Butthole Surfers — they’re valuable sources of history and, often, support.

So it was with “unhinged alcoholic weirdo” Gary Young. After a youth spent in punk bands, Young opened a studio in Stockton, California, where indie-rock princelings Pavement made their first recordings, free of charge. Young played drums on those records; his substance-fueled antics and extra decades made him the odd man out among the other languid, literary, ice-cool members.

That tension may have made their songs more interesting — it definitely made the shows more interesting — but Young was booted from the band before they broke big. Jed Rosenberg’s film explores the history of a weird elder who catalyzed a cultural moment, from how his recordings of Pavement created their early lo-fi aesthetic to his eventual “crash landing” — using puppets to retell the tough moments.

As this documentary is almost impossible to stream, you’ve got a non-negotiable date on Monday.

9:30 p.m. Monday, June 17, Enzian Theater, $12.50.

Credit: image courtesy Enzian Theater

Enzian Theater

1300 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland, FL

407-629-0054

website


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This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2024.

Jessica Bryce Young has been working with Orlando Weekly since 2003, serving as copy editor, dining editor and arts editor before becoming editor in chief in 2016.