Soulwax: ‘Part Of The Weekend Never Dies’

Following the controversy of the band's ‘E Talking’ video, which depicted clubbers at Fabric as an A-Z of drug types, Soulwax’s new ‘Part Of The Weekend Never Dies’ DVD release takes a more subtle approach to capturing the decadence of a touring band.

Filmed by up and coming director Saam Farahmand, the film covers the band's 120 international dates over two years as they struggle to explain to journalists the diffence between Soulwax and their side project 2 Many DJs. The concept is simple: there is a punk band named Soulwax, who also operate as DJs playing other peoples tunes, and this DVD captures a night when they combine both.

Easy enough you’d think - however, during the road journal the question comes up more than once, and may be the biggest insight we receive from the brothers Dewaele. DJs aren’t renouned for personality, but little of the Belgian duos' onstage energy comes through in a film that may be a little too kitsch for its own good. From its Sesame Street-style opening to footage of hyped-up teens declaring their love for the band, the vibe is a little sycophantic. Interviews with fellow musicians and friends of the band include the well known faces of James Murphy, Nancy Whang, Tiga and Peaches, and give a flavour of what the band are trying to achieve and a few annecdotes that add some colour to proceedings.

Like any live DJ show, there are moments of self-indulgence, this time from Farahmand who halfway through decides to litter the film with cuts between venues. It seems a bit unneccessary for everyone apart from the few fans in attendance searching for themselves amongst the crowd.

From a more shallow perspective, who cares what they eat for breakfast or where they get their uniform DJ costume from anyway? The thing that counts is that the live footage is excellent, with a separate film featuring a full set list that cuts between each venue. All the energy and charisma that the band have been missing is present here and more than makes up for their minimal real life personas as they churn out tracks like 'Miserable Girl' with full electro-punk vibe.

Dressed for a day on centre court, they appear entirely in white, but the grime that eminates from each track muddies up the occasion appropriately. Blending in a few pop gems gets an excellent response as always, but the range of tracks shows how the band are more than just those guys that remixed Dolly Parton’s ‘Nine To Five’.

Casual fans will certainly be delighted with the amusing and nicely shot documentary that fails a little on content, and the hardcore will be more than happy with the outstanding live performance that might bring back a few memories for the tamer ravers.

Released on DVD on 8th September 2008 by PIAS.

Written by Carl Williams.