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Near the beginning of “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” Jerry Garcia is seen on archival footage talking about how great it would be if we could live in a world without the caste system of rock concert headliners. There would just be shows, without a “main act.” Though it’s a romantic notion that would probably never actually work in today’s rock culture (what would we do without the ability to debate how the opener was so much better than the headliner?), the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival has for the past decade now stood in support of this idea, of an artists’ commune that anybody can buy a ticket and show up to.

The documentary (cited as being directed by both Jonathan Caouette and “All Tomorrow’s People”) exists essentially to show how incredibly fun this is for fan and musician alike. The festival takes place at various “holiday camps,” abandoned seaside resort communities from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Over the opening credits, in one of the film’s most clever bits, Battles plays over footage of girls in knee skirts and guys in plaid doing the twist. The spirit has remained the same from then until 1999, when Belle & Sebastian put together the first ATP festival, and likewise from then until today.

More than anything, the film really drives the “unity for all!” spirit of the festival home by having much of the footage come from fans with videocameras. The visual quality is all over the place as the result of this, but there’s a certain charm to having the film stock change from one scene to the next. There’s a lot of Super-8 archived footage, but what’s interesting is that a lot of the newer footage also looks vintage. Whether intentional or poorly shot, it really resonates as far as establishing this festival as both a blast from the past and a turn towards the future.

Enough of this filmmaking talk, though. Because it’s primarily a concert film, a lot of bands are shown, even if few play an entire song from start to finish on camera. There’s something for everybody on any end of the indie spectrum, too; B&S are shown playing “The Boy With The Arab Strap” to an enraptured crowd at the very first ATP festival, and the years are covered right up to Gossip last year. One of the highlights is watching Nick Cave and the members of Grinderman make fun of Nick Cave before they take the stage to rip through “No Pussy Blues.”

This is also the film’s weak spot, as so many bands are crammed in that before you can really be awed by most of the performances, it’s onward and away to the next, or the next random festivalgoer opining about corporate rock music. However, to it’s great credit, at no point does the movie fall into the trap that too many concert films do, the one where the filmmakers fall so in love with the bands they’re filming that it’s just boring. No matter how you feel about “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” it’s definitely not boring. Plus, it’s a great primer: The lineup for the next ATP festival in September 2010 was just announced earlier this week. Iggy Pop will be there playing “Raw Power” in its entirety, man. 

Final Rating: 3/4 Stars