The Gits

When I was still in high school, a bunch of friends and I piled into a car for a short road trip from Cincinnati, OH to Antioch College in nearby Yellow Springs, OH. There I saw a band that blew me away. That band was called ‘The Gits’.

It’s hard for people to understand today just how vibrant the music scene was between the mid 80s to the early 90s. A lot of music today sounds so stale by comparison. Those of us in Generation X have to be the first generation to not only rock harder than our parents but ALSO rock harder than our kids. And even at a time when so many good bands were coming out, The Gits stood out.

When Gits lead singer Mia Zapata was found brutally raped and murdered on a desolate Seattle street in 1993 it didn’t just end that band, it ended an entire music scene.

The first half of the movie is a rockumentary and a pretty damn good one too. It instantly transported me back to the days of drunken parties with bands playing in basements and backyards that was the era of DIY music making. Chronicling a band from it’s inception to it’s zenith. Even though most of the best band footage is culled from the grunge expose 'Hype!', it's great seeing it again 15 years later.

And right when you hit the meteoric midpoint of the film, the revelation of Mia’s murder (even when you know it’s coming) hits you like a sucker punch to the gut. The second half of the film unravels like a true crime murder mystery. Will Mia’s killer ever be found?

But the film has an outlook that was very in keeping with Zapata’s life and music – never afraid to look at the dark side of things without getting overly depressing or morose. It celebrates the exuberance and wonder of the artists and that special time now two decades behind us that seems like it was only yesterday.