Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek DVD

reviewed by dave heaton

"It's not that I don't think it could happen anywhere, it just has so much to do with a group of friends who support each other's music a lot and are big fans of each other's music." - Tim Kasher

What's amazing about the tale of Saddle Creek Records and its bands, as told in the documentary Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek, is how familiar the story seems. Well, at least the first part, before Bright Eyes was on the Billboard charts, the Faint was opening for No Doubt, and Saddle Creek was opening a European office.

The first part of the story, which the film mostly focuses on, is basically a tale of friends in Anytown USA (not to disparage Omaha) who are all into similar music, who hang out and play songs and eventually record them. It's a tale of bands like Slowdown Virginia and Commander Venus and Lullaby for the Working Class. A tale of playing in basements and bedrooms and at house parties.

At first this resembles so many scenes and groups of musicians that I knew during that time period or can imagine - and yes there is something specificly mid-to-late '90s about the happenings depicted in the film, though I'm not sure if I can articulate it properly. In fact, in the early days of Saddle Creek there's nothing about the scene that would mark any of the musicians as 'the next big thing'. That's what's so amazing, the way that all of these musicians stuck together and grew together; the way the label-founders learned better how to run a business, too, and quite significantly how Mike Mogis improved his capabilities as a producer. The film depicts it all as trial and error, as a learning process. It's a remarkable story, one that in a weird way feels like validation for anyone out there playing music for the love of it, without worrying about who will hear it.

Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek is very much a documentary, a record of what happened. It consists mostly of interviews with the key individuals, plus live footage from back in the day. There's nothing flashy about it, it doesn't aspire to be a hip, cool film. It just tells one small story in a loving way. It doesn't shy away from some of the hardships encountered when a label grows as quickly as Saddle Creek did, and it doesn't attempt to frame it as a 'big rock and roll story'. The emphasis is so firmly on the roots, and on the most central bands to the label's success (Bright Eyes, the Faint, Cursive) that it very lightly touches on some of other great musicians on the label. But that's inevitable; as much as I'd love to see more rare Son, Ambulance performances (there is one in the ample bonus scenes) or hear more on how Californians Rilo Kiley became part of the Omaha crowd, this story isn't about one specific band and its music. It's about friendship and creativity, about people having fun creating music and then stumbling into acclaim. It's about musicians reaching success without a money machine behind them, about great songs finding a wider audience through happenstance and perserverance.