It’s a truism that most musicians, when agreeing to be filmed in live performance, hope for nothing more than to capture the electric you-are-there frisson generated from a concert. Yet anyone who’s listened to a recording or seen footage of a show they attended knows that’s an impossible ask—and the best concert films generally try to use the cinematic medium to their advantage, creating something different from but as vital as the difficult-to-replicate sensation of watching a great artist perform in person.
ULTRAPOP: Live At The Masonic Temple, the new concert-meets-arthouse-whatzit film from conceptual hardcore band The Armed (which begins digital screenings October 15), splits the difference. There’s a linear but elliptical narrative running through the hour-long movie—as intriguing, and ultimately elusive, as the band itself—but there’s also the musical performances themselves, committed to tape via intimate and audience-free sets. And these are so vivid, immediate, and invigoratingly shot that they come close to that ongoing dream of re-creating the intensity of seeing a great band up close and personal.