THERE’S A SEMI-CLASSIC Monty Python sketch about the Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things, a group of stuffy, tuxedo-clad gents who sit around all day, making sure things are placed on top of other things. When members report that lots of things have been put on top of other things, they cheer, applaud and bang on the table. When they notice the opposite, they get upset, make disapproving faces and yell “shame!”
CINDY MOORHEAD
As the editor of a guitar magazine, I sometimes feel as though I’m a member of a similar society, only ours would be called the Society for Making Sure Guitars Are Everywhere. If I were in such a society, I’d probably be stomping madly on the table after watching Bill & Ted Face the Music, the long-awaited Bill & Ted threequel starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves (That’s right, I put Alex’s name first!). There haven’t been this many guitars — in this case, Gibsons, Epiphones and Kramers — and amps in a major Hollywood movie since School of Rock, not to mention excellent tunes by Mastodon, Lamb of God and Weezer, bodacious behind-the-scenes air-shredding by Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi, a quick cameo by Dave Grohl (spoiler alert!) and an outstanding portrayal of London-era Jimi Hendrix by an upsidedown-Strat-wielding DazMann Still. How’s the actual movie? Pretty good, actually. I watched the first two to prepare for the third, and I wasn’t expecting much after seeing the ultra-heinous Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey for the first time since it came out in ’91 (Wow, that was bad — despite its triumphant Steve Vai shredding and well-placed Kiss tune). But it turns out Face the Music is fun, fast paced and full of familiar faces (By the way, how the hell is Ted’s 79-year-old father still an active-duty, bulletproof-vest-wearing cop?) and some new ones, including the perfectly cast Brigette Lundy-Paine as Ted/Keanu’s doppelganger daughter.