It arrived on YouTube about a week ago, and BraveWords just dropped the news (thanks, dudes). I went and got myself excited, because even though I reviewed Seeing Eye Dog a year ago, I don’t recall seeing a proper official video until now. Well watch “So Long” now, so the rest of this post makes sense to you.
I dunno, it doesn’t strike me. It’s just a live performance run through iMovie to give it a slight comic book effect and the lyrics occasionally float out of Page’s mouth in the exact same way every time—maybe the color changes, so there’s that. But after watching, the first thing I thought of was the vid… nay, it’s a fucking movie released by The Damned Things in December of last year. Maybe they had more cash, maybe their timing was better, maybe both. But watch this thing—linear storyline, clever use of the comic style, goofy comedy that totally works, good camerawork, and Brian-motherfuckingshitgoddamnawesomefuntime-Posehn.
I’m not saying every video has to be like this, but when we’ve viewed stuff in this vein, expectations rise. The first few seconds of “So Long” got me in the mindset of another “We’ve Got a Situation Here”, but really let me down. Plus there’s this whole “scorned lover” vibe that runs through it, and maybe they could have played that out instead. What I did like seeing played out was Page’s scorching solo, which are always welcome. Anyway, live is where to watch Helmet, so scope tour dates here.
~MetalMattLongo
