It’s not yet eight in the morning, but a demolition crew is already at work tearing down the frame house at 1304 W. Ardmore. Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, carrying an umbrella to keep off the December drizzle, watches a backhoe tear out a chunk; bits of debris flutter slowly to the ground amid a billowing cloud of dust. As the 95-year-old building is reduced to rubble, filmmaker Christoph Green directs a three-person camera crew recording the destruction.
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Canty says the project aims to present live band footage without the cliches of a typical rock video or concert film. “What we’re trying to get away from is the idea that music always has to be presented on giant stages with a bunch of lights and tons of people,” he says. “We’re trying to put these bands in a context that actually focuses on the playing, on the songs. . . . That’s the backbone of this whole thing, to release us from the bullshit.”
Canty called Green, whom he’d met through his work composing scores and sound tracks for TV, advertising, and film. “The first thing he said to me was, ‘A friend is giving me a house, let’s have a happening,’” says Green.
This summer, with the D.C. project in the can, Canty and Green decided to expand “Burn to Shine” into a series. They’ve jointly founded a company called Trixie (trixiedvd.com) to release the DVDs, and in October Touch and Go agreed to distribute them.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Jim Saah.
