By the end of this DVD you cannot help but have fallen for the charms of Kut U Up. Sure, their music is pretty shite and all they do is smoke, drink and party (the music is definitely secondary), but their hi-jinx and subsequent disappointments really make for entertaining viewing. ‘Riding In Vans With Boys’ is the tour diary of the Pop Disaster Tour 2002, featuring Blink 182, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World and Kut U Up. Yeah, Kut U Up. Chances are you’ve never heard of them and this DVD will certainly be the highlight of their careers, but as people they will make you chuckle. Ever wondered what it would be like to get drunk with Blink and Green Day every night? Nows your chance to find out.
The DVD follows the adventures of Kut U Up in their tiny van as they criss-cross America. There’s live footage from Blink and Green Day, but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s anything but a documentary. But it’s a very good documentary nonetheless. When it starts out the band discuss who they have met – completely starstruck at meeting Billie Joe and Mike Dirnt – yet by the end Billie Joe is branding Kut U Up bassist Chris Cote’s ass with a flaming hot poker. It’s like watching your local pub band go on the biggest tour of their lives and watching them disintegrate. In Phoenix their PA blows up and they drink. And drink. And drink. There’s naked skateboarding and plenty of sick. It’s Jackass for the purile.
Highlights include Tom DeLonge getting re-married in Vegas with Kut U Up and Blink in tow, dressed as French men, complete with drawn on moustaches, and the drunken mess they end up in leads to in-fighting. Chris in a pet store in Alabama when he thinks he’s in Texas – then throws loads of crickets on a guy who’s asleep and Chris again at a gay bay in Alabama with ‘Cassidy’ are other classic moments. The japes and jokes are the best moments and the DVD is genuinely funny, even if some of the stuff is straight from an episode of Jackass. Seeing Kut U Up live it up on Tom’s tour bus is worth the price alone. “It’s amazing,” they say – more amazing to have a working TV in a spacious bus rather than a small tour van.
The whole DVD, for me, is topped off when Kut U Up‘s main prankster Chris fails to turn up to their biggest show. The band miss the gig – leading to massive in-fighting. Just when all of the jokes and japes get to their highest level, Kut U Up fuck up. It’s this side which turns the DVD and makes it extremely interesting. It shows the tour to not be all sweetness and light. The soundtrack is ace too, featuring the likes of The Movielife, Taking Back Sunday, Refused and Mae.
‘Riding In Vans With Boys’ is very funny and a must for fans of the bands featured. But on top of that, it’s like watching every unsigned band’s dream come true – getting to tour with some of the biggest bands around. You’ll laugh, you may even cry – but this is possibly one of the most enjoyable music DVDs I have ever seen. Well worth your pennies.
Paul