”Attack of Life – The Bang Tango Movie”
“Bang Tango were the beginning of a trend that never happened.” – Howard Benson
That quote pretty much sums up the career of Bang Tango in a nutshell. This documentary is all encompassing and covers the band from start to finish very well.
Dee Snider narrates the beginning of the film and from there you discover how the band formed with Mark Knight being the primary force behind everything.
Howard Benson gave alot of insight into the recording of “Psycho Cafe” and he says for the record that the band was solid with good music BUT Leste was hard to work with because he wasn’t really a singer. In Bensons words, “Leste was more of a crooner like Sinatra than a rock singer.”
Knight admits that he wasn’t sold on Leste as a frontman until the “Someone Like You Video” came out because that video made Leste look like a star. Leste comes off like an ass throughout most of this movie and there are various moments in the film where a former member of Bang Tango will tell a story and then Leste will then tell “his” side of the story. Leste comes off as shady and not trustworthy for 99% of this film and Knight refers to Leste as “Shady” when it comes to how he conducts his business.
There’s a funny story about how Randy Jackson from American Idol was actually the bands A&R guy just before they broke up but later in the film Joe disputes said story.
Kyle talks a bit about his heroin use, his horrendous car accident which almost killed him, and he states that him and Joe should have never used the “Bang Tango” name once the original members left.
Less Than Jake actually took Bang Tango on tour several years back and Grossi tells the story of how he force fed an unknown band, Falloutboy, Jack Daniel’s direct from the bottle….who would ever think Less Than Jake, Falloutboy & Bang Tango would tour together?!
The closing scene of the movie shows Bang Tango 2014. There’s a clip with Joe smoking a pipe and bitching that “If Mark Knight would have returned my calls he would be on this bus and touring with Bang Tango!” The next clip shows Bang Tango rockin’ out on a festival stage….when the camera flips around you see that the entire concert pavilion has maybe 7 people watching Bang Tango play.
The test screening will be in Chicago, April 27th at Redmond’s 5730 S Archer Ave, Chicago, IL 60638. Doors open at 5pm and the movie will be shown at 8pm. Bang Tango will be at the screening along with a few suprises. The film will also appear in select film festivals. I give director Drew Fortier credit for investing 4 years of his life on a movie that tells the complete story of Bang Tango.
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