The Magical Misery Tour

Imagine being stranded in a foreign country with no money, no maps, no itinerary and a guitar. Imagine being promised hotels, food, transportation and gigs months in advance as specified in a contract and instead being greeted with an old barn, no running water and buses without drivers.
Last Friday, October 3, I was invited to a private screening where I could peer through the gaze of 26 musicians who were thrown into that situation. Generation Tec is a rock-u-mentry still in progress and part of a trilogy of films documenting the travels, trials and tribulations of six bands promised premier treatment as part of the “EuroTour” advocating world peace, which were instead forced to build an entire United States tour on their own, over night.
The film was originally designed to document 14 bands invited from all over the world to play around the United States. However, after several bands were fired or quit, only six were left to salvage the tour. The bands came to America and met their tour promoter, Lou Ricca, who essentially left them with nothing but a tour “put together on wishes.” There were no hotels booked, no meals planned and no venue dates confirmed, just a rough tour route planned in the shape of a heart when drawn out like connect-the-dots on the map and a few hopeful show dates.
The film begins with a narrative delivered by Dionne Lennon, runner-up for the VH1 song of the year competition and winner of the American Idol Underground song-writing competition who had two songs, which placed in the top ten “Teenage Years” and “Last Day”. She speaks about her generation, “generation tech” and the disconnection between the youth culture, which comprises it and those who came before. She discusses the changing times and the fear that surrounds the American public today, citing examples of teens being prosecuted as terrorists for prank calls and using myspace.com inappropriately behind their parent’s backs.
However, Lennon also takes the opportunity to advocate positive uses for the Internet by introducing each of the bands, which participated in the tour and utilize myspace.com as a tool for sharing their music. The bands include: Exit Avenue from England, The Models of Sweden, Midterm Break of the UK, XMS 3 from Wales, Doana, originally from France and Lennon along with the Medicine Ball Caravan, representing the United States.
The tour and film begin at Yasgur’s Farm, the site of the original Woodstock music festival, for what was promised to be a major show on the tour. The 26 musicians instead found only an old barn with no running water, no bathrooms, no beds, no food, no equipment, no show and no air conditioning. From there, the “Magical Misery Tour” began.
Though celebrity appearances by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gwen Stefani, Neil Young, Tom Waits and others had been promised at each performance along with a variety of other amenities expected by musicians participating in a professionally booked tour, Ricca fell through with each of his guarantees. He forced the musicians to go days without food and running water and made members of the bands drive the vans from Yasgur’s Farm to New York City. However, upon arriving, Ricca abandoned the bands without a hotel in the middle of Manhattan, even though most of the musicians were under 21, some were under 18 and a 7-year-old and 5-month-old were traveling with the group.
“We started the tour with a full film crew,” explained actor, writer and director Victor Colicchio. “But once the tour fell apart, there was no way we could keep filming. That’s when Dionne took over.”
The entire film is from the personal perspective and camera of Dionne Lennon as she recorded the car rides, shows, pit stops, meetings and down time of the musicians as they continued their tour, planning shows, hotels and travel routes as they went, despite the obstacles.
Though the tour was downgraded to only two booked shows, thanks to Ricca, the musicians managed to work together and plan a tour spanning from New York City to Miami virtually overnight. Using their only available resources, the computer and cell phones, the musicians successfully booked the tour as they traveled and made stops at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Graceland during their travels.
“Originally, no one had plans to continue beyond the shows in Ohio because there was not enough money and nothing planned,” said Colicchio. “But, Dionne convinced them to stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that motivated everyone to stay on tour.”
After stopping in Cleveland, the group continued to Graceland, Nashville and eventually Florida, though the bands were originally reluctant to continue touring with so little resources.
“We were all out of money and on our way back to Pennsylvania when we noticed at a rest stop that Venice (a seven-year-old also present on the tour) and the drummer of Exit Avenue were dressed exactly the same,” said Colicchio. “It was right then that we all started laughing and realized we were a family and no one wanted to go home anymore. So, we turned right around and went down to Florida for the shows.”
However, upon the abrupt change of plans and calls back to venues to re-book the shows, the tour was met with even more obstacles as a major accident caused the highway to be shut down. It was only by luck that the group ran into a truck driver at a rest stop that offered an alternative route, which enabled the musicians to continue their journey.
“It was as if everything was stopping them from going, but it didn’t matter,” said Colicchio. “The bands didn’t even care about the money, they knew they had to play the shows for themselves and decided to make them free because they didn’t care if they were playing to five people or five hundred. They just wanted to play.”
It is this progression from strangers, to friends to family, which the film begins to capture. As the first of three in the series, Generation Tec successfully peaks the curiosity of viewers, making them anxious to see how the remainder of the tour develops.
“Because there are so many main characters, Generation Tec is necessary to emotionally set up the next two films and develop the setting,” said Colicchio. “The second film documents more of the tour and the third is about their ultimate success.”
Though Colicchio is more involved with the second two films, he left the filming and editing of Generation Tec in the hands of Dionne Lennon and Kutztown University undergraduate, Justin Tuerk.
“We used the green screen effect a lot in Generation Tec,” said Tuerk in a question and answer session after the film. “Rather than just have talking heads, we used the green screen to mix footage of the bands and the interviews we had with them to keep it more interesting.”
Tuerk was brought into the project as an assistant, but instantly fell in love with the idea of the film and took on full responsibility of the task. Though the production of the film was guided by Colicchio, the writer of Summer of Sam and actor in Inside Man and The Brave One, and it was produced by Jeri Carroll (Summer of Sam) and Dave Pederson (Supersize Me) each only provided guidance to the two young editors and allowed them full creativity.
“Considering their ages added together is still only 34, I’d say they’ve done a pretty good job,” said Colicchio with regard to Lennon and Tuerk’s work on the film.
Judging by the audience’s response, they agreed with Colicchio’s praise and many expressed excitement for the rest of the trilogy and interest in asking Lennon about her experiences. When asked if she would do it all again, despite the problems, Lennon earnestly responded, “I would definitely do it again, but only because of the people. I couldn’t see it all fall apart because of one person.” And she is glad she did not allow that to happen, “I still talk to every one of the bands to this day and it’s been a year since the tour.”
Though at times the tour seemed doomed for failure, these 26 musicians came together and were able to succeed despite all odds. It is amazing what is possible with a little help from your friends.

For more information check out: www.generationtecmovie.com