That it wowed audiences used to the largely second rate sound of Christian rock is no surprise. Signing with a label known for its Christian pop punk, Tooth & Nail, further relegated it to the genre — their records could only be found in Christian book stores — even as their lyrical subject matter tended to flirt with non-Biblical concepts.
The group’s apparent highpoint was headlining the big stage of the Cornerstone Festival, a Christian rock gathering in Bushnell, Ill., after playing a tent the year before. It was after this triumph that the band’s van flipped on a median on the way back in 1995, seriously injuring a few members, causing them to postpone touring for a year.
Although the film treats the accident like it was the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash, they all survive, though it makes them reconsider the waning support from their label. “They never sold that much,” the Tooth & Nail owner says.
They soldier on, and there are lots of testimonials generally from other Georgia bands, about how well they were doing.
Their breakup at the end of the 20th century is glossed over; they’d reconvene five years later to make a new record. The film ends with them reuniting from different parts of the country to record an album they eventually released on Bandcamp; the band has a couple of gigs on the books this fall.
In their beards and priestly vestments, the band members become more sage about what they accomplished and what they still hope to do. It’s less the grace of God that guides their direction than the trajectory of most bands, hit by maturity, marriage, responsibility and family, for whom the notion of driving around to dank nightclubs with their buddies seems less and less appealing in middle-age.
They don’t necessarily say any of this, but you can sense it. Hinton’s approach is that of a promotional video, where nothing is negative, and every move is up and up.
Any success of “Parallel Love” comes with not the uniqueness of the particular Luxury story, but how they represent every band that came close to breakthrough success, enough to allow them to record and play before live audiences As priests, they are all schooled in the world of metaphor and can articulate the obvious similarities between captivating an audience as frontman, and fronting a congregation as priest. Each has their traditions, rituals and proper attire.
Hinton (who is also editor as well as writer and director) does a good job at cutting the live concert footage to make it look exciting; it would have been nice, though, to hear at least one Luxury song uninterrupted all the way through to get some kind of notion of what they could accomplish.
One thing that may result of the solid documentary, though, in addition to nostalgia for those who were there, is sparking modest new interest in the band, with filmgoers looking up their old material, checking out their latest, or noting when they come to town..
To that, the priests in the band will truly say amen.
“Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury” is available on demand on Amazon Prime, Google Play, VuDu, YouTube and Apple TV.