Rating: NN
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This tour diary shot over the course of 2004 kicks off with disclaimers in caption form. According to filmmaker Justin Mitchell, Drive Well, Sleep Carefully isn’t the story of underground versus mainstream, nor is it the tale of big, bad majors versus indie underdogs. It’s just the humble chronicle of a band on the road. While that aw-shucks attitude is nice, 2004 just happened to be the year DCFC was name-checked all over The O.C., blew up huge and signed to Atlantic, so you’d expect a decent documentarian to delve deeper into the effects of all that on the fellas in the band, right? Not so much. Mitchell displays obvious reverence for the artists he profiles. His blurry Handicam aesthetic honours the moody dreaminess of DCFC’s tunes, the same way the saturated colours and bare-bones vibe of his Ted Leo doc paid homage to the New Jersey punk stalwart’s songs. Sadly, Mitchell’s a piss-poor interviewer, and his chats with the band consist mainly of Ben Gibbard noting the difference between vans and tour buses and the rest of the guys repeatedly talking about how they’re always on the road. There’s a teeny mention of their new label deal near the end, but that’s it. Even listening to studio nerd Chris Walla geek out about SuperAudio would’ve been more enlightening – or why not cut the interviews altogether?
