Fans of the Chicago Cubs and the rock band Pearl Jam were in for a special treat when the band performed a two concert stand at Wrigley Field last summer. There was no indication that there would be anything related to the event that would follow. Filmmaker Danny Clinch turned the show into something that would rock your socks off and here’s what he did.
“Let’s Play Two”
Clinch combined the two concerts into one for a new documentary that he’s created. In fact, the soundtrack was used for the Chicago Cubs as they put an end to their World Series drought of 108 years. It is as though the curse on the team had been lifted. What makes this even more special is that Eddie Vedder, the front man for the band has been a lifelong fan of the cubs.
The playlist
Clinch set cameras to capture twelve live Pearl Jam songs which were performed at the August 20th and August 22nd concerts held in 2016. Of these, three notable songs were “Inside Job,” “Jeremy” and “Last Exit.” The song “Alive” was particularly useful to drive home the aspect of the Cubs return to the top of the game and to promote the message that they were back in the game and moving ahead.
The documentary
Clinch reported that the documentary is a combination of rock and roll and baseball. He was charting both the concert and the game at the time. It occurred to him that since they were at Wrigley Field filming the concert and the cubs were on a roll, that there could be a cool collaboration between the two events. Clinch asked the Cubs general manager, Theo Epstein if it would be okay to come back and film the game. He agreed and it was on. Clinch also admits that it was hard to put the documentary together in a meaningful way, but with the inspiration to put the mutual devotion between the band members and the Cubs team, it worked out great.
Prior experience
This was not Clinch’s first gig. He’d filmed other documentaries and he also had established a relationship with Pearl Jam some years back. If he hadn’t had these prior experiences and connections, it is doubtful that the “Let’s Play Two” film would have become a reality. The members of Pearl Jam are all guys who enjoy their privacy and they would not have been likely to consent to a documentary that included any kind of invasion into their personal lives. Clinch Knew this about them and he showed a lot of class in his approach to filming and in the presentation of the documentary. All concerned parties liked the idea that he proposed for the film, so it was a go. The documentary was more a filming of the show than it was of the individual members of the group and this placed it in a different arena that made the idea more palatable to the Pearl Jam crew. The infusion of the music choreographed the game seven remarkably well.
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