Have you ever spent hours outside a concert, lining up to see your favourite band? If so, then you might just recognise the sort of people featured in the cult classic, Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
On paper, it’s such a ridiculous concept to make a short film about, but on May 31st, 1986, documentary filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn decided to hit up a Judas Priest concert in Landover, Maryland to chat to some of the audience members.
If you were to ask anyone who’s ever been to a concert, they’ll likely tell you that the sort of conversation that features beforehand can range from banal and inane, to intriguing and immersive.
Undoubtedly, a shared love of music and an opportunity to spend time together can make anyone start to converse, but usually, these conversations aren’t worth remembering more than 30 minutes later.
However, Heavy Metal Parking Lot proves that sometimes, you can encounter conversations that people still talk about more than 30 years later.
Check out Heavy Metal Parking Lot:
May 31st of 1986 was a Saturday night, and served as a perfect opportunity for music-lovers to head out and have some fun. In this case, a horde of heavy metal fans hit up Maryland’s Capital Centre for a double-header that featured English icons Judas Priest and US rockers Dokken.
Occurring as part of Judas Priest’s Fuel For Life tour, the show was a popular one, and drew in hundreds of like-minded individuals.
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Two of the individuals happened to be Jeff Krulik and John Heyn, who brought along with them a video camera and a microphone. The plan? To talk to these concertgoers and get a snapshot from the era that showcased the strange and irreverent subculture of concert tailgate parties from the time.
Speaking to NPR in 2016, Krulik explained that he and Heyn were noting but filmmakers looking for a story to document.
“I’d heard the radio ads, so we knew it was a metal show,” Kulik explained. “We kind of knew what we were getting into, or hoping to get into.”
“We didn’t have a clue about how to do this the right way. But I think for what it was, it was the right way,” he added.
Running for barely 17 minutes, Heavy Metal Parking Lot managed to capture some now-iconic footage, including a pair of metalheads singing to ‘Living After Midnight’, an fellow who wants to see all drugs legalised, a 20-year-old Dave Helvey staging a makeout session with his 13-year-old companion, and the ‘Zebraman’ who has to be seen to be believed.
Check out ‘Living After Midnight’ by Judas Priest:
Despite not exactly being released to widespread critical acclaim and red carpet premieres, Heavy Metal Parking Lot quickly became an underground classic. In fact, it is frequently cited as one of the most beloved pieces of tour-bus material for grunge icons Nirvana, with the group watching it on repeat in the early ’90s.
“For anyone who wants to understand what a heavy metal crowd looked like when heavy metal was at its peak popularity in the 1980s, this is a perfect document of that point in musical history,” explained Laura Schnitker, an ethnomusicologist from the University of Maryland, explained to NPR. “It’s just a great snapshot of fandom.”
One of the concertgoers featured in the documentary, Zev Zalman “Z.Z.” Ludwick, described the atmosphere that these pre-show rituals brought about.
“We would all get the word out to our friends: ‘Hey, meet us before the concert,’ you know? We’d go there a couple of hours beforehand,” Ludwick, who repairs instruments for a living, explained.
“There’s a whole feeling when you get around people for that same thing in common — all about the music, and just about having fun.”
Check out Neil Diamond Parking Lot:
In the years since Heavy Metal Parking Lot, filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn didn’t end their documentation of gatherings there, going on to record interviews for Harry Potter Parking Lot (documenting a J.R. Rowling book signing in 1999), and Neil Diamond Parking Lot, which saw attendees of a Neil Diamond concert at the same venue as the original, ten years later.
In the early ’00s, the pair worked on an eight-part series which covered similar topics, and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original film, they released a ‘Where Are They Now’ documentary which saw them catch up with some of the most iconic interviewees of the original.
More than 30 years on since the original documentary was released, Heavy Metal Parking lot still stands tall as an incredible snapshot of musical fandom from the time.
Sure looking at it these days, everything seems a little too far in the past, with the ferocious metal bands of the era seeming tame in comparison to today’s envelope pushers. Even the crowd appears to be satirical to a degree, with their vernacular appearing trite and dated.
But for those that lived the era, this was far from fantasy, this was real life, and these were the people you rubbed shoulders with while trying to get a better view of your favourite band.
With a simple concept, some intriguing participants, and a status as an iconic piece of underground cinema, there has never been anything like Heavy Metal Parking Lot since, and likely, there never will be.
Check out Heavy Metal Parking Lot’s ‘Where Are They Now’ feature:
