There is a scene in "Riding in Vans with Boys" where Billy Joe from Green Day persuades one of the guitarists from Kut U Up to be branded with a pool bridge. The poor sap receives 2nd degree burns on his tail because he either a) Could not say no to Billy Joe from Green Day, or B) Was too intoxicated to process what getting "branded" actually constituted. Despite which one it was, they both sum up what you're in for when you play this DVD that took place during 2002's monster "Pop Disaster" tour.

The Rockumentary, of sorts, is about a little known band called Kut U Up and how they were asked to play one of the biggest tours of 2002. Here's the catch: they cannot play the main stage and instead are forced to set up outside before the show has started and basically perform anywhere that has at least a few power sockets to support their amps, to anyone that is coincidentally passing by and will give it a listen. It follows the boys for two months of alcohol, drugs, food fights, and actual fights. There is some rock involved, but at it's peak you find yourself back in a scene where someone is drunk and causing some sort of mayhem, or talking about being gay. Seriously.

I liked this DVD. It was a gift, and I was aware I was getting it way before Christmas. However I was not aware what exactly it was about. I assumed it would be a documentary about the tour, how it came to be, told through headliners Blink 182, Green Day, and Jimmy Eat World, and in a sense, it is. However the main topic of conversation is this band given the opportunity of a lifetime, and how they handle it.

Kut U Up isn't a horrible band, in fact, some people might even like them. They are described as acid rock, but they reminded me of At the Drive-In with immature lyrics. There are 4 members and they all seem to love to talk about being gay, which turns into the same joke being told 26 times throughout the movie. It just gets old. They fight, like all bands do, and they make up. But most of all, they know how to party.

The DVD reveals what it's like backstage on a tour this huge in sort of an MTV's "Real World"-esque type of format. So if you get a kick out of watching Billy Joe swinging from lights in his dressing room, Mike Dirnt pouring shots all around, and Mark and Tom rubbing food over their bodies, and I know I was, you will definitely enjoy "Riding in Vans with Boys." At a time where bands seem to all sound the same while coming out of the woodwork, all pursuing that one big goal of getting signed and "making it", it's pretty interesting to see how a band of nobodies react to suddenly morphing into a band of semi-nobodies.