Heavy Metal Parking Lot

For seventeen rather blissful, nostalgic minutes, directors Jeff Krulik and John Heyn take you back to a scene that may be familiar.  Or as alien as anything can be.  If you seek out 1986's short film HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT, you are one of two types:

1. A (former?) metalhead looking to relive those hazy memories of being shitfaced before a concert.

2.  Someone with an anthropological interest in the time period and culture.

Here, Judas Priest (opening act: Dokken) are about to play the Capital Centre in Landover, MD.  We hang out with the concertgoers in the parking lot.  They swill beer and Jack Daniels.  Some are smoking, but I'm guessing it wasn't marijuana as we see a few cops making the rounds.  Many of the interviewees are wasted, and admit to it, gleefully.  All are pumped to see Rob Halford and the band burn it up.  They wear heavy metal T-shirts and denounce punk rock and Madonna ("She's a dick!).

Many viewers will laugh, often at the subjects.  How they look, what they say.  The guys and gals look like what they used to call wasteoids.  By some standards, losers, the fringe of society.  No Izods or polo shirts to be found, though I wish the directors had interviewed someone who didn't fit so neatly into the metal fan stereotype.    There are a few black guys. 

Are Krulik and Heyn just making fun? Mocking? Aw, I think they're also saluting.  Can you have it both ways?  Either way, this is lightning in a small bottle.  Like someone's VHS-C home movie, with slightly better production values.

I was a fan of this genre of music, and was 17 at the time of filming, but was never allowed to attend concerts during this period (especially of this type).  I made up for it later, but watching HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT made me feel a bit envious that I didn't get this experience while I was in high school.  I feel a bit cheated.  I also wonder how many of these kids grew into square adults with good jobs, catching this on Amazon or Tubi and chuckling.  Maybe shaking their heads.  But also probably streaming the Judas Priest Pandora channel in their cars.