Film

All in Washington: A Concert for COVID-19 Relief

Name: All in Washington: A Concert for COVID-19 Relief
Genre: Music
Released: 2020
Cast: Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Matt Cameron

Musical

A 2020 concert film capturing Pearl Jam and fellow artists performing to raise relief funds during the pandemic's early chaos. It's a document of a specific moment—musicians doing what they do best when the world seemed to be stopping. Warm, communal, and genuinely moving without pretense. For anyone who loves live music or needed reminding that artists showed up when it mattered.

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Woodstock1970

The foundational concert documentary. Three days of music history, counterculture, and genuine collective experience. If you want to understand what live music events can mean culturally, start here.

But Nearly four hours long, the pacing is deliberate, and some of the performances haven't aged as well as the myth around them. Occasionally meandering.

The Last Waltz1978

Martin Scorsese directing The Band's final concert, intercut with rehearsal footage and interviews. A masterclass in how to film music as cinema, not just documentation. Every frame matters.

But It's more a Scorsese film about myth-making than a pure concert document. Some find it overwrought or self-conscious compared to the raw energy of the performance itself.

Stop Making Sense1984

Jonathan Demme's Talking Heads concert film that redefined what a concert movie could be. Visually inventive, architecturally perfect, and genuinely joyful. Pure filmmaking with pure music.

But If you don't connect with Talking Heads or post-punk art rock, the conceptual framework might feel more important than the songs. Very of its era.

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The wildcard

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Anvil! The Story of Anvil2008

Both are about musicians showing up for something larger than themselves—one for community relief, one for a lifelong dream. Both capture artists who believe in the power of their work regardless of external validation.

Documentary following a Canadian heavy metal band still pursuing their dream decades later, with live performances woven throughout. Funny, heartbreaking, and unexpectedly moving about persistence and friendship.

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Monterey Pop1968

D.A. Pennebaker capturing the festival that launched the Summer of Love. Hendrix's first American performance, Janis Joplin's breakout, The Who destroying their instruments. Electricity and chaos.

But The film stock and sound mix feel very 1968—sometimes murky, sometimes chaotic. You're watching history, not high fidelity. Requires patience.

Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii1972

Pink Floyd performing in an ancient Roman amphitheater with no audience but a camera crew. Hypnotic, strange, and utterly committed. A concert and a ritual simultaneously.

But Deliberately minimal and meditative. Long instrumental passages may feel static if you're after traditional rock energy and audience interaction.

Shine a Light2008

Martin Scorsese directing The Rolling Stones at their peak, filmed with multiple cameras and multiple eras of guest performers. Technically impressive and rooted in genuine affection for the band.

But Scorsese's stylistic flourishes sometimes overwhelm the performance. The intercut guest appearances, while fun, can feel disconnected from the main event.

A Band Called Death2013

Documentary about a Black proto-punk band from Detroit in the 1970s who were decades ahead of their time. Joyful, funky, and a genuine lost-history recovery. Also features their reunion performance.

But Hybrid doc-concert structure means it's not purely a live performance film. Some viewers find the biographical framing slows the musical momentum.

The Decline of Western Civilization1981

Penelope Spheeris capturing the L.A. punk scene through performance and interviews. Raw, unflinching, and authentically anarchic. No glamour, all edge.

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The Decline of Western Civilization poster

U2: Rattle and Hum1988

U2 at their Joshua Tree Stadium Tour peak, intercut with documentary footage. Epic in scale and ambition, capturing a band at maximum confidence and cultural moment.

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Hype!1996

Pearl Jam is central to this history, and All in Washington is them performing in their home state decades later. Hype! is the origin story; the concert is what comes after you've lived it.

Cameron Crowe's documentary about the Seattle music scene that launched Nirvana and grunge, featuring Pearl Jam extensively and captured in the moment before it all became commodity. Specific, textured, and full of archive footage.

But It's a 1996 document of 1980s-early-90s Seattle, so it's caught in its own era's aesthetic and attitudes. Some of it hasn't aged smoothly.