High Water Mark: The Rise and Fall of the Pants
Directed by: Bill Simmon
World premiere | USA | documentary | 60 mins
The Pants ruled the Burlington, Vermont, music scene in the 1990s, combining the lo-fi underground aesthetic of bands such as Guided By Voices and Pavement with songwriting chops reminiscent of the Pixies and Weezer’s River Cuomo. The Pants played “indie rock” before it had a name. They could tear the roof off with crunching post-punk suffused with jazzy chords and rhythms. They could just as easily leave ladies swooning and guys crying in their beers with their bittersweet ballads. Their singular sound garnered the attention of music labels as well as the enduring admiration of BTV contemporaries such as Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, James Kochalka Superstar and Trey Anastasio of Phish.
But as the ’90s came to a close, this buzz band from Burlington seemed to burn out as quickly as it had blown up, leaving many to wonder what had happened. In 2006, nearly a decade after calling it quits, the band reunited for one triumphant, sold-out show at the Higher Ground Ballroom, the city’s largest rock venue.
Now, almost exactly 10 years after that show and as the band members have moved on to new bands, new careers, families, etc; the songs of the Pants still live on through a dedicated network (cult?) of fans and artists inspired by a band that few outside of northern Vermont have still ever heard of.
High Water Mark: The Rise & Fall of the Pants explores the band’s lasting footprint on Burlington’s vibrant music scene and the intense, devoted fandom they’ve enjoyed. It chronicles their struggle to “make it” in the late 1990s, in the last days before the internet era would forever change the music industry. The film also asks hard questions about the personal toll of ambition and what can happen when a big fish tries to swim upstream to a larger pond. High Water Mark is a story that happened in Burlington. But it’s a tale that no doubt rings familiar in countless music scenes around the country.
Are the Pants “the best band you’ve never heard,” or one of thousands of talented acts that got caught up in the tumultuous shifting tides of the music biz? The answer might be both. Experience the story and music of the Pants, then, you decide.