Paying Homage to the Metal Gods

Decades before Borat had rubes making perfectly good asses out of themselves, John Heyn and Jeff Krulik introduced the world to the denizens of a Maryland arena parking lot in their short film, Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Scene: It's dusk on the last day of May, 1986, just before a Judas Priest concert, and the teengenerates swig from cans of Bud and lounge on their bombed-out hot-rods. They tell ugly truths about youth and hope, about the empty promise of turning sixteen. Thank God that truth is beauty, as all these dudes and dudettes jabber about are "jumping the bones" of Rob Halford and how punk rock (one can only assume they mean MTV fare like the Thompson Twins) blows. It's friggin' hilarious. Screenings are rare, so don't cock this up, hesher. Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Amusement Park, the epically bad sci-fi action movie about the superhero rock stars, starts the night off at 7 p.m. at Webster University's Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314-968-7487); Heavy Metal Parking Lot is the perfect digestif. Tickets for this full-on-rawk double bill are $5 to $6.
Fri., April 6