Opening a '90s rock time capsule

Tamra Davis takes us on a nostalgic tour in 'The Best Summer.'

- BY MARK OLSEN

THURSTON Moore, left, and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth perform on tour. This is part of the 90 minutes of DYI footage in the documentary "The Best Summer."

TAMRA DAVIS

There are many different approaches to making a tour film that captures the life of musicians on the road. Perhaps you focus on the highs of performance or the boredom of traveling, the anonymous backstage rooms and endless planes, buses and hotel rooms. But what if you made all of that seem really fun?

Directed by Tamra Davis, “The Best Summer,” which premiered Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, is rooted in a box of videotapes that the filmmaker found early last year while evacuating from the Palisades fires near her longtime family home in Malibu. Though they are now separated, Davis still shares the compound with Michael Diamond, better known as Mike D of the group Beastie Boys. On those tapes was footage Davis shot in late 1995 and early 1996 as the band toured through Australia and Asia, sharing bills with the likes of Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Beck, Rancid, the Amps and Bikini Kill.

“I just always had a camera in my hands,” Davis, 64, said in an interview conducted last week. “I identify as a filmmaker. This is normal for me to have a camera in my hand. People don’t think twice about it. It’s so unobtrusive.”

A few days before Davis would drive to Park City, Utah, with her friend, neighbor and co-producer Shelby Meade, the two were sitting on the backyard patio of Davis’ Malibu home (it survived the fires just fine) as a couple of dogs ran around the yard. When she spots a hawk flying overhead, Davis calls for one of her two sons to be sure to round up the few chickens roaming around.

“The Best Summer” brings a blast of 90s nostalgia to the festival. Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon attended the documentary’s screening as well.