Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury is an engrossing documentary about fame, Christianity, and rock and roll. It gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a rock band navigating the Christian post-punk scene in 1990s Toccoa, Georgia. Since Luxury was not a cookie-cutter evangelical band, they struggled to control their image and break into the mainstream while being signed under the Christian label Tooth & Nail. Despite their spiritual ambivalence, three of its four main members went on to become Orthodox clergymen. How did they get there? How do they balance an equal devotion to music and spirituality? Parallel Love asks.
Director Matt Hinton, a later member of the band, sits down with the Luxury originals including Glenn Black on drums, Chris Foley on bass, and brothers Jamey and Lee Bozeman on guitar and vocals, respectively. All of the band members are very forthcoming in their talking head interviews; they frankly discuss their tumultuous journey reconciling their musical and personal identities. Black is the only one who does not become a priest. Family, friends, music critics, and others involved with the Christian music scene also offer their fascinating insight.
The conversations detail how Luxury felt trapped within an evangelical subculture that they did not fully align with. Tooth & Nail resented how their lyrics pushed religious boundaries and retaliated by failing to market their subsequent albums. Luxury struggled to find success outside the Christian music world. “It is easier to stay out [of the Christian subculture] than to get out,” says a musician friend. “They say the same thing about actresses: Don’t start with porn and then think you’re gonna become a real actress.”
Surprisingly, Luxury’s songs feature numerous queer-coded lyrics such as “I’ll touch him, I’ll be kind,” and “Never look down a boy’s shirt ‘cause nature will let you down.” During his interviews, the magnetic lead singer and writer Lee Bozeman conceals song’s inspirations but insists that they are not homoerotic. Lee’s vocals and dynamic stage presence are heralded by the interviewees, and in the archival clips, it is easy to see why.
A harrowing sequence details the catastrophic car accident during Luxury's first album tour that led members to a life of normalcy. After a show in Illinois, their tour bus crashed and rolled over them, breaking bones and putting the band members in critical condition. Their brush with death was a wake-up call that made them realize they no longer wanted music to be their primary vocation.
Hinton’s film mixes archival concert footage, home videos, personal photographs, and establishing shots to give a sense of Luxury’s unique world and create an intimate and exciting narrative for the viewer who has little to no knowledge about them. Luxury and its standing within the Christian rock scene is a very specific subject that many audience members (such as myself) may not be familiar with, but the emotions behind their quest for artistic truth are universal and can appeal to all viewers. Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury is an absorbing retrospective told with bracing honesty. It has a closeness to its subjects that tenderly honors their work and avoids hagiography.