There aren’t many music documentaries that Chris Slusarenko hasn’t seen, but there’s only one he’s obsessed with.
That would be “Urgh! A Music War,” an obscure 1982 concert film featuring performances by more than two dozen punk, post-punk, and New Wave bands. The movie made an enormous impression on Slusarenko when he was a kid, and as an adult he’s become something of an evangelist for the film, hosting screenings across the country and creating a podcast, “A Very Opinionated Look At ‘Urgh! A Music War’.”
“It totally changed my life,” said Slusarenko, a Portland, Ore.-based musician who has played with Eyelids and Guided By Voices.
On Friday, Slusarenko and his podcast cohost, Chaki, will be at MassArt’s Tower Auditorium to screen “Urgh! A Music War” and have a conversation with drummer Hugo Burnham, whose famed post-punk band, Gang of Four, is among the 34 acts featured in the film.
“Urgh!” was filmed during a two-month period in 1980 at venues in Los Angeles, New York, England, and France. A double album of the live performances was issued a year later and the film was completed in 1982. But because “Urgh!” didn’t get a proper theatrical release, most people have only seen it, or portions of it, on “Night Flight” on cable television, on grainy VHS tapes, or online.
The movie is a remarkable early ’80s artifact, documenting bands — many you’ve heard of, some you haven’t — whose uncommon look and sound was infinitely cooler, or at least more intriguing, than most of the music on the radio then. (Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” was No. 1 for six weeks in 1982.) It includes performances by Devo, Dead Kennedys, the Police, Wall of Voodoo, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Steel Pulse, Oingo Boingo, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Go-Go’s.
“I mean, XTC is in the film, and there’s no other band like XTC. The Cramps are in the film, and there’s no one else like the Cramps. Gary Numan’s in it, and no one else is like Gary Numan,” Slusarenko said on a recent phone call. “I was a weird kid already, but to see Pere Ubu, Gang of Four, and the Au Pairs, I was, like, ‘What the hell?!’”
On their podcast, Slusarenko and Chaki explore the origins and influence of the movie and its music, often with people — Burnham, Lesley Woods of the Au Pairs, Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, and Steve Bartek of Oingo Boingo — whose bands perform in the movie. So far, Slusarenko and Chaki have done 57 episodes devoted to the movie. (The “Urgh!” podcast is a Patreon spinoff of Slusarenko’s other popular pod, “Revolutions Per Movie,” on which guests discuss their favorite music documentary, musical, or music-themed feature film.)
During a recent screening of “Urgh! A Music War” in San Francisco, a woman who has been friends with Slusarenko since they were in seventh grade together was in the audience. She told him she’s delighted that he hasn’t changed much since then.
“She said, ‘You’re still that 12- or 13-year-old kid wearing a Devo shirt who is obsessed with the Residents,’” Slusarenko recalled. “‘And now you’re standing on a stage and sharing all this wisdom.’”
But circumstances have changed, even if Slusarenko hasn’t.
“Watching this film as a kid was a total lifeline, but it was really lonely to watch it at home with no one to share it with,” he said. “It makes me so happy to see it with an audience, with people clapping and laughing. They find so much joy in it. It’s really kind of lovely.”
URGH! A MUSIC WAR
At Tower Auditorium, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Ave., Friday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m. Tickets: $20 and up. tickets.24hourmusic.com
Mark Shanahan can be reached at mark.shanahan@globe.com.