During last summer's film festival, I ran into Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner of metal band Anvil downtown after they had just performed for a packed house at Lars Hockstad Auditorium. Though I missed the screening of "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" (Sacha Gervasi's documentary on the band) that preceded the concert, I'll never forget the band's show: thrashing, loud, and enthusiastically received by the mostly middle-aged, polite and decidedly non-metal crowd. The sight of '80s metal gods rocking out in my elementary school - and Michael Moore headbanging in the aisle - put a perma-grin on my face for the rest of the night.

Anvil Performing at Lars Hockstad Auditorium

But it was Lips and Robb themselves who left the biggest impression on me. Though every inch metal rockers in appearance, the frontmen - now middle-aged - were sweet, gracious and humble, still buzzing over the warm reception they had at the concert. "That was f*$&@#$ great, man," Lips enthused when I ran into him, rubbing his hands together. When I asked why the band is still playing together after all these years, chasing an elusive - and often embittering - dream of mega-success, Lips responded: "Because we are rockers, man. This is what we do. It's who we are. How do you stop being who you are?"

Why success has eluded a band as hard-working and talented as Anvil is the mystery at the center of Gervasi's movie, playing for a full theatrical run at the State this week. In the early '80s, Anvil shattered the rock scene with their groundbreaking heavy metal albums, paving the way for acts like Whitesnake, Anthrax and Metallica to come in. The leaders of those bands, all of whom broke through to superstardom, reflect on Anvil's influence in the movie's opening sequence.

"I remember thinking, 'They're going to turn the music world upside down,'" says Lars Ulrich of Metallica. Anthrax's Scott Ian was similarly mesmorized, recalling saying of the band: "If we can't be better than that, we should just go home." But it's Slash of Guns and Roses who finally - and chillingly - articulates what actually happened to Anvil: "As big as an influence as they had…everyone just ripped them off and left them for dead."

Robb & Lips of Anvil

That opening sequence - which interjects legendary rock musicians' memories of Anvil with concert footage of the band at the height of their popularity - dissolves into a heartbreaking present-day sequence in which Lips prepares for his day job delivering cafeteria meals to elementary schools. The cut from a 1984 Lips shredding on stage in a bondage harness before a crowd of thousands in Japan to today's Lips warming up the cafeteria meal delivery van is a deliberate visual transition on Gervasi's part. Within that edit lies the central cautionary message of the film: It's been a long, painful and ultimately disappointing road for these once former rock gods. The music industry, unforgiving as it can be, chewed and spit these men out before they even realized it was happening. And yet…

"Even though Anvil doesn't pay, it gives me the joy and happiness you need to get through life," Lips says to the camera at one point, genuine boyish enthusiasm on his face. "I mean, it couldn't be any worse. At least I can say that I did everything I possibly could [to get success]."

Robb echoes his bandmate's sentiments, stating: "Give me another stage and another party, and I'm happy." The band's families provide emotional (and sometimes financial) support for Anvil as they continue to chase success decades later - in spite of disastrous tours, a crippling lack of management and label support, and increasing unpaid debt. Watching the film, you sense the toll that years of working in the shadows, seeing their peers rise to the top of the charts while they struggle to put food on the table, has taken on these men…how the weight of missed opportunity bears down on them, still luring them with the possibility they might yet break through. The chance that they'll be able to silence once-and-for-all the critics, cynics and skeptics who doubted them along the way seems to drive Anvil ever forward in their pursuit of greatness. That, and an unabashed, undying love of rock & roll.

When you're playing before sold-out arenas, selling millions of albums and gracing the cover of rock magazines, it can become difficult over time to distinguish whether it's fame, money or the love of music that's ultimately driving the band. When you're playing for 20+ years to crowds of less than 100 in venues that could easily hold 10,000, that question has a tendency to melt away. For Anvil, it's always been - and always will be - about the music. As Lips said that warm festival night last summer, watching the crowds stream by him in downtown Traverse City: "This is what we do. It's who we are. How do you stop being who you are?"

"Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is playing daily now through Thursday at the State Theatre. For ticket information and showtimes, click here.