Dave Grohl directs his first film behind a mixing board he once played in front of, tracing the rise and fall of Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. The room was unglamorous, the gear outdated, but its Neve console captured Fleetwood Mac's self-titled breakthrough, Tom Petty's early records, Rick Springfield's hits, and Nirvana's Nevermind, recorded there because it was cheap and nobody else wanted the booking. Grohl interviews Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Tom Petty, Rick Springfield, and studio owner Rick Springfield-era engineers about why a shabby building in a strip-mall suburb kept producing landmark albums while pristine studios down the street did not. When digital recording emptied the place out and it finally closed, Grohl bought the Neve board itself and hauled it to his own studio, then invited Nine Inch Nails, Paul McCartney, and other musicians in to record new songs on it. The back half becomes a working session, watching a piece of obsolete hardware still doing what made it valuable in the first place.