Festival Express - A must-see DVD!!

I was lucky enough to get invited to a screening of a film documentary that is coming out this summer. I wanted to pass on the info because it blew my twisted little mind!

In 1970, a concert tour featuring top acts crossed Canada by train, the acts were The Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, Ian & Sylvia, Mashmakan (featuring future Little Feat Bassist Kenny Gradney) and many others. The promoters put these performers on a train, complete with a car just for music-making, and filmed the whole thing.

The Dead had just put out Workingman's Dead, so we get to see footage of them in their acoustic phase, with the drummers using brushes, and Pigpen (!) blowing blues harp in the period just before Keith and Donna joined.

The Band were on a tear and could hardly have had a moment when they were hotter. The other performances are great, but the real star is Janis. I haven't had cold-chills in a long time like the ones I got from the first five notes of her opening number, Cry Baby. Another goosebump moment is the one where, after finishing an acoustic jam on the train with Rick Danko, Janis, Jerry and Bob Weir, Jerry takes Janis's hand and kisses it.

It's absolutely amazing that this film sat for thirty years without even being developed because the tour was such a financial disaster that no one wanted to revisit it. Too bad because, for my money, it's a better film than Woodstock, Monterey Pop, and all the other well-known concert films.

Anyway, enough gushing, I'm not promoting anything. I'm just lucky to have been able to see this amazing concert film, The Festival Express.

 

I saw the Express in Toronto. My best friend and I drove up from St Louis, stayed in one of the university high-rise dorms, and even saw the Dead play a free concert in Coronation Park for all the folks who were protesting the high price of tickets, which of course, back then, was something ridiculously low (probably 15 or 20 dollars for 2 days.)

So, of course, I have been waiting for the film - and hopefully the DVD - for quite some time.


See The Band Site for details
http://theband.hiof.no/films/festival_express.html

 

Is this going to be a theatrical release, or direct to DVD this summer. When is the DVD due?

 

Ah, even better. The official site is up now.
http://www.festivalexpress.com/main.html

 

Mike, I suspect a limited theatrical release, and assume a DVD, but I'm not aware of any announcements yet.

 

The impression I got was that it was straight to DVD. Early Summer.

 

I can't wait!

 

Oh yeah, I forgot. The Dead song, "Might As Well," was about this tour.