Thursday, March 26, 2009

Video: The Band - "Slippin and a Slidin'"

This is a great performance of the rollicking"Slippin and a-Slidin" by The Band from the Festival Express movie (recorded 1970). Read more below.









The film Festival Express was released in theaters in 2003. Compiled from footage found in the Canadian archives that had been lost for 30+ years, the movie chronicles a trans-Canadian rock festival that occurred in the summer of 1970 which travelled from location to location by a private train (very cool!). The bands (The Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy and some other strange acts (Sha Na Na?)) apparently partied and jammed hard on the the train - and that part of the film is cool (especially when they show the train make a stop at a railside liquor store and then proceed to buy the place out - the ultimate beer run). Overall, the tour was kind of a disaster with riots and the promoter losing big money at each show, but the movie is definitely cool. The music isn't really as great as I'd expected, but The Band's segments are the highlights hands-down. I like The Last Waltz but I like the footage in this film more - it's much more real and not as contrived and pristine as The Last Waltz.

note: Man, Janis Joplin was ugly.

Pretty fuckin kick-ass train, huh?

this chick's boobs were not in the movie. Dammit!


The Band in there heyday in their upstate New York stompin grounds, which is actually not all that far from Tallboy headquarters


Philly's Dr. Dog in 2008, obviously trying way too hard to be like The Band in 1970

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