acid train

Admittedly, I'm not of a concert video buff. I don't enjoy even my favorite musicians' big screen efforts all that much. However, I do love me a documentary, so I was able to see Festival Express through those eyes. We went to see the early screening of it last night, along with a bunch of aging hippies (dancing, yes dancing in the front of the theatre during one Dead song).

Festival Express is the story of a train that took fourteen bands through Canada during the summer of 1970. They played at 3 or 4 venues (4, I think) but the real fun was on the train itself. Imagine the Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, the Band and a bunch of others drinking* their way from Toronto to Vancouver, jamming all night, stopping only to play a show or pick up more booze (thanks, liquor store in Saskatoon!). The film featured a few performances at each stop as well as present day interviews of promoters, performers and audience members.

It was fun and a bit surreal seeing the movie with the crowd that was there...people were talking about the performers like they were old pals and some of the audience members are or were friends with the bands. It was like watching old footage of MLK with my mom who was around and active during that time period.

The only thing they could've cut to make the film better was the performance by ShaNaNa, but it was at least short. So that's a thumbs up from me, especially since you can drink at the Angelika.
*and so on