Festival Express Release available NOW!

JB Arnold · Post by **JB Arnold** » 19 Oct 2004 10:30 am

Is available for purhase on Amazon.com now, with a release date of 11/2.

Features the Dead, The Band, NRPS, Great Speckeled Bird (with Buddy Cage), Janis, Buddy Guy, and a host of others on a weeklong train trip across Canada to do concerts. Vintage 30 year old footage of some of the greatest acts of the time (or anytime for that matter). This has gotten rave reviews everywhere.

JB

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[This message was edited by JB Arnold on 19 October 2004 at 11:32 AM.]

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 19 Oct 2004 10:41 am

I just saw this flick at a local theater. Incredible movie. Much more entertaining than I even expected it to be. Check out the young Buddy Cage too. It'll tap you back in to a time when rock was at its most sincere and raw and powerful. When The Band kicks off their first tune, the energy is just immense.

And Jerry.... Man I miss Jerry!

A must-see for anyone who loves rock and roll.

Three thumbs up

Brad Sarno

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 22 Oct 2005 5:37 am

Saw Festival Express last nite on Sundance.
Beautifully shot movie.

Combines my two loves, trains and music!

Used to ride CN with my father when we lived in Ontario in the '60's.

Lots of steel guitar here, Sneaky Pete with the Burritos, Buddy Cage jamming wth the Dead on the train, and on stage, too.

Lots jammin' on the train. A loaded Rick Danko sings and jams with Janis, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir.

Lots of kids protesting at all the stops, wanting to turn the festivals into freebies.
The interesting thing, is the promoters and the bands don't cave in.

If you loved the music of this era, this movie as good as it gets.

Drew

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Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 22 Oct 2005 11:43 am

Festival Express is currently in the HBO lineup.

Al Terhune · Post by **Al Terhune** » 22 Oct 2005 1:09 pm

Saw the DVD back in April -- like everybody's been saying -- really, really tops.

Al

John Lacey · Post by **John Lacey** » 23 Oct 2005 5:08 am

I've never, ever, seen a piece of media that brought me back to my youth the way this film did. It brought tears to my eyes many times and big smiles.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 23 Oct 2005 7:23 am

At the risk of being a wet blanket I have a slightly different opinion of the film, which I rushed to see in a theatre when it came out last year. I remember (at 13) reading about that tour as it happened and knowing it had to be the most fun possible, to be one of the musicians on that train. And watching the movie was fun; it IS a wonderful period piece and document of a musical era that I was really into. But I'm sorry, I walked away thinking that there weren't really many actually good performances, certainly not many that I want to see over and over. And I don't just mean the drunken jams on the train (which WERE fun to watch). I just don't think many of the artists came near to living up to their reputations... So it's fun movie for sure, but in my opinion some of the posts here would make for expectations of great music which I personally don't think there's really a lot of...

Flame away if ya wanna, but just my somewhat contrary opinion!

[This message was edited by Pete Finney on 23 October 2005 at 08:25 AM.]

Al Terhune · Post by **Al Terhune** » 23 Oct 2005 7:59 am

Pete -- yep. The film is one heck of a piece of history. It's just priceless. I would highly recommend it for nostalgic purposes and history, but not to see each band's best performance of their lifetime. And although the performances might not be their best or even close to them, the footage is still priceless. I'll also add I don't think any of the prior posts mentioned incredible performances. [This message was edited by Al Terhune on 23 October 2005 at 09:00 AM.]

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 23 Oct 2005 8:32 am

I just want to point out that this topic is a year old. The DVD was released in 2004.

It's a fun ride (I have the DVD), but there's very little steel content. I'm moving this topic to the 'Music' section accordingly.

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Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 23 Oct 2005 8:12 pm

I haven't seen this film in a while, but did anybody notice something odd about the film editing when the Burritos are playing "Lazy Day"? Sneaky Pete seems out of synch with the soundtrack, or vice versa. It's almost like they show shots of him from a different point in the song than the solo. The steel is wailing away while they show him just kinda looking around. I'm sure it's just a sound-film editing thing, but it's nonetheless a bit strange. I was all psyched up to see him digging in, and most of what they showed was a headshot. I mean, he does look good, but.....

I'm generally in agreement that the film does not have any truly amazing performances, except for THE BAND doing a bang-up job of "Slippin' and a Slidin'" that was later used on a couple of audio compilations.

"Ain't No More Cane" by the drunken train mob is just creepy. Rick Danko was a very special and talented musician. Although I'm well aware of his penchant for a good time (I once met him in such a state), I don't think he would have approved of this footage - even though it is a reflection of the times. I found it a bit distasteful, seeing that he's not here to catch things like this before they're released. He's on the verge of overdose in this scene. Thankfully, the rest of THE BAND travelled by plane and spared themselves this kind of indignity. Whatever partying they did during this tour was certainly not filmed.

Did I mention that I like THE BAND?

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 24 Oct 2005 7:29 pm

For another touch of what it was like when it was REAL good, I suggest the new 2 DVD release of Hendrix@Woodstock with the B@W scenes from an on stage bootlegger.

Priceless performance by the baddest of all time, and fun to watch the ones lucky to be just off stage at 9am on a Monday morning!

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 25 Oct 2005 7:18 am

I was happy that this DVD any "steel content" at all. Sneaky Pete and Buddy Cage sound great.

Just IMHO...

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Drew Howard - website - Fessenden guitars, 70's Fender Twin, etc.

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 25 Oct 2005 7:44 am

Certainly there is a gap between the apparent quality of the performances on the DVD (which for me was the same kind of experience as it was for John Lacey) and how I remember perceiving them at the time (at age 17 I was at the Calgary stop). I remember, for example, just being blown away by Buddy Guy - it was a revelation to me what a guitar could be in the hands of a guy like that, and it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. And there was a huge level of excitement with Joplin that the film couldn't possibly capture. Mostly I remember very few details of any of the performances that weekend. But the one part of the film that is in perfect synch with my memories of that long ago event was the Band's performance of "I Shall be Released" in Calgary - I found it as haunting in the flick as I did when I saw it live.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 25 Oct 2005 9:14 am

I thought it was hilarious when they ran out of booze, and made an unscheduled stop at some little prairie station to empty a liquor store! This has to go down as one of the most infamous parties of all time.

Garcia: "I love you, Janis."
Joplin: "You're so full of ****, man."

Cracks me up!

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Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 25 Oct 2005 4:11 pm

I think the booze stop was at Saskatoon, b0b, which is one of Saskatchewan's two largest cities (I lived there for a year a couple of years after that and it was about 150,000 i think)! I can't figure out though why the heck the train went through Saskatoon, which represents kind of a detour to the north if one was going from Winnipeg to Calgary. But I suppose there were train control issues and such that determined which track they got to run on.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 26 Oct 2005 8:49 am

Here's a good review

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 26 Oct 2005 12:37 pm

I saw the film when it came out last year and recently again have been checking it out on DVD. I like a great deal of it but I too feel that there could have been MORE scenes (or, ought to have been more) scenes showing the music being made on the train. What they showed MIGHT be representative of what a cool time it was, but I was left sitting there thnking "is that all there is?" (like Peggy Lee). It ouwld have been interesting to see Garcia on pedal steel, on stage, for instance, (as there WERE "three pedal steels onstage" at each show-and it would have been good to see more of the Band, of Tom Rush & Eric Andersen, who are seemingly "only along for the ride"& cut out entirely, musically, and of Ian & Sylvia,a another contribution I feel is really too short to catch the full trace of what their act was. The DVD bonus cuts are alright, but the whole experience leaves me feeling JUST a LITTLE bit shortchanged. As for a period piece, it is truly revealing showing all the political infighting at the time in the "youth movement"- all that inflamed rhetoric about "the pigs" and all that jazz. The Winnepeg concert took place on my 15th birthday and I have vivid memories of my own of the era- it must have been a fun trip to have been on, but I feel we only get to see a sidestream of the train as it passes by from our frontage road backyards, to sum it in toto.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 5 Nov 2005 11:23 pm

I loved it, saw it in the cinema early this year, my partner and I were the complete audience.

Major dissapointment was no Delaney & Bonnie footage, Ian & Sylvia in a jam situation which should have been a snippet perhaps, and some of their own actual material.
Yeah, the song choices were a bit off, the Dead, Janis and the Band were best represented, due to thier ongoing fame I guess.

A very weak FBBs song to choose, and some weird camera angles.
The scenes on the train were fantastic, just sensational. Rick Danko's drunken sing-along with various others is a precious gem of a moment.
The Joplin live footage felt like a group of smack heads trying to perform, although they weren't horrible, there was a cold vibe on their various performances. On the train, she was so much more fun to behold.

I don't want to be a spoiler as to what happens, but the attitude of certain elements on the tour, people who wanted certain things from the organisers and the performers are fascinating to watch.

Delany & Bonnie's (and future Little Feet) bassist Kenny Gradney has some interesting thoughts and is shown talking to the doco crew and the press during the tour, essentially having to justify the life of a working musician.
This from a guy who was possibly not even 20 and already a veteran of the New Orleans and Hollywood club scene, a real articulate and interesting person.
The organisers are there as well, and watching them handle the whole event as the tour starts to crumble is about rock and roll as it gets, despite the buisness angle.

Oh yeah, the train jams are simply awesome, and Buddy Guy's number is a killer!