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When yogurt goes bad
Dec. 21st, 2002 09:49 amLast night was the ICU christmas party. I was going to go, but decided to watch Martin Scorsese talk about "American Film" on TCM instead. What a great program! They followed it up with "The Last Waltz", which is Scorsese's documentary on the final concert by The Band at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco.
The Band was the backing band for Bob Dylan when he went electric, and later went out on their own. For their final concert, they brought in all these great musicians they had played with over the years--Ronnie Hawkins, Paul Butterfield, Van Morrison and , of course, Bob Dylan. The film does a great job of capturing a slice of the 70's. It also captures the end of an era--when concerts were something other than a way to generate income, and the big corporations didn't yet control everything.
The first concert I ever saw (Neil Young) was at Winterland. What a place! It was an old, run-down hall that used to be the home of the ice follies. It was painted in all sorts of psychedelic colors and lit by black lights. There were two huge posters on either side of the stage from Grateful Dead albums. Winterland was kind of the home base for the Grateful Dead--they would always be there on New Year's eve.
It was open seating, so we would get there early, about noon, to wait in line. The lines were always a big party, and everyone would end up being completely wasted by the time the doors opened. Once they opened the doors, it was a mad rush. About 1/3 of the way back from the stage there were two platforms with video cameras on them. We would always try to sit directly in front of one of them--the sound was great, you could see pretty good, and there was something to lean against while you waited. It also afforded some protection from being trampled if you happened to pass out.
When I spell-checked this, it didn't recognize Winterland. One of the alternatives it offered was "Wasteland". Yeah!
The Band was the backing band for Bob Dylan when he went electric, and later went out on their own. For their final concert, they brought in all these great musicians they had played with over the years--Ronnie Hawkins, Paul Butterfield, Van Morrison and , of course, Bob Dylan. The film does a great job of capturing a slice of the 70's. It also captures the end of an era--when concerts were something other than a way to generate income, and the big corporations didn't yet control everything.
The first concert I ever saw (Neil Young) was at Winterland. What a place! It was an old, run-down hall that used to be the home of the ice follies. It was painted in all sorts of psychedelic colors and lit by black lights. There were two huge posters on either side of the stage from Grateful Dead albums. Winterland was kind of the home base for the Grateful Dead--they would always be there on New Year's eve.
It was open seating, so we would get there early, about noon, to wait in line. The lines were always a big party, and everyone would end up being completely wasted by the time the doors opened. Once they opened the doors, it was a mad rush. About 1/3 of the way back from the stage there were two platforms with video cameras on them. We would always try to sit directly in front of one of them--the sound was great, you could see pretty good, and there was something to lean against while you waited. It also afforded some protection from being trampled if you happened to pass out.
When I spell-checked this, it didn't recognize Winterland. One of the alternatives it offered was "Wasteland". Yeah!
