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forgottenspace's Collection

The Band   02/14/1974

Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA
Source SBD
Media CD   1 disc
Notes afternoon show (?)
Tech Notes The Band
Los Angeles Forum, Los Angeles, CA
14 February 1974
Afternoon show(?)

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Concert Vault
http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/ConcertDetail.aspx?id=2159|7129
10 November 2006

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All SOUNDBOARD recordings.
128kbps digital mp3 stream>Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1>Total Recorder 5.3 Pro to wave (16bit, 44.1kHz, 2.0)>SoundForge 8.0>TLH>FLAC

Release date 11 November 2006

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TT: [42:32.00]

Set 2
01. [03:45.37] Rag Mama Rag
02. [05:07.18] Endless Highway
03. [04:04.17] Shape I'm In
04. [04:53.49] The Weight

Set 1
05. [04:58.29] Stage Fright
06. [04:38.06] The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
07. [03:35.15] King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
08. [03:26.09] When You Awake
09. [03:36.01] I Shall Be Released
10. [04:27.44] Up On Cripple Creek

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Concert Summary
Robbie Robertson - guitar
Rick Danko - bass, vocals
Levon Helm - drums, vocals
Richard Manuel - piano, vocals
Garth Hudson - organ

If authenticity is what you crave, look no further than The Band. These guys have got the stuff dripping from their furry chins like tobacco juice. In an era fraught with Victorian dandyism and pharmaceutical space exploration, five ace musicians had the good sense to cover themselves head to toe in Mississippi mud, sprinkle on a little Appalachian dust, and go tearing through the Great American Songbook like a Mack truck chewin’ up blacktop. Their very name implies the first; a source rooted in the fundamentals; no other qualification necessary.

Before The Band was The Band, they were The Hawks, and spent the better part of a decade payin’ dues as barn-burning accompaniment to regional rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins. This lean and mean outfit got a little leaner when it dropped Hawkins and lit out for New York City. The following six years at a glance: meet superstar manager Albert Grossman; embark on tour antagonizing reactionary folk audiences with some guy named Dylan; record lost album in Woodstock with said "guy" while mythology surrounding group grows exponentially; release debut, Music from Big Pink, inspiring wayward-Beatle George Harrison, his buddy Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and others to make the best music of their careers; tour constantly leaving just enough time to make more records, steal each others’ girlfriends, and consume quantities of Grand Marnier and cocaine that would make Stevie Nicks blush.

By 1974, The Band had reunited with Bob Dylan for his album Planet Waves. Though more subdued than their previous collaborations, the subsequent tour was anything but. The inevitable weariness of excess and a life on the road was starting to show, as chronicled in the live album Before the Flood and in these selections from a Boston area performance in January of 1974. But with a group of such rich pedigree, the greatness can’t help but shine through. Danko’s trembling tenor delivers "Stage Fright' with deep sincerity, belying the fact that his entire adult life was spent in front of some of the biggest audiences anywhere, while Richard Manuel’s falsetto on "I Shall Be Released' could move even the baddest Hell’s Angel to repent. Levon’s "Up On Cripple Creek" serves chest-deep, bayou funk so thick and greazy it should come with a side of coleslaw and a moist towelette, and throughout Garth and Robbie pepper the gumbo with pumping calliope organ and some of the sleaziest R&B guitar playing this side of Memphis.

It’s not The Last Waltz, but one of the benefits of writing material steeped in the American folk/blues/country/jazz/rock n’ roll/kitchen sink tradition is that it is timeless. So pull up a rockin’ chair and take a draw off that mason jar. It’s time for a history lesson.
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Owned by forgottenspace · Last Updated May 23, 2023