And The Band Plays On

On Thanksgiving Day, 1976, The Band made perhaps the grandest farewell in rock’n’roll history. They took the stage for one final concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco and ushered in a veritable who’s who of rock: Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters and Neil Young, just to name a few. Also on hand that night was movie director Martin Scorsese, who compiled footage from the concert with interviews and backstage footage for the 1978 documentary, The Last Waltz, widely hailed as the greatest music film ever made.

Flash-forward 36 years later as an all-star assemblage of local musicians prepare to recreate The Last Waltz’s set list. On Saturday, Nov. 24, 9 p.m., at the Westcott Theater, 524 Westcott St., Syracuse mainstays Los Blancos will assume the leading role of The Band and play host to a series of gigging guests. 

 

“It’s not a tribute or a cover band,” says Stacey Waterman, the show’s producer. “It’s a show of its own. {The musicians} want to do the music with the reverence it deserves. They’re not just going to get up there and noodle through it.”

Waterman says The Band has been a huge source of inspiration for many Salt City musicians who play Americana roots music. The Band’s drummer Levon Helm lived just a few hours down the road in Woodstock, where he hosted regular barn parties and performances until his death last April. “People around here have a lot of love for Levon,” Waterman says.

Although molded in the same era as Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, The Band never quite achieved the iconic status of the former or the ubiquitous aura of the latter. They were a revolving door of players (and band names), anchored primarily by skin-hitter and vocalist Helm and singer-guitarist Robbie Robertson. Also in the group were Rick Danko on bass, violin and vocals; Garth Hudson handling keyboards and saxophone; and Richard Manuel on piano and vocals.

Like many counterculture groups of the 1960s and 1970s, The Band didn’t enjoy much commercial success and never saw one of their songs top the charts. They’re perhaps best known for their 1968 song “The Weight,” which Rolling Stone ranks at No. 41 on their list of the greatest rock songs of all time, although it never even charted that year. (“Up On Cripple Creek,” however, went to No. 25 during one week’s Billboard Top 40 list in 1969.) The group’s place in history was secured, however, with the help of rockumentary filmmaker Scorsese and a long list of friends and collaborators who helped transform their 1976 farewell show into an iconic event.

The Westcott show features a cast of more than 20 Syracuse musicians each playing the role of a different guest. Joe Whiting will handle Van Morrison’s part with his rendition of “Caravan.” Gary Frenay, who also serves as music director for the evening, and Ed Zacholl will handle Bob Dylan (playing the greatest songwriter of all time is evidently a two-man job), with Frenay delivering “Forever Young” and Zacholl responsible for “Baby Let Me Follow You Down.” The musician who will take the spot of soulful Muddy Waters, who sang “Caldonia” and “Mannish Boy” at the 1976 show, will be a surprise, according to Waterman. Also billed to support Los Blancos onstage: Scott Ebner, Jason Barady, Kim Monroe, Chris Eves, Donna Colton, Rex Lyons, Tim Herron, Artie Lenin, Pete McMahon, Dugan Henhawk, Mark Hoffmann, Carolyn Kelly and Syracuse New Times music editor Jessica Novak, who plays the violin. 

The organizers are recreating the film and the music as thoroughly as possible. Throughout the show will be clips from the Scorsese movie. Meyda Tiffany in Yorktown donated a $1,000 glass chandelier for the performance to mimic the three ornate chandeliers at the Winterland Ballroom. The charts for the horn section—which are notoriously rare—were obtained through the manager of the Midnight Ramblers, the late Helm’s band.

“The musicians are working hard to get the music right, so we want to get the rest of the details right,” Waterman says. “We’re not just trying to recreate the show, we’re trying to recreate the ambience.”

Ron Keck and the music men of Subcat Recording Studios, which includes Pat MacDougall, one of the engineers who worked on the original Last Waltz, will also be there to capture the magic. They will release a CD of the performance in the coming weeks with all of the proceeds going to Hurricane Sandy Relief efforts.

Advance tickets are $20, available at Armory Square’s Sound Garden, 310 W. Jefferson St., or online at thewestcotttheater.com. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Westcott Community Center. Also, patrons are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to donate in exchange for a free beer from Empire Brewing.