Presale 7/31 - [blackbirdpresents.com]

[blackbirdpresents.com]

NICE!
Where's Mr. Dylan?

That looks great, though can't justify it with worst seats being $120. Might see if I can pull a cheaper one night of, cause that looks fantastic. Truly wonder if they could get Dylan as a special guest. Probably not.

Dylan's got a show in Frankfurt on October 17.

[www.bobdylan.com]

Lineup is already great, Got my tickets. Psyched.

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Woz
Lineup is already great, Got my tickets. Psyched.

Agreed. Clapton, Van Morrison, Trey Anastasio, Elvis Costello, Bob Weir, and the Heartbreakers band is worth it enough. The rest after that is gravy, and there's a whole lot of other good on there too. Honestly, Dylan at this stage would probably literally add nothing. It would just be the presence of having him there, but its not like he'd probably say anything. IMO his acoustic set at Bangladesh and his electric set at The Last Waltz are two of the greatest "guest" sets as part of a larger show, and he ain't mustering that up even if he could make it. I'm mostly hoping Clapton and Morrison deliver, the rest I'd be confident in.

I guess the other obvious question is could they get Garth Hudson. I know they did for Levon's great tribute show from Roger Waters back when that occurred.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-31 19:37 by RollingFreak.

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RollingFreak

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Woz
Lineup is already great, Got my tickets. Psyched.

Agreed. Clapton, Van Morrison, Trey Anastasio, Elvis Costello, Bob Weir, and the Heartbreakers band is worth it enough. The rest after that is gravy, and there's a whole lot of other good on there too. Honestly, Dylan at this stage would probably literally add nothing. It would just be the presence of having him there, but its not like he'd probably say anything. IMO his acoustic set at Bangladesh and his electric set at The Last Waltz are two of the greatest "guest" sets as part of a larger show, and he ain't mustering that up even if he could make it. I'm mostly hoping Clapton and Morrison deliver, the rest I'd be confident in.

I guess the other obvious question is could they get Garth Hudson. I know they did for Levon's great tribute show from Roger Waters back when that occurred.

Garth is old and in frail health. I am hoping they invite Neil and Stills who both participated in the Last Waltz although Stills didn't make it into the film.

You could win tickets to the Robbie Robertson tribute concert at the Kia Forum

[ktla.com]

I guess this discussion should be merged with the 'Robbie Robertson' topic. Actually, this tribute show has been mentioned there.

I would be surprised if Garth would make it. His in pretty bad shape. But I am sure loads of other musicians will turn up.

Not sure why the ticket prices have to be so high. It does make it feel like less of a celebration of RR's work. I do not understand ticket prices these days. I definitely cannot afford going to concerts anymore.

Does anyone know who put this tribute show together? It was not Clapton this time...

I thought ticket prices were very high as well. Per the announcement in the beginning of the thread Martin Scorsese is the first Executive Producer listed. Bet he makes a movie of the event.

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dimtim
I thought ticket prices were very high as well. Per the announcement in the beginning of the thread Martin Scorsese is the first Executive Producer listed. Bet he makes a movie of the event.

That is a pretty safe bet.

I have been thinking... Does Robbie deserve such a big event? Should Mayall get the same attention now that he is gone? Make no mistake, The Band is my third favourite band (Stones, Beach Boys, Band) but Robbie's solo carrier went nowhere and he rarely took the stage to play guitar after The Last Waltz. He was a superb song writer though.

Hopefully, we will see a similar event to properly say goodbye to Mayall and to salute him.

Well if you have any musical taste you would realize his solo work was terrific even if it didn't sell. Just saying.

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frenki09
I have been thinking... Does Robbie deserve such a big event? Should Mayall get the same attention now that he is gone? Make no mistake, The Band is my third favourite band (Stones, Beach Boys, Band) but Robbie's solo carrier went nowhere and he rarely took the stage to play guitar after The Last Waltz. He was a superb song writer though.

Thats not usually how it works though. You get a big show if you're a big name and you can attract the star power. Taylor Hawkins got one of the biggest and most widely distributed tribute shows ever, and as much as I love him, he's the drummer for the Foo Fighters. He's not Keith Moon. But its who you know.

John Mayall is a musician's musician. With his influence, they should have something in stadium, but it almost makes more sense they have an impromptu drop in at a small club than anything else. Just the way it works. Yes, Robbie didn't do much on stage post The Band, but The Last Waltz made him "semi known" as he's certainly front and center in that movie, and his work with Scorsese, his presence and work with the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. He rubbed shoulders with the right people, and also had the friends and was universally admired for his songwriting that this totally makes sense backed by who they could get.

Dylan’s out because of his Frankfurt gig, but there will probably be some notable unannounced guests. Ronnie and Ringo would be cool.

Got my tickets, this lineup can’t miss!

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Javadave
Dylan’s out because of his Frankfurt gig, but there will probably be some notable unannounced guests. Ronnie and Ringo would be cool.

Ronnie WOODS. God I miss Bill Graham. I never knew why he called Ronnie that multiple times on The Last Waltz.

Blackbird Presents has announced a tour to follow the October 17th show in Los Angeles.



[blackbirdpresents.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-08-14 18:58 by bye bye johnny.

Just grabbed 2 for the Wed 11/6 show at the Beacon in NYC--hope it is the same celebration of Robbie

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RollingFreak

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Javadave
Dylan’s out because of his Frankfurt gig, but there will probably be some notable unannounced guests. Ronnie and Ringo would be cool.

Ronnie WOODS. God I miss Bill Graham. I never knew why he called Ronnie that multiple times on The Last Waltz.

I knew a guy whose last name was Wood, and he said it was a common mistake for someone to call him "Woods."

The cover of Ronnie's first album actually points that out.

Less excited for the tour. Looks like a solid band (the Petty connection reunion is cool), but they are not Trey, Clapton, Costello, Morrison or Weir that are the draws for me of the main event. Would be curious how similar it is to that first show too.

Special guest predictions:

Ronnie Wood
Neil Young
Stephen Stills

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RollingFreak
Less excited for the tour. Looks like a solid band (the Petty connection reunion is cool), but they are not Trey, Clapton, Costello, Morrison or Weir that are the draws for me of the main event. Would be curious how similar it is to that first show too.

The Petty Band will be the house band in LA too

Martin Scorsese to Direct Film of Robbie Robertson Tribute Concert

By Chris Willman
Oct 16, 2024


Getty Images

Martin Scorsese will direct the filming of a Robbie Robertson tribute concert in L.A. Thursday night for a future release, it was announced Tuesday morning.

The filming of “Life Is A Carnival: A Musical Celebration Of Robbie Robertson,” a Blackbird Presents production, may provide a kind of bookend to the the first movie Scorsese did with Robertson, when he directed the concert film “The Last Waltz,” which commemorated the last concert the singer-songwriter-guitarist did with his group the Band in 1976.

Prior to the announcement that he would spend the evening overseeing the filming, Scorsese was already serving as one of the executive producers of the concert, along with Jared Levine, Keith Wortman and Scooter Weintraub.

The lineup of artists performing at the show at the Kia Forum Thursday includes Trey Anastasio, Eric Church, Eric Clapton, Warren Haynes, Bruce Hornsby, Jim James, Daniel Lanois, Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, Margo Price, Robert Randolph, Nathaniel Rateliff, Allison Russell, Mavis Staples, Bobby Weir and Lucinda Williams.

The house band will feature Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Don Was, John Medeski, Dave Malone, Terence Higgins, Cyril Neville, Mark Mullins and the Levee Horns.

Robertson acted as either music supervisor or scorer for Scorsese films in the decades from “The Last Waltz” through his death in 2023, the last of which was the score for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Robertson’s posthumous nomination for best original score for that film was his first.

“I mean, we’re in awe ourselves that our brotherhood has outlasted everything,” Robertson said of his association with Scorsese in an interview with Variety shortly before he died. “You know, we’ve been there. We’ve been through it. We’ve been there and back. Our story is a trip. … I am so proud of our friendship and our work. It’s been just a gift in life. And at the same time, I didn’t have to just do what he does. I get to do what I do with other people, too. So, yeah, I am unbelievably grateful for this opportunity.”

The format in which a film of the Robertson concert might come out was not revealed as part of the announcement. Blackbird Presents has specialized in recent years in all-star tribute concerts, many of which have been filmed, some getting theatrical releases prior to hitting VOD, like the Willie Nelson 90th birthday celebration filmed at the Hollywood Bowl and eventually seen in theaters. Having a director of Scorsese’s ilk involved certainly heightens the chances a Robertson film will hit cinemas.

[variety.com]

Mike Campbell and Trey Anastasio at rehearsal in Burbank.



[www.instagram.com]

In for $65 including parking tonight. Couldn't be more pumped. Clapton, Morrison, Trey, Bob Weir, Campbell and Benmont, Costello. Hard to not have some memorable moments with that crew and Scorsese at the helm.

Torn between this and Tinashe at the Greek tho I got an international flight tomorrow

Incredibly strange night. Some amazing excellent performance. Strangeness was the pacing of everything. I applaud everyone for sticking with it. Show ended up being 7:15pm to midnight, so almost 5 hours long, with some intermissions. I'll collect my thoughts and say more tomorrow, but for now here was the setlist:

Native American Prayer
Killers Of The Flower Moon clip, highlighting Robbie's score
1. Up On Cripple Creek - Eric Church
2. Ophelia - Ryan Bingham
3. The Best Of Everything (Tom Petty cover) - Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench
4. Evangeline - Margo Price
5. Acadian Driftwood - a few people I'm not sure of their names
6. Straight Down The Line - Robert Randolph
7. Who Do You Love - Taj Mahal and Robert Randolph (with intro video of Robbie talking about Taj Mahal)
Video about becoming The Band
8. Down South In New Orleans - Dave Malone and Cyrill Nevelle
9. Go Back To Your Woods - Bruce Hornsby
10. King Harvest Will Surely Come - Bruce Hornsby
11. The Night They Drove Dixie Down - Jamey Johnson (with an intro video about how it was written)

INTERMISSION (10 minutes)

12. Broken Arrow - Daniel Lanois (with a video about Robbie's solo albums before it)
13. Life Is A Carnival - Warren Haynes and Taj Mahal
14. Whispering Pines - Lucinda Williams
15. Twilight - Nathaniel Ratcliffe
16. Across The Great Divide - Nathaniel Ratcliffe
17. Rag Mama Rag - Jamey Johnson
18. Don't Do It - Nathaniel Ratcliffe and Margo Price
19. Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison (with a video before about Scorsese and Robbie playing Scorsese Tupelo Honey)
20. Days Like This - Van Morrison
21. Wonderful Remark - Van Morrison

INTERMISSION (25 minutes)

Eric Clapton and his touring band (so Doyle Bramell III, Chris Staiton, etc)
22. The Shape I'm In - Clapton
23. Out Of The Blue - Clapton
24. Forbidden Fruit - Clapton
25. Chest Fever - Clapton
26. Further On Up The Road - Clapton

INTERMISSION (15 minutes)

Video about playing with Bob Dylan/Woodstock, NY and Music From The Big Pink/The Band album
27. Forever Young - Ryan Bingham, with Nathaniel Ratcliffe and Margo Price
28. It Makes No Difference - Jim James
29. Stagefright - Warren Haynes
30. Caravan - Warren Haynes
31. When I Paint My Masterpiece - Bob Weir
32. Unfaithful Servant - Trey Anastasio
33. Look Out Cleveland - Trey Anastasio
34. The Weight - Mavis Staples, Trey Anastasio and Bob Weir
35. I Shall Be Released - everyone that was still left (no Clapton, Warren Haynes, Van Morrison, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Hornsby, Eric Church)

Thanks!

The Last Waltz revisited.

Very happy I ended up going last night. There was good and bad, but overall it was a very positive, uplifting tribute to a man who definitely deserved one. Show was supposed to start at 7 but since its not a "normal" concert I had no idea whether that actually meant really 8 or whatever. I was in my seat by 7 and glad I was cause lights went down at 7:15.

It started with a short video clip, then a Native American prayer from some Native Americans. Felt fitting and was maybe 5 minutes. Then it went into a clip from Killers Of The Flower Moon. Kinda random. I get that it highlighted his film scoring and that was his final film, but no real talk of it and they did stuff about his film scores later but it was whatever. I kinda thought they'd do clips of his film scores throughout but this was the only one like that. Then into the music. The song selections were good, for the most part I thought this first set of performers was fine. Fun to open with Cripple Creek, but the performance was just meh for me, and kinda felt the same about most of the first set. Not a ton done with the material and felt pretty standard. Acadian Driftwood was the first real good performance in my mind. Taj Mahal was a highlight with Who Do You Love. Amazing he's still out there doing it. Robert Randolph also then brought the energy up well. Back to more subdued with Bruce Hornsby, who honestly didn't sound great to me, and kinda standard performances rest of the set. The horns were a really nice touch, especially for Night They Drove Dixie Down, but overall this was all just fine to me.

No problems. Short intermission, Mike Campbell said it'll be a long night (he was right). Second set definitely picked up. Daniel Lanois, who I'd obviously known of for decades but never seen, was surprisingly fantastic, and Warren Haynes was very good on Life Is A Carnival. Lucinda Williams seemed very frail and almost sick. Fine performance, but almost didn't know like she knew where she was. I don't mean that as an attack if she is actually sick, I don't know much about her. Nathaniel Ratliffe was one of the highlights of the whole night for me. Great voice, great performance, really felt like the spirit of the Band, he was great. Then nice to wrap up the second set with Van Morrison. Great introduction and while I did want him to do Caravan, he was great doing what he did. Sounded exactly the same, all business as usual, but had the guitar, saxophone. He did a lot and I thought made good use of his 3 song set.

Then another intermission. Ok, no problem at the start. Issue became they had a 10 minute count down clock, that then repeated for another 10 minutes, then we were just waiting. Poor planning for the Clapton set up and breakdown. Really ground the show to a halt, cause it was already past 10 at this point? For something as perfectly planned as The Last Waltz, this felt very thrown together. They could have at least shown video clips during the breaks, and the videos they did show felt like they could have been there but also could have not. I don't know if Scorsese was the sole planner, but felt more like a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame TV performance where there's a lot of setup and breakdown but no communication to the audience who is sort of waiting and now getting restless. Clapton was great though and I wrote a little thing in the Clapton thread about it.

Final set was decent, though I feel people were starting to run on fumes at this point. We were running out of big songs I could think of, and no sign of Elvis Costello yet which was weird (apparently he dropped out? They never communicated that to anyone). Forever Young was fine, kinda same with Makes No Difference, and Stagefright which didn't seem like it fit Warren Haynes. Neither did Caravan but he ended up doing that one really well. The final run of Weir, Trey and Mavis Staples really ended on a high. Weir came out and did his song solo, which was phenomenal, then Trey brought the energy up which was nice. Voice and guitar sounded great. Mavis is a gem, she crushed it, and the finale was good though not quite Last Waltz levels.

All in all it was a fitting tribute. They got the names, it was just a little haphazard. Guests were coming in and out, instead of doing all their songs at once which kinda slowed things. Clapton being in the middle made sense in retrospect, and they paced the big people well, but there seemed like a lot of dead time. In retrospect, trimming it down would have made for a tighter performance. Absences of Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell (the last two who I believe are in the area) were felt, though it did feel like they delivered. I was kinda hopeful for Garth but I know he's so old. It was a really fun time, but a mixed bag and one I think a DVD could clean up. The star power total felt lacking compared to something like the Last Waltz with a lot being done by newer people who were just fine, but the spirit was there. Mike Campbell did say they'd only rehearsed for 4 days, so they pulled it off well, but explained a bit of the dead space. Fun night, but just didn't feel as tight as say Eric Clapton's Ginger Baker tribute show from several years ago.

Started at 7:15, ended a minute or two after midnight.

Thanks for sharing your review, sounds like a good time. Lucinda has not fully recovered from a stroke she suffered a few years ago.