“We gave our final concert, The Band’s final concert. We called it The Last Waltz.”

posted by kirkaracha

October 8, 2007 4:49 pm

At San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving 1976, The Band served turkey dinners to an audience of 5,000 and played Don’t Do It , Theme from The Last Waltz , Up on Cripple Creek , The Shape I’m In , Who Do You Love , It Makes No Difference , Such a Night , Helpless , Stage Fright , The Weight , The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down , Dry Your Eyes , Coyote , Mystery Train , Mannish Boy , Further on up the Road , Evangeline , Ophelia , Caravan , Forever Young , Baby Let Me Follow You Down , and I Shall Be Released  with a ton of guests (listed in link titles).

Martin Scorsese filmed the concert and backstage footage (1978 New York Times review; more info). Supposedly it's the first rock movie filmed in 35mm. (The songs are linked in the order they appeared in the 1978 movie.) "Evangeline" and "The Weight" were filmed later on sound stages. If you look closely, you can almost see the M&M-sized blob of cocaine in Neil Young's nostril that was rotoscoped out.

The band first played as The Band at the Winterland on April 17, 1969.

Unrelated: Engelbert Humperdinck's "Last Waltz"