Festival Express provides strong Americana feel

In the summer of 1970, a dozen super-groups gathered together to perform across Canada in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary to name a few areas. Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band and Buddy Guy, among others, crammed into a rented train with "Festival Express 1970" painted on the side. It was the first traveling rock music festival and one of the last great concerts of the era. Although all three events were filmed, the footage had been lost for 25 years but is now featured in a documentary named after the festival itself.

Right from the get-go, the festival was losing money and fast. At the first show in Toronto, fans started a riot, demanding that they be let in for free. This reaction then started a trend across the country. Angry protesters stormed Mounties and climbed nearby buildings just to get a free show. The accommodations for the concert also drained funds; the train cars were equipped with amps, mikes, drum sets, a Hammond organ, a restaurant and plenty of booze and hallucinogens. On one occasion, the train had to make an emergency eight hundred-dollar liquor stop in the middle of Canadian nowhere. One of the film's funniest scenes in fact is a circle of stoned musicians, including Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin, acoustic guitars and hilariously poor vocals. "It wasn't a train for sleeping," Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead says in the film.

Although train life was an especially prominent feature of the trip, the film primarily features standout performances by Joplin, the Band, Buddy Guy and the Grateful Dead (as well as a flamboyant display by Sha-Na-Na). But some of the best performances come when the musicians mix and match during some of the spirited jams later on in the movie. One of the most interesting aspects of the music is its seamless fusion of folk, rock and roll, blues, soul, country and even some gospel. This blend serves to highlight the period of creativity in the early 70s when popular music had no boundaries and no clichés. And although the footage is shot in 1970, the quality of the video and audio is startlingly clear and refreshing.

Festival Express is also an indispensable piece of Americana, chronicling a critical time in history. There's the rebellion of the youth toward the police and authority that characterized the times, along with unbathed, unclothed and uninhibited hippy multitudes. This was the pivotal time in American musical history when creativity and experimentation were not only unhindered by corporations but encouraged. This film is a must for those unfamiliar with this era. There is a stark difference between hearing about hippies in school and from seeing, hearing and almost smelling them through the big screen. Also, since the majority of the movie is prime concert footage, this film is a dream concert for less than $10 dollars for all music and band fans.

Festival Express (98 minutes) is rated R for language and is now playing at the American Film Institute in downtown Silver Spring.