Festival Express

Festival Express is a riveting rockumentary from 2003 directed by Bob Smeaton. It seamlessly blends distinctive snippets of psychedelic Sixties vibes, infectiously explosive on-stage performances along with popular artist off-stage interactions. Starring the enigmatic rock and roll queen, Janis Joplin, the pioneering rock, folk, and blues supergroup, Grateful Dead, and the mythical Canadian-American rock group, The Band, this film offers a captivating journey into a defunct era of music and spirit that fuels today’s nostalgia.

Shot mostly during the summer of 1970, Festival Express catalogues a distinctive cultural event—the Canadian festival train tour, spanning over five days. The tour was a moving caravan of musicians crisscrossing Canada with concerts in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary. The train, aptly titled 'Festival Express,' became a living, breathing, and humming musical commune ferociously caught up in the sundrenched freedoms of the era. Revelers, mostly musicians, spent days and nights in the cramped confines of this locomotive, engaging in jam sessions, resulting in a prolific mix of blues, rock, folk, and psychedelia.

Fueling the documentary’s nostalgia engine are the audience-gripping and foot-thumping performances by Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Band, and other immersed souls aboard the festival train. Joplin, renowned for her distinctively poignant and raspy voice, delivers heart-wrenching performances that capture the raw essence of her psychedelic soul. From her impassioned 'Cry Baby' to her fervently energetic 'Tell Mama,' her eccentric spirit pervades the film, echoing into theatres and homes, making the audience yearn for the lost era of groundbreaking rock and roll.

Celebrated as one of the founding fathers of the jam band movement, the Grateful Dead members—Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and others—echo their transformative beats throughout the film. One could easily journey into their distinctively improvisational and psychedelic soundscapes, offering sundry twists and turns of pure music.

The Band, featuring Robbie Robertson, and other distinguished members, resonate with fresh sounds of roots rock, Americana, and a dash of country. Their timeless performances throughout the movie add a unique thrust to the magical sonic voyage.

The film also brings to the fore less-known but phenomenal musicians like The Flying Burrito Brothers, Buddy Guy, and Sha Na Na. Their starry-eyed congeniality in the jam sessions and performances stimulates a musical nirvana rarely experienced.

Festival Express, however, is much more than the performances. It quietly explores the electric ambience, the whirlpool of emotions, and the sense of overpowering freedom that 1960s music festivals often symbolized. Director Smeaton dives deep into this explosively creative countercultural phenomenon. He offers glimpses into the musicians' backstories and their candid camaraderie, their alcohol-laden, carefree revelries, their unrestrained affection, and their unadulterated bond with music.

Moreover, the movie brings home the gritty realism of concert organizers fending off angry protest interruptions, managing high-running pressures and ever-looming sentiments of potential financial losses – an unpolished side of holding music festivals. While the offstage moments are richly-inked, the on-stage and crowd rampaging scenes expertly take the documentary scaling over high-octane sonic energy.

Festival Express truly encapsulates the spirit of an era where musicians belonged to the road and their songs were testimonies of times they lived in. Audiences can revel in the electrifying performances, be a fly on the wall during monstrous jam sessions, and bear witness to the kinetic musical energy that dominated this unforgettable summer of 1970. Smeaton's skillful juxtaposition of restored concert footage with present-day interviews gives a remarkable depth to his storytelling, making it an unmissable treat for all music enthusiasts.