Live Review

The Last Waltz Live – Ballina Arts Centre

• 16th Aug 2012

Part of the Sound + Vision season at Ballina Arts Centre situated on the picturesque banks of River Moy hosted the Last Waltz Live. Performed by ‘The Group’ made up of talented musicians from Dublin – the show was a take on 1976’s Martin Scorsese’s film/documentary of ‘The Band’s’ farewell concert.

This unique show was a great concept, in the first place many music fans around the world often relate to the film and it is usually a source of entertainment at home – a concert in the living room which although The Last Waltz was filmed back in the 70’s the concert DVD is becoming more apparent today.

The Group’s take on it however was to bring a live tribute to the film/concert made up of a cast of characters paying homage to the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton and the list goes on.

A great thing about the evening was that ‘local-ish’ talent got a shot at opening. Queue Limerick band Raging Sons who had plenty of confidence and nice melodic sections in between a sort of rock Kasabian beat. Still in their infancy the band showed signs of good things to come quite tight nit with the frontman exuding confidence go check them out.

Time for the main event, on the screen came the opening scene from Scorsese’s Last Waltz however a nice touch was that when The Winterland Ballroom (San Francisco) was shown (where the real concert took place) there was a glimpse of Dublin’s Olympia Theatre in tribute to ‘The Group’.

From the outset the leads of the show – those playing the parts of Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson as well as keyboards and rhythm guitar blasted out the hit tracks with ear piercing presence and energy. Backed up with an impressive brass section that were brilliant throughout.

The performance was very entertaining and included invitations to join the stage with guest performances from musicians playing Eric Clapton, Van Morrison who was weirdly similar sounding although not in looks, The Hawk, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and a superb performance by the ‘Neil Diamond’ who was one of the stars of the show and really got the crowd engaged. The man who played Robbie Robertson seemed to orchestrate the whole thing really well and was technically a gifted guitarist in his own right along with his right hand man on bass ‘Danko’.

Hit songs like ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ all went down tremendously well.
Towards the end the crowd were on their feet for the rendition of ‘Released’ and an encore of ‘The Weight’.

There were a couple of downsides perhaps a bar would of lightened the spirits up somewhat and if you analysed the show too seriously you may have been disappointed. However if you were there to relive some of the great songs performed in the Last Waltz and enjoy some of the characters and relive the film live then The Last Waltz Live is a great night out.

For more information on Ballina Arts Centre and some of the great things it has coming up please visit:

www.ballinaartscentre.com
Raging Sons: [link]
www.myspace.com/thegroupdublin