Yup this is the original concert in 1967 in San Francisco that inspired "Woodstock" and yes some of the musicians that played at the Concert also played at "Woodstock". The film is more focused on the concert portion then the event, so I'm going to review each of the performances shown on the film.
SCOTT MCKENZIE SAN FRANCISCO
After looking at a very surreal, odd and drug looking opening credits, we hear the song "San Francisco" sung by Scott Mckenzie as we see hippies setting up for the concert, having a bit of fun and we see John Phillips from "The Mamas and Papas" help set up for the concert. It's a good opening, it brings you into the film and gets you excited for the concert. I also enjoy that they chose the song "San Francisco" as the films first song because it sets up the feel and atmosphere for the concert. Good way to start the film.
THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS
Next we have two performances from "The Mamas And Papas". First we see another montage as we hear the concert version of the song "Creeque Alley" play. During the montage, we see hippies entering the festival and before the montage, we find out that the "Hells Angels" and "Black Panthers" are coming as well. Finally we see our first performance which are "The Mamas And Papas" performing "California Dreamin'". They sing in great harmony, the camera shots of them are well shot, the lighting is beautiful and this a classic song sung by a classic band.
CANNED HEAT
Canned Heat perform "Rollin' And Tumblin". I enjoy Canned Heat and even though their performance is not spectacular, it's still toe tappin' and you can tell they're having fun. The audience doesn't look to amazed however, and there's not a good montage representing this song, so yeah it's a bit bland. Still Canned Heat did rock, just not as hard as they usual do.
SIMON & GARFUNKEL
Simon & Garfunkel take the stage singing "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)".They sing very well together, the performance is relaxing and the lighting and camera shots is wonderful. I guess the only problem I have is it's only a minute and a few seconds long and I'd love to hear them play another song. Still great performance.
HUGH MASEKELA
Horn player Hugh Masekela and his band plays the song "Bajabula Bonke (The Healing Song)". The music sounds really spiritual and is really something to listen too. I love the bongo drums, the foreign words sung, the horns playing and watching Hugh play a great solo as well. While watching this number you'll see surreal images that mixes well with the music pretty well. It's better looking then the films intro and I feel like this should be the films intro to the opening credits.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
One of the greatest rock bands of the 60's "Jefferson Airplane" takes the set. Their first song is "High Flyin' Bird" and they rock, they sound great. However, their best performance is when Grace and the band beautifully sing "Today". A wonderful and rockin performance from a rockin band and one of my favorite bands. By the way, Grace Slick looks beautiful.
BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY(JANIS JOPLIN)
"Big Brother & The Holding Company" are taking the stage but everyone's focus is on their lead singer Janis Joplin. Janis Joplin sings with her heart and soul as she sings "Ball 'N' Chain". Her voice is outstanding, she has lots and lots of energy and on top of it she's a natural at it. Janis hasn't failed me yet when I watch her perform and this performance is one of the highlights of the film and her career.
THE ANIMALS
Before we see them perform, we see a woman cleaning every chair at the concert. We then cut frame by frame shots of some random woman for some reason and we see "The Animals" play the song "Paint It Black". Instead of using a Sitar they use a Violin and I'll admit, it's pretty awesome and the Violin sounds killer. Eric Burdon sings great but his mic is not sounding to good, half of the time you can't even hear him. During the performance, we see a montage of people eating at the Festival. I didn't think it was possible but the band did a killer cover on "Paint It Black".
THE WHO
One of my all time favorite bands "The Who" rock the concert with "My Generation". They're outstanding, Roger sings with his rockin voice, Pete plays a rockin guitar solo and Keith really gives us a performance while playing those drums.Then they go crazy and start destroying their instruments and the last image we see, is a broken drum set that says "Who". This was a killer set and if the quality was better, I would have enjoyed it lots more.
COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH
As we see a montage of hippies taking part of the Festival, we see and hear Country Joe & The Fish play an instrumental number called "Section 43". The montage is really well put together and the song that's playing creates great atmosphere to it. The music is relaxing and Country Joe does great with his guitar and harmonica solo. Great relaxing performance after all that extreme rockin madness.
OTIS REDDING
Otis Redding opens his set up with the song "Shake". Otis brings tons of energy and soul in this opening which is really groovy and fun to dance too but his real great number is "I've Been Loving You Too Long". He really puts a lot of emotion into it and yes he throws in a little groove into it. I just wish the quality was better and to be fair maybe it was the copy of the film I was watching. Still, what an epic performance.
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
The greatest and best guitar player of all time Jimi Hendrix plays the song "Wild Thing". Jimi gives one of the best wild and epic performance of all time. He plays the guitar sideways, plays it backwards, does tumblesaults while playing it, plays it on the floor and ends the performance by setting it on fire to create the closing tune and then he smashes it. This is the best performance in the whole film and Jimi is always bringing an epic performance no matter what he's in.
THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS
"The Mammas And The Papas" show up again and sing "Got A Feelin". They sing in great harmony, the melody is beautiful and it was great seeing them perform again on the film. The montage is ok, nothing exciting but still good. Another great performance, there's at least 19 minutes left in the film and I can't wait to see more performances.
RAVI SHANKAR
Our next performer is Sitar player Ravi Shankar and sadly he's the last one. It's a pity that this is the last performance in the film. Don't get me wrong I love Ravi Shankar and I love how he plays the Sitar, I love the music in the films final montage and I think he's a great person to end the film but I feel like the film should have been longer. I wanted to see "The Byrds", "Grateful Dead" "Paul Butterfield" and more of the other musicians who played in the concert but hey what you see and hear is what you get. Overall, the film has a great line up, a good look at this concert, excellent music and performances and decent cinematography. I can defiantly see where the inspiration of "Woodstock" came from and for all that I'm giving this film a great rating.
RATING 5/5
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