Festival Express features amazing performances by musicians from the Woodstock Era along with glimpses into the lives of these musicians as they traveled across Canada by train on the financially disastrous Festival Express tour in 1970. It was fascinating to watch this well-made Rockumentary which pairs the tour footage (which was lost for decades amidst legal disputes) with reflective contemporary interviews.

The most memorable performances for me were Cry Baby by Janis Joplin (who died later that year), I Shall be Released and The Weight by The Band, Don't Ease Me In by The Grateful Dead, and a great jam-session on train where Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Bob Weir, Rick Danko and others play Ain't No More Cane.

The DVD is a 2-disc set that features even more music than the theatrical release (I saw the film in theaters). Festival Express is a must-see for anyone in love with music from this time period.

It falls short as a concert film but excells as a period piece of the Woodstock Generation striving to keep the groove alive. The summer after Woodstock a handful of Canadian promoters, mostly the silver-spoon sons of captains of Canadian industry, decided that "We too should have our own version of Woodstock". It was a brilliant idea and to a certain degree the film chronicles the struggles to realize the dream, and watches it fall apart.

The concert footage is decent, but rarely indulges us with a beginning to end performance of any particular piece. But you get to see a stadium concert circa 1970, little more than a 6 foot high plywood riser with bare overhead girders for lights. And surprisingly indifferent music fans, probably not realizing that the mid-range selling groups that were on stage would become legends, the importance of their music exagerated by a legion of boomer rock critics who insist that theirs was the most important era in musical history.

There are a few funny sideshows like the insistently groovy mayor of Calgary arguing that the acts should do their concert for free to show their love for the fans, and earn himself re-election. By far though the best bits of the film are the footage of the Dead, and the Band and Janis partying their faces off on the long train ride across the prairies. They jam, they get stoned, they declare their love for one another, the get stoned and jam some more. It's worth enduring a few minutes of Shanana, who seemed to be EVERYWHERE in 1969/70! to see the legends in their natural, unspoiled state.

Chronicles a tour by train that many( mostly) rock bands took through some of the major Canadian cities in 1970. The film has interviews with the promoter and some of the acts, and also shows the fans becoming unruly and ungrateful. Some of the previous festivals were peaceful, but this was the era of Altamont, gate crashing, and the ruckus that occurred at The Isle of Wight not long after. Musically, it's something of a mixed bag. Traffic and Mountain don't appear in the film, though Mountain's hulking guitarist is briefly glimpsed jamming on the train. Janis Joplin's performance is good, but the stars of the show are The Band and Buddy Guy. Canadian band Mashmakhan do a generic soul/ jazz/ rock instrumental, and The Grateful Dead are mediocre. The Flying Burrito Brothers do a smoking version of " Lazy Day" Unfortunately, the film is marred by the inclusion of the godawful Sha Na Na. The film does a good job of catching the spirit of the times and is quite informative.